Comparing Dogs and Quarks — How Attention Affects Both the Macro and the Micro

I remember the first time I heard the principle in physics that observing something changes it. It seemed crazy and counter-intuitive to me. How could just looking at something change it?

Then yesterday, I was trying to take a picture of some dogs. They went from snuggling together in a puppy pile to standing up, wagging their tails, and sticking their faces closer and closer to the camera. “My God,” I thought, “this is a great example of how observing something changes it! Maybe quarks are just like dogs, and they get super-excited when somebody starts paying attention to them!”

I started thinking of other examples on the macro level where observation changes things. I’ve noticed over the years that my balance is better in yoga when nobody else is in the room. The knowledge that people can see me distracts me enough to make me wobble and fall a little more often. Somebody might practice a basketball shot alone and make it every time, then fumble it the first time their crush is watching. During performances and public speaking, most human bodies are very affected by all the people looking at them.

Attention is a kind of energy, so I guess from that point of view, it makes sense that observation changes the thing being observed. It would be more odd if adding extra energy had no impact than if it had some. Maybe sometimes the consequence of the energy is so slight it’s imperceptible to the naked eye (for example, in the action of one raindrop hitting a mountain). Yet there must be some effect, because otherwise rain could not erode mountains.

I love it that scientists have discovered that sub-atomic particles respond to attention the way dogs and humans do. They might argue that it’s not the same way; I’m not sure how they’d know, though, since they can never see the particles in their non-observed state. As for me, when I look at “inanimate” objects, I’m going to enjoy visualizing all the sub-atomic particles getting activated by my attention by imagining them as puppies getting excited that I’m looking at them. It may not be scientifically accurate, yet neither is picturing the object as a solid, unchanging thing. Including the “quarks as puppies” image in my model of reality helps me remember that life is less mundane than it seems.