3134: Wavefunction Collapse

2025-10-31T20:30:11Z

Odd Octopus:

{{comic
| number = 3134
| date = August 27, 2025
| title = Wavefunction Collapse
| image = wavefunction_collapse_2x.png
| imagesize = 656x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Wavefunction collapse is only one interpretation. Under some interpretations, graduate students also have souls.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created BY A SOULFUL PARTICLE DETECTOR. Should the reference to unsolved problem be removed? Those comics are very different to this and the other two mentioned as it is three different things not three replies to one question. And cursed is not the same as wrong or chaotic!}}

This comic presents three possible responses to a common question posed by undergraduates upon confronting the {{w|Measurement problem|problem of measurement}} in quantum mechanics - does the apparently privileged role of subjective or conscious {{w|Observer (quantum physics)|observers}} in wavefunction collapse imply that human consciousness itself impacts physics? This question is sometimes phrased as: does the observation effect or quantum collapse prove humans have souls? These questions stem from a misunderstanding of what an "observer" in physics really is, a misunderstanding the comic depicts with a college student asking his professor about human consciousness.

The 'Bad' option shows Cueball telling his student that everybody has a soul, and their individual consciousness affects reality in some way. The 'good' option shows Cueball telling his student that consciousness doesn't play a role at all, and that it is 'just a physical measurement'. The 'chaotic' option shows Cueball apparently observing that the wave function collapses only when ''he'' looks at it, because he is special in some way (in this case, Cueball is a professor while Hairy is the undergraduate student).

That quantum states exist as probability density distributions, but are only ever observed in definite states, raises the question of how the quantum world transitions into the classical world. The (historically) most popular {{w|Copenhagen interpretation|interpretation}} posits that {{w|wave function collapse}} occurs upon the measurement of a quantum state, in which the multiple mathematically possible states resolve into a definite state, without explicitly defining precisely when this "collapse" occurs, or what defines "measurement;" in fact, when measuring, say, an electron in a superposition of two states, wavefunction collapse could occur at any stage from the electron interacting with the detector, to the detector recording the measurement, to the scientist observing the recording. A famous thought experiment, {{w|Schrödinger's cat}}, takes this to the extreme: if a cat is placed a box with a decaying radioisotope that upon decay triggers a gas bomb that kills the cat, shouldn't this place the cat-bomb-isotope-box system into a mixed state that only undergoes wavefunction collapse upon opening and observing whether the cat is alive or dead? The Copenhagen interpretation is agnostic to this question, only confirming that the cat will have resolved into its alive or dead state at or before observation. The {{w|Consciousness causes collapse}} postulate endorsed by the "bad" panel -- unfashionable now, but taken seriously historically -- posits that the conscious observation is indeed what triggers wave-function collapse. The 'good' panel, rather flippantly, seems to endorse a more modern {{w|Quantum decoherence|decoherence}}-based interpretation - that every interaction inside the cat-box system is a "measurement" that destroys the superposition well before the human observer enters the picture. Finally, the `chaotic` option is far more radical and sollipsistic than the `bad` - it's not merely conscious observation that causes collapse, but PhD-holding and tenured consciousness.

Good, bad, and chaotic may be taken as references to the {{w|Alignment (Dungeons & Dragons)|alignment system}} in the role-playing game {{w|Dungeons & Dragons}}. In D&D, roles are characterized by their morality (good/neutral/evil) and their views about order (lawful/neutral/chaotic). However, this allows a single alignment to be both chaotic ''and'' either good or 'bad'/evil, so is perhaps just more a matter of two extremes followed up by {{tvtropes|TakeAThirdOption|something completely different}}, to set up a {{tvtropes|RuleOfThree|common variety}} of joke format.

The title text continues the chaotic option. Graduate students are intermediate between undergraduate and professors. It is unclear whether graduate students can cause waveform collapse, and therefore have souls. This implies that there is a chance graduate students (and, by extension, undergraduate students) do not have souls.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is sitting behind a desk with one a hand on the desktop and the other in his lap. He is looking up at Cueball, who is standing in front of the desk. Hairy is asking a question:]
:Hairy: If the wavefunction only collapses when I observe it, does that mean my consciousness affects the universe?

:[Three panels follows showing three possible responses from Cueball. Each panel has a label above, written inside a small rectangle that is overlaid on the top left of each panel. Each panel shows the same zoom in on the top half of Cueball.]

:[Panel 1]
:Bad:
:Cueball: Yes. Quantum entanglement proves that we all have souls.

:[Panel 2]
:Good:
:Cueball: No. Consciousness plays no role here. Its just physical measurement.

:[Panel 3]
:Chaotic:
:Cueball: No. The wave function collapses when '''''I''''' look at it because I'm a full professor.
:Cueball: It won't collapse for an undergraduate.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Religion]]

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3134: Wavefunction Collapse