Patterns in Nature

[Write4U]

The opposing view posits that the "collapse of the wavefunction" is actually postponed until a conscious observer (e.g. a human being) makes an observation that requires such collapse.

IMO, that is an incorrect interpretation. The wave function collapse is postponed until it is collapsed by any obstacle that gets in its way.

Or until a photon strikes a plate and the photon's wavefunction collapses without anybody being present to observe this physical phenomenon. In that case, the plate is the observer and the wave function collapse is a result of the "observer effect".

Collapse of the Wave Function

The red mesh graphs the wave function of the electron. The green film represents, perhaps, a fluorescent screen. Upon detection by the fluorescent screen, the electron creates a tiny flash at a single point (yellow/orange dot).

Wave function collapse is transformation from a wave to a dot (particle). [Image source: stills from Fermilab video by Dr. Don Lincoln, “Quantum Field Theory” (in the public domain) Jan. 14, 2016;

http://www.quantumphysicslady.org/glossary/wave-function/

 

[Write4U]

Reality isn't an unfolding pattern. Patterns are just one part of reality, and they can't unfold themselves.

In a dynamic environment they can self-form according to chaos theory. How that happens is beside the point.

 

[Write4U]

You believe that concepts can exist without minds? Care to explain how that works, exactly?

Most concepts are observations and visualizations of existing natural phenomena. Our minds cannot escape the boundaries of reality, else it is mere fantasy and cannot exist in reality.

As you say "the map is not the territory", but the territory is the object the map is conceptualized on, not the other way around. There has to be consistency in common denominators, else they would not be "in common"