Okay here's how we're going to backup the science, i'm doing this irregardless of hthe philosphical implications of it, but just to provide the backing so you guys can have a knowledgable discussion.

The double-slit experiment: wikipedia link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment

Read that b/c my version of it may actually be more difficult to understand plz

basically small amount of light was emmitted and could pass through double slitted material. The problem in dealing with the receptors on the other end comes form the duality of light as a particle and a wave. If you are measuring where the light should hit the receptor as a wave, you will find it there. If you are measuring where the light should hit the receptor as a particle, you will find it there. There is not 2 distinct objects happening you just find the information in the place you're looking for it. this is not my opinion, this is based on experimentation.

The other bit to this is schrodinger's cat, forgive the spelling, there's also a wiki page on that. But basically there's a cat in a box enclosed from the environment with a very small amount of radioactive material that has a 50% chance to decay or not decay in an hour. If it does then it releases some kind of death substance for the cat. So the cat is neither alive nor deat at the 1 hour mark until you go and observe it. This is a thought experiment.

dont argue the semantics of these experiments themselves, people a lot smarter than you would have already done that, think of the philosophical implications to what's happening in this thread with quantum mechanics.

ta-da

oh, and how do you not know who stephen hawkings is.....and are they sending him up in space?