It takes place in the physics

[GoodTaste]

Does "the physics" here mean "the physical world (the physical processes, interactions, qualities, properties, or behavior of anything of the universe)"?

======================
One of quantum physics’ greatest paradoxes may have lost its leading explanation

...............

Renowned University of Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose championed the hypothesis in the late 1980s because, he says, it removes the anthropocentric notion that the measurement itself somehow causes the collapse. “It takes place in the physics, and it’s not because somebody comes and looks at it.”

Source: Nature Sep.7, 2020
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...radoxes-may-have-lost-its-leading-explanation

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Yes, that's a good way of reading it. It's not human observation that causes it. Nature causes it.

So it's not in the observation, it's in the physics.

 

[GoodTaste]

It seems to be a bit more complicated. Has Penrose forgotten that we humans are simply an assemblage of fundamental particles? That is, we humans are exactly part of the physical world, part of nature, or part of the universe. All parts of the universe affect one another, at least by gravity.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

It seems to be a bit more complicated. Has Penrose forgotten that we humans are simply an assemblage of fundamental particles? That is, we humans are exactly part of the physical world, part of nature, or part of the universe. All parts of the universe affect one another, at least by gravity.

Yes, but that's not the point Penrose is focusing on. Penrose is saying that human involvement isn't a factor. It would happen regardless, observed or unobserved.

 

[jutfrank]

It seems to be a bit more complicated. Has Penrose forgotten that we humans are simply an assemblage of fundamental particles? That is, we humans are exactly part of the physical world, part of nature, or part of the universe. All parts of the universe affect one another, at least by gravity.

The idea Professor Penrose is alluding to is that we humans are more than an assemblage of particles. We have an immaterial mind, which is not part of the measurable physical universe, and which has long been thought to be the cause of wave-form collapse by observation. Penrose is saying that the collapse can be explained entirely by physical processes—there's no need for mental ones.