Does the copenhagen interpretation actually require the observer to be conscious rather than, say, a macroscopic measuring instrument?
Indeed the wiki article you link to says:
> Although the Copenhagen interpretation is often confused with the idea that consciousness causes collapse, it defines an "observer" merely as that which collapses the wave function.
Which seems like a very practical, albeit obviously incomplete, approach to take.
My usual argument against it is the mediocrity principle [3], we humans often fail to accept the insignificance of our existence. Thus, we tend to prefer theories which tell us that we are special. Just like the idea that we are able to trigger the collapse of the wave-function and the superposition, but a cat is not.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_interpretation 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle