Nereid (quoting someone else) wrote:Electrons and protons and photons, and all objects in the universe, don't care whether you understand them. They act in a certain manner, whether or not it makes sense to you.
I might phrase it like this instead:
"The behavior of electrons, protons, photons, and every object in the universe is separate from and independent of the understanding of that behavior."
But since the author brought the anthropomorphic (and entertaining) touch into the phrasing of the idea, I'll address it as a philosopher might:
"Do small and simple objects of the universe care about your understanding of them? Larger and more complex objects (such as living organisms) do. At what size and complexity this begins to be observable is not clear. It could be argued that a human's caring what you know is not the result of a complex cognitive process but a simple reflection of benefit received (all dressed up after the fact with cognition); this would make it arguably no different from a plant that shows appreciation that you know when to water it or a table that shows appreciation that you know when to oil it. This requires the consideration [which we know is based on fallacious reasoning - /apodman as scientist] that, if a large and complex object contains a certain property, some smaller or elementary component of it must contain that property, and so electrons might actually care."
And somebody who hates science might continue with the following twisted logic (real contributors have done quite similarly in this forum - look it up):
"Quantum mechanics is not true science because it does not consider this possibility."
Well, you asked for a non-scientific perspective. I have to find it where I find it.
Nereid (still quoting someone else) wrote:If you do not accept this simple fact, you should stop thinking about quantum mechanics, because it will just frustrate you.
This is why I rarely run into a philosopher thinking about quantum mechanics except as an outside critic, and even then I don't think they do calculations recreationally like physicists do.