Does seeing an object modify it state?

Question

I took a dive into the concept of information in physics and from what I have read, I which someone to confirm if looking at something really modify the state of that thing.(modify state here refers to any small change in the object "information arrangement")

Vadim · Accepted Answer

Seeing is a rather vague term. To literally see something we have to send a stream of photons at this object and then detect by our eyes some of the photons scattered by the object. In a more general setting photons may be replaced by electrons or more exotic particles and the detection can be done using a device more sensitive than our eyes.
The more common scenario is that the stream of photons/particles is a macroscopic object which causes the collapse of the observed object's wave function. @gandalf61 proposes a more exotic (but easily done in a modern lab) scenario, where the testing particle itself is in a quantum state (and not yet observed) and can enter superposition with the observed object. In this case the collapse occurs when we observe the testing particle. In either case a measurement means interaction with a macroscopic object, which triggers the collapse of the wave function.
Remarks from the commentary section

My model of vision is not mechanical physics, but rather what happens when we see something or look at something. Our eyes are measurement devices that register photons (from the point of view of quantum physics) or measure the intensity of electromagnetic waves (electricity&magnetism, but still not mechanics). Seeing/looking is just one of many ways to measure something - this is why quantum mechanics is concerned with measurement in general, rather than only seeing.
The quantum physics and relativity arise essentially from questioning how do we measure things? QM says that we cannot do better than bringing the object in contact with a macroscopic object, that can communicate to our senses, whereas the relativity tells us how our measurement ability is limited by the speed of light/interaction. Everything else is math and collection of experimental facts.

gandalf61 · Answer

The word "state" in modern physics often refers to an object's quantum state. Informally, yes, looking at something does alter its quantum state.
More formally, if a photon $B$ interacts with object $A$ then $A$ and $B$ are now entangled i.e. they have a joint quantum state which cannot necessarily be split into the product of two separate states, one for $A$ and one for $B$. So asking "what is the quantum state of $A$ after it interacts with $B$" does not make sense, since $A$ no longer has a quantum state that can be described separately from its joint state with $B$. If photon $B$ then interacts with some other object $C$ (where $C$ could be an eye, a camera, a photodiode etc.) then $A$, $B$ and $C$ are now all entangled, and so on. This quickly leads to quantum decoherence - the quantum state of $A$ can no longer be described separately from that of its environment.
A change in quantum state may or may not lead to a change in an object's "information state", depending on how small the differences between distinguishable "information states" are.

Karim Chahine · Answer

Having read the comments to the post I think you're talking about collapses. In quantum mechanics, a physical state is, in general, in a superposition of states with each state corresponding to a specific possible value you could measure. When you do measure however you only get one result and an "explanation" is that the unobserved wavefunction, which is in a superposition, collapses to a specific state, the one that corresponds to the value you are measuring. This is what people usually mean when saying that looking at a state changes it. Effectively this is what happens.
You should note however that this explanation doesn't convince a lot of people. Why should the state change at all? This problem is known as the measurement problem and is one of the biggest one in physics.

Does seeing an object modify it state?

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