The answer would be yes, of course. All of these are phenomenon. Reality
would continue to unfold, but the universe: the organization of impressions
of reality made by human minds, would cease to exist.
But what does this have to due with QM? It seems to me that all you are saying is that
we perceive the universe in a certain way. If we were to die our perceptions of the
way the universe would die with it. Other creatures might perceive it differently. But
if true those perceptions (or the concrete "facts" from which our more abstract
notions of the universe are derived) would have to be sufficiently accurte for those
sensient beings to survive. The laws of physics and evolution would constrain the
perception of any creature. Differences to me would be the results of historical
accidents (in biologic evolution and the evolution of our knowledge of the world).
>
That's a good question. The answer is probably unknown, right now. A human being's
perception definitely can create the universe. Their minds may be significantly
different from ours.
I'm not suggesting that alien races will have the ability to violate the
laws of physics. But, their perceptions may very well be different, and
they may very well probably would not be living in the same perceived
reality as us. Or, our minds may be similar enough so that the phenomena we
observe are virtually identical.
Once again, minds are evolved things, adaptations. To be successful, a mind must be
beneficial to the organism that owns it. Minds (well brains really) are expensive to
build and maintain. It better be worth the investment. (that is one reason there will
never be smart tiny animals. Small creatures are short lived. Brains take a long time
to make. Brains take a long time to be trained. Kind of not worth if you are only
going to live for a few months or even a few years).
>Would it take another fully intelligent and conscious species, or would
animals >the level of my neighbor's cat suffice? Granting that a cat
wouldn't see >exactly what I see when I look at a tree, would the tree still
exist?
One of the problems I see with this is that it places humans outside of nature,
outside of reality (whether it is real or not). In fact we are completely within
reality. We are the products of the same events that made the cat. Our intellectual
abilities are quantitavely different from the cats but not so different from other
animals. Can a chimp create the universe? Can a gorilla?
> In the case of QM, we might follow
> Berkley: to be is to be perceived, and QM defines the limits of human
> perception while demonstrating that the existence of the universe depends
> upon observation.
