"The collapse of the wave function" has become a buzz-phrase of science journalism. Many pretend to understand what it means, but a century after it was first proposed its character remains entirely unknown. Central to quantum mechanics and our understanding of reality, the 'wave function' describes a quantum world where a given particle is in countless different locations at the same time. Only when observed do they have a specific location and momentum and form what we understand as reality. This is the so-called collapse of the wave function, but we still have no idea what it is. Some see the collapse as a mathematical law, others as a real object. But 75% of physicists won’t commit to the wave function being real and if it’s not real it’s unclear what is being described by its collapse.
Should we see "the collapse of the wave function" as an Emperor's New Clothes phrase that describes precisely nothing? Does the failure to explain the mystery mean quantum mechanics isn’t our best fundamental theory after all? Or should we accept the weirdness and see it as a limitation of our theories as a whole?