Debunking the Copernican Principle: A Quantum Perspective

Copernican Principle: Entrenched Myth, Not A Scientific Fact. One of the most entrenched myths parading as a scientific fact today is the Copernican Principle. Wikipedia defines the copernican principle as such "In physical cosmology, the Copernican principle states that humans, on the Earth or in the Solar System, are not privileged observers of the universe". The late Stephen Hawking succinctly summarized the implications of the Copernican Principle for humans as such “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can't believe the whole universe exists for our benefit." And although the Copernican Principle is held to be unquestionably true by the vast majority of scientists, the fact of the matter is that the Copernican Principle was never established as a scientific fact by empirical evidence. As Philip Ball noted in his article titled "The Tyranny of Simple Explanations", "It is often claimed that, by the 16th century, this Ptolemaic model of the universe had become so laden with these epicycles that it was on the point of falling apart. (Yet) historian of astronomy Owen Gingerich has dismissed the common assumption that the Ptolemaic model was so epicycle-heavy that it was close to collapse." And as Stephen Hawking himself admitted "So which is real, the Ptolemaic or Copernican system? Although it is not uncommon for people to say that Copernicus proved Ptolemy wrong, that is not true., the real advantage of the Copernican system is simply that the equations of motion are much simpler in the frame of reference in which the sun is at rest.” And as Fred Hoyle stated "Today we cannot say that the Copernican theory is ‘right’ and the Ptolemaic theory ‘wrong’ in any meaningful physical sense.”
Moreover Quantum Mechanics itself directly challenges the claim that "humans are not privileged observers of the universe". As Richard Conn Henry, professor of physics at John Hopkins university stated, “It is more than 80 years since the discovery of quantum mechanics gave us the most fundamental insight ever into our nature: the overturning of the Copernican Revolution, and the restoration of us human beings to centrality in the Universe." Even the late Stephen Weinberg, an atheist, stated "In the instrumentalist approach (of quantum mechanics), humans are brought into the laws of nature at the most fundamental level., the instrumentalist approach turns its back on a vision that became possible after Darwin, of a world governed by impersonal physical laws that control human behavior along with everything else." As well 2022 Nobel Laureate Anton Zeilinger stated "what we perceive as reality now depends on our earlier decision what to measure. Which is a very, very, deep message about the nature of reality and our part in the whole universe. We are not just passive observers.” Thus, directly contrary to the Copernican Principle which holds "humans, are not privileged observers of the universe", quantum mechanics itself directly undermines that claim. As Professor of Quantum Science Andrew Truscott stated via the results of a delayed choice experiment with atoms "At the quantum level, reality does not exist if you are not looking at it,". In conclusion, far from being 'chemical scum', and as far as our best science from Quantum Mechanics can tell us, humans are not nearly as insignificant as the Copernican Principle has falsely led many people to believe.