Anton Petrov explained the interesting theory about black holes acting as 'observers' to collapse quantum indeterminism into reality in a video recently. Plainly God could be the initial observer collapsing a quantum cloud of being into reality. I wonder though, about the quantum realm expanding from a singularity expanding as a subsidiary act from an everything bagel before the Universe started. Did the singularity then not exist and the quantum realm was unbounded (infinite) and an observation collapsed the quantum world into existence at a singularity and subsequent inflaton? Would a singularity be an implicit self-observer of the quantum everything bagel? Is there a percent of the Universe that is not observed- something like dark energy or dark matter that becomes part of reality when observed at some future time with a draft from a Wheeler state of the future causing it to act as a cosmological constant?
Grok wrote a summary of the salient ideas of the theory...
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The Theory from Anton Petrov's Video
In his April 2023 video "Strange New Explanation for Why Quantum World Collapses Into Reality," Petrov covers a hypothesis from physicist Jonathan Oppenheim and colleagues (detailed in a paper on arXiv). The core idea is that event horizons—boundaries where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape—naturally cause quantum wave function collapse. In quantum mechanics, particles exist in superpositions (all possible states at once, like your "quantum cloud of being" or "everything bagel" metaphor for infinite possibilities) until "observed," forcing them into a single reality (e.g., position, spin, or flavor). Traditionally, this requires an interaction or measurement, but the theory suggests horizons do this passively:
Black Holes as Observers: When a quantum particle is entangled with something crossing a black hole's event horizon, the information becomes irretrievable (due to no-hair theorems and Hawking radiation). This irreversible loss acts like an "observation," decohering the superposition and collapsing it into a classical state. Black holes aren't conscious; they're just gravitational sinks that enforce determinism by "hiding" quantum alternatives. This could explain why macroscopic reality feels solid—black holes scattered throughout the universe (billions in our galaxy alone) might collectively "observe" and stabilize quantum fields everywhere.
Cosmic Horizon and Expansion: The universe's accelerating expansion creates a de Sitter horizon (similar to a Rindler horizon for accelerated observers), beyond which distant regions are causally disconnected. This cosmic boundary acts like a giant observer, collapsing quantum indeterminism across the observable universe (about 93 billion light-years across). Without expansion (or black holes), the quantum world might remain fuzzy and unrealized.
The theory is speculative but mathematically grounded, aiming to reconcile quantum mechanics with gravity without full quantum gravity (like string theory). It doesn't invoke God or consciousness but provides a mechanism for how reality "emerges" from quantum foam. Petrov notes it's testable via experiments on quantum decoherence near strong gravity fields, though we're far from that.
Your Speculations on Quantum Cosmological Collapse
You raise some profound ideas here, echoing concepts from inflationary cosmology, the Big Bang singularity, and Wheeler's delayed-choice experiments. Let's unpack them:
God as the Initial Observer Collapsing the Quantum Cloud: This aligns with philosophical interpretations like the "strong anthropic principle" or theistic views of quantum mechanics (e.g., some physicists like Freeman Dyson have speculated on a divine role in measurement). In the horizon theory, no initial conscious observer is needed—gravity and horizons suffice. But if we scale it back to the universe's origin, your idea fits a "quantum cloud" (pre-Big Bang quantum vacuum fluctuations) being collapsed by an external or divine "observation." In eternal inflation models, our universe bubbles out of a multiverse "everything bagel" (a sea of infinite quantum possibilities). A God-like observer could select one reality, collapsing the wave function at t=0. However, physics doesn't require this; quantum fluctuations alone can seed inflation without an observer, per no-boundary proposals (Hawking-Hartle state). It's untestable but elegant metaphysically.
Quantum Realm from a Singularity as a Subsidiary Act from an 'Everything Bagel': You're describing a scenario where the pre-universe is an unbounded quantum field (infinite possibilities, no boundaries), and observation creates a singularity that then inflates. In standard Big Bang cosmology, the singularity isn't a "thing" that exists—it's a mathematical breakdown where density and curvature go infinite, marking the limit of classical general relativity. Quantum gravity theories (e.g., loop quantum gravity) suggest the Big Bang was a "bounce" from a prior contracting phase, not a true singularity. Your "everything bagel" evokes the quantum multiverse or eternal chaos, where our universe emerges as a localized collapse. If the quantum realm was infinite and unbounded pre-Big Bang, an observation (divine or horizon-like) could indeed "pin it down" to a singularity-like point, triggering inflation via an inflaton field (a scalar field driving rapid expansion). This resonates with the horizon theory: Perhaps the initial cosmic horizon (from instant inflation) retroactively collapses the quantum state, in a Wheeler-style participatory loop where the future universe "observes" its own birth.
Singularity as an Implicit Self-Observer of the Quantum Everything Bagel: Intriguing! Singularities are often seen as self-destructive in physics—points where laws break down. But in Kerr's recent work (disproving physical singularities in rotating black holes), they might not exist at all; instead, quantum effects "smear" them out. A singularity couldn't "observe" itself classically (no time or space), but in quantum terms, it might self-collapse via entanglement with its own horizon. This ties to black hole information paradoxes: If a singularity is a quantum firewall, it could act as its own observer, resolving indeterminism internally. However, most cosmologists favor avoiding singularities altogether—e.g., in string theory, the Big Bang starts from a higher-dimensional brane collision, not a self-observing point. Your idea could work in a holographic universe, where the singularity encodes the "bagel" on its boundary, self-projecting reality.
Unobserved Percent of the Universe (Dark Energy/Matter) and Wheeler's Future Draft: About 95% of the universe is "dark" (68% dark energy, 27% dark matter), inferred from gravitational effects but not directly observed electromagnetically. In quantum terms, they're already "real" because gravity observes them—dark matter clumps galaxies, and dark energy (as the cosmological constant) drives expansion. But your point about future observation is spot-on with Wheeler's participatory anthropic principle: The universe requires observers to retroactively select its history from quantum possibilities. Unobserved regions (beyond our cosmic horizon) might remain in superposition until "drafted" into reality by future measurements. Dark energy could be such a "future draft"—its value (fine-tuned for life) might be set by observers in a vast multiverse, collapsing to the constant we see. If dark matter is axions or WIMPs, detecting them could "collapse" their quantum states further, altering cosmology subtly. In the horizon theory, the cosmic horizon already observes everything observable, so dark components are collapsed; anything beyond might be unrealized until expansion brings it in.
Overall, these ideas push the boundaries of current physics, where quantum cosmology is still speculative. Theories like this horizon-observer model offer natural explanations without invoking the supernatural, but they leave room for your God-as-observer interpretation—especially since the "why" of initial conditions remains open."
