Quantum entanglement suggests the necessity of observation at the quantum level to existence. So does this suggest consciousness at the quantum level?
This is a philosophical question about the possibility of fundamental consciousness, that is, phenomenal realism, which opposes illusionism and reductionism in the philosophy of mind.
The consciousness I suggest at the fundamental level is the awareness that particles appear to have of one another's states as demonstrated by quantum entanglement.
Entanglement is a bizarre phenomenon, no doubt. But it's a physical phenomenon, not a metaphysical one. It's not about some cosmic mind whispering secrets between particles. It's about the strange rules of the quantum world, where things can be in multiple states at once until we look at them. And the "observation" that collapses the wave function is just an interaction with another particle, not some mystical act of awareness.
The idea that entanglement implies consciousness is a bit like saying that the fact that a car can move implies that it's sentient. Sure, it's a complex machine, but it's just a machine. Entanglement is a complex physical phenomenon, but it's just a physical phenomenon.
There's no need to invoke consciousness to explain it. There are plenty of other interpretations of quantum mechanics that don't involve a cosmic mind. And even if you're a fan of panpsychism, the idea that consciousness is fundamental to the universe, entanglement doesn't prove it. It's just a curious quirk of the quantum world, not a smoking gun for consciousness.
The consciousness I suggest at the fundamental level is the awareness that particles appear to have of one another's states as demonstrated by quantum entanglement.
Entanglement occurs when information is copied from one quantum system to another. In classical physics the evolution of a physical quantity such as position is described by a function whose value is the value you would get if you measured it. In quantum physics the evolution of a physical quantity is described by a matrix called an observable and the possible measurement results are the eigenvalues of the matrix. Quantum theory predicts the expectation values of observables: the possible values weighted by the probability of seeing each of those values when you do the measurement.
According to the equations of motion of quantum theory when two quantum systems interact, are spatially separated and then results of measurements on them are compared those results can be correlated to a greater extent than is allowed in classical physics. This doesn't imply that the particles are aware of each other.
Quantum theory produces correct predictions about what is happening and this is uncontroversial. There is a controversy about what is happening in reality to produce the results predicted by quantum theory: this is said to be about the interpretation of quantum theory but most of the interpretations just say the theory is false and modify it, e.g. - spontaneous collapse theories
https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.14969
Such theories in general don't currently reproduce many of the predictions of quantum theory, including pretty much all predictions of relativistic quantum theories:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.00568
This includes many entanglement experiments since those are often done on photons whose motion is explained by relativistic quantum theories.
In quantum theory with no modifications in general what happens to the different possible values of an observable contributes to the outcome of an experiment: this is called quantum interference. For an example see Section 2 of
https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9911150
and Chapter 2 of "The Fabric of Reality" by David Deutsch. When information is copied out of a quantum system interference is suppressed: this is called decoherence:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.06282
The objects you see around you in everyday life interact on timescales much shorter than those over which they change significantly and as a result for such objects reality as described by quantum theory looks a bit like a collection of parallel universes
https://arxiv.org/abs/1111.2189
Parallel universes are just an approximation and that approximation can break down. One place in which it can break down is that in experiments involving entanglement the correlations arise as a result of a process that involves quantum information being carried in observables whose expectation values don't depend on that information: locally inaccessible information
https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9906007
https://arxiv.org/abs/1109.6223
Entanglement doesn't imply that particles are aware of each other. Rather, the only known explanation of how those correlations arise involves the existence of multiple versions of macroscopic systems such as detectors and wires and computers carrying information about measurement results.
