The observer effect is very clear, that a subjective consciousness alters the results of the experiment.
That interpretation was shown not to be true by experiments specifically designed to test this hypothesis. The "observer" is any part of the environment which interacts with the system in a thermodynamically-irreverable way.http://www.danko-nikolic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Yu-and-Nikolic-Qm-and-consciousness-Annalen-Physik.pdf
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Taken together, the existing experiments suggest clear conclusions regarding the predictionswe derived. All predictions have been falsified. The existence of interference patterns depends solely on whether the “which-path” information is in principle obtainable [11,20,33–35].Whether such information is registered in consciousness of a human observer, one can conclude, is irrelevant. Consequently, this conclusion leaves no other option but to reject the collapse-by-consciousness hypothesis.
Ok. I'm going to roll over on this as I'm not nearly qualified to wade through that study in detail.
I am curious however as they mention human consciousness being the variable - is that correct? It would be interesting to see where the line is between self aware human/ non self aware animal/ inanimate object/ measuring device.
In any case, I doubt this will be the end of the story.
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