An experimental proposal for finding out more about the measurement problem in quantum mechanics

Set up a standard double-slit, which-way experiment.

Contain both the which-way information and the board on which the interference pattern is displayed in a way that can be completely destroyed / erased.

Set up a neural network that is capable of using image recognition to tell the difference between an interference pattern and the pattern created when each slit is observed.

The neural network outputs a 1 or a 0 depending on what it sees. 1 if there’s no interference pattern (indicating that an observation took place and the wave-function collapsed), 0 if there is an interference pattern (indicating there was no observation and no wave-function collapse)

After the neural network has outputted it’s 1 or 0, and before a human looks at anything to do with the experiment, destroy both the board with the interference pattern on it and all which-way data, including anything inside the neural network that could be salvaged. the only information remaining from the experiment should be the 1 or 0 output by the neural network.

Have a human being come and check the output of the neural network.

This experiment is designed to separate and remove human conscious awareness from all data related to a double slit experiment. it’s fully automated from beginning to end and no human consciousness comes near to the specifics of the data.

The experiment should be set up so that the slits are always observed, so if consciousness of / potential conscious interaction with the which way data DOES collapse the wave-function, then the result will be a 0 from the neural network, indicating no interference pattern. However if the output from this experiment is a 1 then we can gather from this that no human consciousness is needed to collapse the wave-function.

This experiment is flawed in at least one very fundamental way, and that is that we have an incomplete understanding of how information is preserved in the universe, and how it’s persistence might also interact with facets of consciousness that are yet to be fully illuminated.

An example of the above is the possibility that someone could retroactively remote-view the which way data from the future, by going back into the past. If this is possible, and if information is preserved in time, then this could influence the results of the experiment. But that is very far-out and there is no reason to think that this is or is not possible until more experiments are done.