The ideas about the relation between quantum theory and our reality are still not clear. Both scientists and philosophers are keen on discovering how quantum theory influences our reality in case it does. In the 19th century, new discoveries were made about light, that changed everything about our ideas about light and its nature. Thomas Young proves with his double-slit experiment that light has wavelike properties and successfully challenged the previous theory of light being a particle by Isaac Newton.
It was the birth of quantum physics in the 1900s that proved that light is made of tiny indivisible units of energy called photons. When Young experimented with single photons, or electrons and neutrons, it was still a difficult experiment to complete, which also raised new questions about the nature of reality. In the world of quantum, Young’s experiment was a breakthrough, in which he used an opaque surface with two slits and passed light through it. The purpose of the experiment was to receive straight outputs on the surface behind the slits. But, as a result, the light formed a band of light and dark. This interference was the fringe that happened when two sets of waves overlap.
Werner Heisenberg did another known study in quantum mechanics that interpreted that reality does not exist until observed. He also said that the idea of a real-world whose smallest parts are objectively existential as any other objects only when they are visible. John Wheeler also used a variant of the double-slit experiment to say that no elementary quantum phenomenon that is registered as the true phenomenon.
The quantum theory today is unclear about what constitutes a measurement. It can only explain that the measuring device must be classical. Quantum physics is still an open case study for those who feel human consciousness needs to be invoked. None of the experiments have empirical evidence for such claims. As there are ways of interpreting the double-split experiment, there are many ways of explaining the nature of light. Many theories argue that wavefunctions collapse randomly. As the number of particles in a quantum system increases, the chances for it to collapse also increase. The observing eye can merely discover the outcome. Collapse theories explain that when particles of matter cross the threshold, they cannot hold a quantum superposition of going through both the slits at once. The search for the threshold continues.
The experiments that we have today have a lot to explain the quantum theory, but still, there are a lot of unexplored regions that we cannot claim as per our research. With both mathematical and philosophical studies, we are yet to make any claims about the nature of reality.