> it seems really implausible, and gives humans (which are just meatbags) special status
I agree! However:
> because the vast majority of data we have excludes it
No it doesn't. In fact, there is not a single experimental result that rules this out and I doubt one could ever devise such an experiment in the first place.
All experimental results are consistent with the observer modeling the universe with the Schrödinger equation (i.e. with unitary time evolution / without collapse) and assuming that a measurement by said observer makes the wave function collapse to the appropriate eigenstate.
I agree! However:
> because the vast majority of data we have excludes it
No it doesn't. In fact, there is not a single experimental result that rules this out and I doubt one could ever devise such an experiment in the first place.
All experimental results are consistent with the observer modeling the universe with the Schrödinger equation (i.e. with unitary time evolution / without collapse) and assuming that a measurement by said observer makes the wave function collapse to the appropriate eigenstate.