Reply #9: Yes and no.

[TheMadMonk]

Theoretically, other processes can be used to infer the existence of that photon even if it makes it all the way to the light horizon without ever interacting with anything ever again. Thus it is always "observed".


And what is true for individual (or perhaps as many as a few million atoms) is patently not true for true macro scale objects.

The cat needs no outside observer, it is ITS OWN observer. The cat knows whether or not it is dead or alive. All we on the ouside can say of events within the box is that WE do not know.