I've been reading about different ideas of getting the observer out of quantum theory. One Sean Carroll seems to like is Everett's many worlds concept.

I had a thought that I need someone here to shoot down. It could be something as basic as the double slit experiment that proves me to be wrong. Here's my thought:

As I see it, we never really "measure" the position of something. We sense a photon that is emitted by what we are "looking" at. Why couldn't the wave function of a particle just break down at the moment it emits the photon at a specific point in space-time regardless of whether there is an observer or not. After the emission, the particle location would go back to being a probability function.

What am I missing?