Consciousness and the Problem of Quantum Measurement

Abstract

A variant of the von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation is proposed. It does not make use of the familiar language of wave functions and observers. Instead it pictures the state of the physical world as a vector in a Fock space and, therefore not, literally, a function of any spacetime coordinates. And, rather than segregating consciousness into individual points of view (each carrying with it a sense of its proper time), this model proposes only unitary states of consciousness, Q(t), where t represents a fiducial time with respect to which both the state of the physical world and the state of consciousness evolve. States in our world's Fock space are classified as either 'admissible' (meaning they correspond to definite states of consciousness) or 'inadmissible' (meaning they do not). The evolution of the state vector of the world is such as to always keep it restricted to 'admissible' states. Consciousness is treated rather like what Chalmers has called an "m-property." We try to show that problems with the quantum Zeno effect do not arise from this model. The measurement of degenerate states is also discussed, as is the EPR paradox. Finally, it is suggested that the universe is far more likely to contain conscious observers than not.