This is part twelve of the Information Universe series. See the link for part one.
http://scienceray.com/physics/the-information-universe/
The earlier discussion of double slit experiment and the Information Universe it has been assumed that the collapse of quantum wave functions occurs no latter than the detection of each photon by the detector. In fact this would seem to be what most interpretations of quantum mechanics would say. However a recent e-mail discussion of the topic has lead to possibility of the Information Universe that working along with the consciousness causes collapse interpretation of quantum mechanics. When these two interpretations are combined instead of the wave function of each photon collapsing at detection it is passed on to the wave function of the entire experiment which does not collapse until the data is actually observed by a conscious entity and it is then that the information processing of the universe determines the result each photon. This leads to a unique and very strange prediction.
In quantum erasure experiments entangled two photons (s & p) are used to provide a way of checking to see which of the two slit in the double slit part of the experiment a photon actually goes through. Photon-s is the one that goes through the double slit and photon-p provides the information needed to see which slit photon-s actually goes through. When this occurs the result is a double peek pattern. However if the information carried by photon-p is destroyed by a polarizer then the result is an interference pattern. Oddly enough this occurs even if photon-p passes through the polarizer after photon-s is detected.
Now let’s say that instead of destroying the information carried by photon-p by way of a polarizer we carry out the experiment only as depicted in image-m recording the information but not looking at it right away. Now what would happen if we then destroyed the photon-p data before we ever looked at the photon-s data? Both common sense and every other interpretation of quantum mechanics would say that we should still get the double peek. However this combined interpretation of consciousness causes wave function collapse and the Information Universe makes the bazaar prediction that we would get interference pattern. The reason for this bazaar prediction is that the information from the detection of the photon-s is only fully calculated when observed and without the photon-p data the photon-s data produces an interference pattern. The reason why the Information Universe is needed for this prediction to work is that it provides an objective way for the actual results to be determined thus making a prediction possible. Without it the conscious observer could actually be affecting the results making a prediction impossible.
The best way to test this prediction this is to perform a quantum erasure experiment without the polarizer to erase which ways data carried by photon-p at least 10 times. Then randomly select five photon-p data sets and destroy them. To make the experiment better do this a least three times on different media such computer hard drive, CD’s or a printout. It would also help to have multiple people as the first observer of parts of the data. If in all of the cases where the photon-p data was destroyed it produced an interference patter, while those where it was retained would produced a double peak then the prediction would be confirmed.
Now a failure of this would not falsify the entire Information Universe model, just the variant of it has consciousness causing the wave function collapse. However a successful prediction would confirm the combined interpretation and the basic Information Universe model.
------ Charles Creager Jr.
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