Imagine reality as an undeveloped photograph: until the moment of measurement, it exists only as a cloud of probabilities — a superposition of all possible states. Only the act of observation, like developing film, forces a particle to acquire definite properties. This interpretation of quantum mechanics has received experimental support on IBM and IonQ quantum computers, where the method of weak measurements was applied. Weak measurements are a delicate technique that allows extracting information about a quantum system without significantly destroying its state. The analogy with developing film in dim light is apt here: we get a partial imprint of reality without 'exposing' the entire 'photograph' and preserving quantum coherence.

The roots of this approach go back to the 1960s, when John Bell formulated a theorem that opened the way to experimental searches for hidden variables — hypothetical variables that could restore objective reality in the quantum picture. Later, Yakir Aharonov developed the formalism of weak measurements, giving physicists a tool for probing quantum systems with minimal disturbance. Unlike traditional 'strong' measurements, which crudely collapse the wave function, weak measurements barely increase the entropy — a measure of disorder in the system. The method resembles spectroscopy, where the composition of a substance is determined by its interaction with light without directly interfering with its structure.

The experimental results showed that the hypothesis of the absence of hidden properties is confirmed with confidence 10 times greater than the standard statistical threshold. In other words, the quantum world indeed appears to lack pre-existing attributes. The practical value of these experiments goes beyond philosophical debates: weak measurements allow testing logical elements of quantum computers without destroying their quantum states. The most striking aspect of the technique is its ability to register effects from extremely rare events, like an ultra-sensitive photographic film capable of capturing individual photons. This opens the way to detecting processes that were previously considered practically unobservable.