# Observer  ## Metadata - Author: [[Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress]] - Full Title: Observer - Category: #books ## Highlights - “Let me back up to reference experiments that prove our main point, Caroline, which is that the universe is an unformed quantum blur until it is observed by consciousness. We’ve known for a very long time from mathematically backed, verified, replicated experiments that subatomic particles have both wave and particle natures, and that until an observer ‘collapses the wave’ by the simple act of observation, the so-called particle is just a superimposed blur, neither particle nor wave. Experiments also show that when scientists watch a particle pass through two slits in a barrier, the particle behaves like a bullet and goes through one hole or the other. However, if you do not watch, it acts like a wave and can go through both holes at the same time. But how can a particle ‘out there’ change its behavior depending on whether you watch it or not? Only if ‘reality’ is a process that involves our consciousness. ([Location 1896](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09XTM7PMF&location=1896)) - consciousness does not simply observe the universe. We create it, and we do so not just singly but collectively. And as scientists explore this new line of research, it’s becoming increasingly clear how intimately we are all connected with the structure of the universe on every level. Including connections with each other.” ([Location 1935](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09XTM7PMF&location=1935)) - But Kierkegaard wrote something that has stayed with me for a long time. He said, ‘There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.’ ([Location 2300](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09XTM7PMF&location=2300)) - A framework for understanding something larger than the Earthly life. ([Location 2339](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09XTM7PMF&location=2339)) - “Let’s start with the basics,” Weigert said. “You know that the equations for Newton’s laws of motion, Einstein’s special and general relativity, quantum theory—they all function independently of the notion of the passage of time. They operate backward as easily as forward! And you also know that Einstein proved that time is relative to the observer—that there is no one definite ‘present moment’ for everyone in the universe.” ([Location 2663](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09XTM7PMF&location=2663)) - “But interestingly, Ludwig Boltzmann, who created the laws of thermodynamics, didn’t believe that entropy proved the existence of time. Using statistical mechanics, he pointed out that there are a huge number of states in which those ice cubes can exist, and nearly all of them are disordered. Full of entropy. A state in which ice cubes don’t melt at all is only one state, and statistically the chances of observing it are infinitesimally small. Entropy is merely a fact of statistical behavior. So we see a lot of disordered states, and the algorithms in our consciousness interpret that as ‘time.’” ([Location 2705](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09XTM7PMF&location=2705)) - “So you see, my dear, the emergence of the arrow of time is related to the ability of observers to remember information about what they observed. If you lack a brain—as, for instance, a rock—then time does not exist for you in the first place. Time is a relational concept—one event relative to another. ‘Before’ and ‘after’ have no meaning without association to another point. Thus, time requires an observer with memory, since without that you can’t have the relational concept that underlies the whole idea of ‘the arrow of time.’ A simple example: your cell phone rings. But the ring doesn’t happen until you compare its sound to the silence of the second before. Do you understand, Caroline?” ([Location 2715](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09XTM7PMF&location=2715)) - “The question only arises from a lack of understanding of physics. I deal in equations and observations and experiments, and this is what those three things reveal. Consciousness creates the past, not the other way around. Which, incidentally, was what Stephen Hawkings said, too: ‘The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.’” ([Location 2740](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09XTM7PMF&location=2740))