1995/09/30 by Bernd A. Berg, Berg, Bernd A.
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Philosophy, Science, and History #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #gr-qc #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/9509021
10 pages and one figure, uuencoded Z-compressed .tar file created by uufiles
arxiv created 1995/10/01 · openalex publication_date 1995/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Arguments have been raised that the system--observer cut of quantum mechanics can be shifted arbitrarily close to, or even into, the conscious observer. Here I show that this view leads to \it observable contradictions (despite our inability to control the phases of macroscopic states). For this purpose I modify and extend Schrödinger's well--known superposition of a cat in its dead and alive state. Implications for other interpretations of quantum mechanics are also discussed. My conclusion is that quantum mechanics is incomplete. The question ``When does the state vector collapse?'' seems to be unavoidable, has observable consequences, and is not answered by quantum mechanics.