Member-only story
Do we create the very reality that we observe?
An obscure idea in quantum physics says, “Yes!”
Wheeler called it the Participatory Anthropic Principle. It goes something like this. The answers we get from posing questions to Nature depend very much on the questions we ask. Without a question, nothing would be answered — hence we are participants in the bringing about of events. His most quotable quip was
“No phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon.”
John Wheeler was one of the most interesting characters of the 20th century. If you’re familiar with the idea of space as a seething boil of virtual particles popping in and out of existence, or if you’ve heard the words wormhole or black hole, then you’ve been in some way influenced by Wheeler. His story is ripe with legacy, which is why you can find it in many other places, and also why I won’t retell it here. Besides, I wouldn’t do it justice, and I really only wanted to talk about one of his many ideas.
Starting at the end
The seeds of the participatory universe were sown in a thought experiment called the delayed choice…
