Conscious Observers?

What exactly qualifies as a conscious observer? If a person such as a mouse observes the double slit experiment...does this have any effect? I'd like to think the moon is there even when I'm not looking...but as a child, I had my doubts..starting with my peripheral view.
- Don key (age 37)
Hillgrove Ohio USA

So far as we know, conscious observers don't play any special role in quantum mechanics, so we don't have to worry too much about what counts as conscious for this purpose. Any large-scale outcomes that are very different from each other (meter readings, flashing lights, mouse thoughts,...) will be enough to break the quantum interference between the different outcomes.

There are, however, many schools of thought about the quantum "measurement" problem. Some of them say that consciousness plays a key role, but we'll let those who believe that deal with the famous difficulties your question raises.  

Mike W.

(published on 07/01/2016)