In any case the universe presumably couldn't care less whether human beings have evolved on some obscure planet to study its history; it goes on obeying the quantum-mechanical laws of physics irrespective of observation by physicists. p.137
I'm no physics major, but from my understanding it doesn't have anything to do with conscious observation, and doesn't rely on perception. It merely means that anything used to measure a phenomena will have some effect on the phenomena being observed by it's interaction with it. This may be direct or indirect.
For instance, a thermometer is not going to measure the exact temperature of a pot of hot water - because the thermometer itself is colder than the water it's submerged in - thus creating a heat differential that will cool down the water very slightly. Indirectly, observing the stars through a telescope will not interact directly to change the stars behavior - but the photons from the stars interact with the mirror and other capture/recording instruments.
So it doesn't matter whether or not something is consciously observing a phenomena, because a phenomena is always being "observed"/interacted with by it's immediate environment. Reality does not phase out into superposition when you're not looking.
This is evident since this effect on the quantum scale is not directly observable. Our eyes simply don't have the sensitivity necessary to detect individual photons, nor can we detect the vast majority of photon wavelengths. For an example, we can't see the UV light spectrum - but we can feel the heat from UV light on our skin.
[edit on 21-2-2010 by Lasheic]
