I made this thread in order to propose a hypothesis, although it may hold no ground because I do not have the slightest inkling of the intricate processes involved in quantum mechanics. The main reason I came up with this hypothesis is because if an observer can be quantified as something other than a live, sentient, conscious being, that completely crushes my hope that life has any real meaning in the grand scheme of things.

A basic run-down of the Observer Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_%28physics%29

You might propose that we didn't cause the wave function collapse with our naked eyes and that it was the instruments' observations that caused the collapse, but how do we know it doesn't go deeper than that? If the mere process of observing something is so convoluted, complicated, and contrived in and of itself, then how much further does the rabbit hole go? perhaps there is a possibility that these particles somehow knew we were going to look at the results of the instruments and their readings/observations, thus collapsing the wave even though the instruments themselves may not count as observers?

I am not smart enough to come up with a test that can exclude our measuring instruments as observers with a hypothesis as bizarre as the one I am proposing acting as the guiding principle. Being able to test what may or may not be an observer would require observing the "observers" potential effect on particles the possible "observer" "observed". Such a test is seemingly impossible. If the "observer" was in fact not an observer, would our potential observation of the information that was collected in order to determine what is and is not an observer be an inherently flawed test that produces nothing but corrupt results?

A relatively simple summary on my hypothesis:
A wave function may collapse before it is actually observed by anything that can be considered as an observer, because the information collected by the pseudo-observer (in this case, measuring instruments) will eventually be observed by something that is actually considered to be an observer.

Yeah I know... it's quite a stretch.

I am a dilettante when it comes to this subject. I haven't taken the time to understand the facets of quantum mechanics, and my imagination went into overdrive at the possibilities presented by the observer effect, which led me to formulate this hypothesis. You can discount it as a madman's ramblings if you wish.

In the interest of remaining objective, it is also possible that the measuring instruments are the observers and we aren't. Although that would be interesting seeing as we created the equipment... I'm not going to open that can of worms (or is that what I just did? haha)

My hypothesis has some influences from http://discovermagazine.com/2010/apr/01-back-from-the-future. It also has strong philosophical influences from an article on what is coined as "http://discovermagazine.com/2009/may/01-the-biocentric-universe-life-creates-time-space-cosmos".

It would be interesting to know whether or not particles behave as a wave function in our brains, existing in a superposition... if that were true it would certainly be intriguing to imagine the implications presented by such a possibility.

Anyway... I hope I've given you guys something interesting to consider, or that I've inspired you to come up with your own crazy ideas.