[betty boop]

Thank you, longshadow. You made me realize that the parties to this conservation were not all speaking of the same thing. There's an old New England proverb that states the best way to get a mule's attention is to whack him between the ears -- thwack!!! -- with a two-by-four. That zucchini business got my attention. Thanks for the thwack!

[longshadow]

That zucchini business got my attention.

Never in the annals of science has a vegetable been used to such effect with such economy.

Actually, I'm not sure what you mean by saying it got your attention. All that I meant by it was that the "thing that collapses the wave function" has to have A name, for the sake of convenience. I really doesn't matter what we call it, as long as we all agree on the same name; even "zucchini" would work....

But I admit, "observer" is much more conventional...