What if you aren’t actually in control of your own destiny? What if another version of you from some parallel universe is steering the wheel of your life? Or, what if an infinite number of alternate “yous” are all tugging at the controls simultaneously? That’s essentially the argument physicist Vlatko Vedral laid out recently in Popular Mechanics , using quantum physics to dismantle the idea that human consciousness magically creates reality. Videos by VICE First, let’s start by defining the “observer effect,” because it’s the widely accepted idea that Vedral is smashing apart. The observer effect is the idea that simply observing or measuring something inevitably alters it. One classic example is a tire pressure gauge. By checking tire pressure, you’re allowing a small amount of air to escape; thus, by merely observing/measuring, you have altered the subject.…