Between Myth and History: von Neumann on Consciousness in Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This paper reevaluates von Neumann's views on consciousness in quantum mechanics, arguing that his stance was more cautious and less radical than commonly believed, emphasizing a balanced interpretation of his work.

Contribution

It offers a nuanced reinterpretation of von Neumann's attitude towards consciousness, challenging the prevailing view of his radical stance on measurement and collapse.

Findings

Von Neumann's views were more cautious than traditionally thought.

The paper clarifies misconceptions about von Neumann's stance on consciousness.

It situates von Neumann's work within a balanced interpretational framework.

Abstract

The von Neumann attitude on such a deep interpretational question as the role of a human observer in order for the quantum description of measurement to be consistent has been long misrepresented. The large majority of the subsequent literature ascribed to von Neumann a radical view, according to which not only the collapse was in itself a truly physical process, but also the only way to accomodate it within a quantum description of a typical measurement was the introduction of human consciousness as a kind of 'causal' factor. Inspired by the work of reconstruction pursued by the phenomenological reading of the London-Bauer approach, started by Steven French more than twenty years ago, the account I propose substantiates a significantly more cautious attitude by von Neumann: the time seems then ripe to tell a more balanced story on the relation between the notion of consciousness and the foundations of quantum mechanics in the work of the first scientist - Janos von Neumann - who explicitly and rigorously addressed the implication of a really universal formulation of quantum physics.