Quantum Measurement and the Paulian Idea

Abstract

In the quantum Bayesian (or QBist) conception of quantum theory, "quantum measurement" is understood not as a comparison of something pre-existent with a standard, but instead indicative of the creation of something new in the universe: Namely, the fresh experience any agent receives upon taking an action on the world. We explore the implications of this for any would-be ontology underlying QBism. The concept that presently stands out as a candidate "material for our universe's composition" is "experience" itself, or what John Wheeler called "observer-participancy".

15 pages, 1 figure, published version of philosophical section in arXiv:0906.2187, but with new introductory material, published in The Pauli-Jung Conjecture and its Impact Today, edited by H. Atmanspacher and C. A. Fuchs, p. 93-108 (Imprint Academic, Exeter, 2014)