brent Since panspermia has been proven true
Oh, you don't even need to go that far (or maybe further, now that I think about it).
You yourself are composed of billions of cells, each with their own means of responding to the environment (if we stretch the idea of observation for a bit). It's not just "you" who are observing, but all of it in this nice fiction called consciousness (to steal a bit from Donald Hoffman).
And not only that, but the bird flying by, the spider hiding in the corner, etc. all of them are observers to a degree. You just aren't aware of them (and in fact, you are a part of what is being observed).
But when you connect the apparatus, the observation changes, and my hippy-dippy mind has to think "who is observing whom".
I guess the point I am getting at is we were already interwoven into the cosmic fabric, so that sharp distinction between observer and observed is kinds meh.
But when you point the apparatus, the observation changes, and that is probably an even bigger head trip.
