![[sketch_obserParticiU.png|400]] Observer-participancy is a proposition in physics that claims reality emerges from investigation. It was formulated by theoretical physicist John Archibald Wheeler, who proposed that our knowledge of the Universe emerged from our perception of binaries in what is known as the "[[It from Bit]]" hypothesis. He suggests that all matter is theoretical until it is observed, which brings it into being. This version of the Anthropic Principle implies that understanding reality is more a process of creating it, and that creating reality is largely a matter of the types of questions one asks. >[!quote] John Archibald Wheeler >[…] all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and this is a participatory universe.[^1] >Physics gives rise to observer-participancy; observer-participancy gives rise to information; and information gives rise to physics. Wheeler’s theory is largely a [[Synthesis]] between observations by early quantum physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, and Alan Watts’ ideas in *The Wisdom of Insecurity*. Bohr and Heisenberg each present an early form of information-theoretic origin in the maturity of their thought. Bohr is reported as saying, "There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature,"[^2] maintaining that our models of physics result from observations, they are not based on intuitions. In his remarks about Heisenberg noted that "[…] the laws of nature which we formulate mathematically in quantum theory deal no longer with the particles themselves but with our knowledge of the elementary particles. The question whether these particles exist in space and time "in themselves " can thus no longer be posed in this form. We can only talk about the processes that occur when, through the interaction of the particle with some other physical system, such as a measuring instrument, the behavior of the particle is to be disclosed."[^3] In his formulation, matter exists within the realms of possibility dictated by its wave function, not by its causality. Watts believes that experience and reference are not separate. A sensation of phenomena is the phenomena. He describes a [[Paradox]] of scientific [[Rationality MOC|rationality]]: that it necessitates an impossible separateness to form a complete description of the universe. Splitting [[the Self]] into a [[cognition|mind]]-[[body]] duality creates a form of cognitive dissonance, experienced as [loneliness of the divided mind](https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/11/01/alan-watts-wisdom-of-insecurity-3/). > [!quote] Alan Watts > There is a world of difference between an inference and a feeling. You can reason that the universe is a unity without feeling it to be so. You can establish the theory that your body is a movement in an unbroken process which includes all suns and stars, and yet continue to feel separate and lonely.[^4] The separateness induced by compartmentalizing mental and physical experience echoes the dissociation described by [[The Voice of the Earth - Theodore Roszak]]. For Watts, reconciling this [[Thoughts on Loneliness|loneliness]] is simply a matter of reframing our understanding of consciousness (self-referential awareness, [[personal subjective continuity]]) into one of [[Interbeing]] between ourselves and our observations. >[!quote] Alan Watts > [...] you will cease to feel isolated when you recognize, for example, that you do not have a sensation of the sky: you are that sensation. For all purposes of feeling, your sensation of the sky is the sky, and there is no “you” apart from what you sense, feel, and know. A number of writers have [approached](https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/parallel-timelines) the idea of observer-participancy with [unverifiable](https://unherd.com/2023/11/why-the-fairies-disappeared/) claims. But astrophysicists have [determined](https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.00026) that [[Black Hole|black holes]] play some role in observer-participancy by transforming an entangled particle's [[superposition]] into a defined reality. > [!quote] [Daine Danielson](https://www.quantamagazine.org/black-holes-will-destroy-all-quantum-states-researchers-argue-20230307/) > What we have found might be a quantum mechanical realization of the participatory universe, but where space-time itself plays the role of the observer. In the context of [[Panpsychism]], observer-participancy reframes the idea that qualities we specifically attribute to the human mind, may in fact be fundamental laws of physics. It is a means of storing the "local memory" necessary to produce further iterations of [[ordered complexity]]. [^1]: Wheeler, J. A. (2018). Information, physics, quantum: The search for links. Feynman and computation, 309-336. [^2]: Petersen, A. (1963). The philosophy of Niels Bohr. _Bulletin of the atomic scientists_, _19_(7), 8-14. [^3]: Heisenberg, W. (1958). The Representation of Nature in Contemporary Physics. _Daedalus_, _87_(3), 95–108. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20026454 [^4]: Watts, A. (1962). _The wisdom of insecurity_. Pantheon.