The Observer Effect - a principle and a poem

It is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. 

In fact, some say the only thing quantum theory has going for it

is that it is unquestionably correct.

Michio Kaku

Observer Effect 

http://www.lianneschneiderart.com/Art/Digital-PaintingPhotoArt/i-JNwHRGb/A

The other day, I mentioned that study and research are often part of the way I write a poem. That probably seems odd to most people who, these days at least, consider most poetry to be spontaneous "stream of consciousness" writing. But for me, that is almost never the case. I study, explore an idea, maybe even a very complex idea such as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle or the Observer Effect. Often the two are conflated - thought to be virtually the same thing. They aren't really at all and I must confess that the mathematical calculations involved in explaining or demonstrating the Uncertainty Principle are WAY over my head. I did, however, manage to distinguish between the two ideas enough to write a poem that involves both principles to some degree.

In the simplest of terms, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle involved measuring sub-atomic particles - shooting a photon of light through a hole in order to strike (and therefore locate) an electron at some distance. "The uncertainty principle in its standard form actually describes how precisely we may measure the position and momentum of a particle at the same time — if we increase the precision in measuring one quantity, we are forced to lose precision in measuring the other" (Heisenberg,1930). Wikipedia (thank heavens for Wiki) gives this example - "If pitchers threw electrons instead of baseballs, and an overhead camera and side-facing camera were placed somewhere between the pitcher's mound and home plate so that the exact position of the electron could be determined in mid flight, then without the cameras being turned on, the pitcher would throw straight balls, and with the cameras turned on his pitches would start out straight but gyrate wildly after their pictures were taken. The more clearly we know where the ball was halfway toward home place, the more trouble the batter will have in getting ready to hit it with his bat" (Wikipedia, Uncertainty Principle). Don't ask me to explain that more clearly than that - lol - I can't do it.

The Observer Effect, on the other hand, is an attempt to explain that uncertainty by saying the very act of measurement alters the course of the photon and changes the outcome. For an electron to become detectable, a photon must first interact with it, and this interaction will change the path of that electron. Think of the way a billiard ball hits another ball to change the angle of movement in order to get it into the pocket. It is also possible for other, less direct means of measurement to affect the electron. This principle is much easier to understand in psychology than it is in physics! In a psychology study, for example, the very act of observing a subject is most likely to change the subject's behavior in a number of ways. If the subject knows he/she is being observed, he/she will alter behavior in accordance with expectations or to meet the expectations of the observer. Countless psychological studies have demonstrated this Observer Effect and often with very negative outcomes. There are two studies you have probably heard of...the first is the Stanford Prison Study where students were assigned roles as guards or prisoners in a section of the campus set up to look and feel like a prison. The second is the Milgrim study on obedience to authority where people were directed to give electrical shocks to a stranger behind a wall if they answered a question incorrectly. (I'll let you look those up if you are interested in knowing more about them but you can start here).

From all of that study and pages of notes, eventually I arrived at my own example of the Observer Effect and hopefully, you won't see any direct connection to either quantum physics or psychology but will be able to sense the underlying research that triggered the idea!

OBSERVER EFFECT

Before I was the me you see
I was nothing and I was everything,
pure potentiality in a field of grace,
the sum of all my probabilities.
And who is it who observed me into being,
compressed me from energy into matter?
Why you did…and you…and me and God
who wished to see his face in mine
to know herself as love through me.

But every moment unobserved
remains my potentiality unrealized.
I know who I am – but I cannot experience
the fullness of that knowing without you.
Alone I have only the isolation of “knowing”
but through you, in your observation of me,
in my reflective observation of myself,
that knowing becomes substance, reality.
If I know myself as love but have no one
to whom to give or to share that self
I never have the awakened experience
or what love really is or of who I truly am.

Yet if I were alone in the Universe
with none to speak to of these things
I would still not ever really be alone
for I could look into the face of God
and see myself – divine - as all I am
and all that I can be…if I but love.

  

© Lianne Schneider August 2011

 Heisenberg, W. (1930). Physikalische Prinzipien der Quantentheorie, Leipzig: Hirzel English translation The Physical Principles of Quantum Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930.