I'm not an expert either. I'm a computer scientist, not a physicist. But the math behind QM -- at least the parts that matter for this discussion -- is pretty straightforward linear algebra. Really, anyone can learn it. So don't take my word for it, look into it and decide for yourself. You can start here:

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Physics-Princeton-Foundati...

https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Mechanics-Experience-David-Al...

Or, if you don't feel like buying a book:

https://flownet.com/ron/QM.pdf

Or, if you prefer a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaecUuEqfc

BTW, it may come as a surprise to learn that I am actually not a big proponent of many-worlds despite recognizing that it is in fact a logical consequence of the math. If so, you may find this interesting too:

https://blog.rongarret.info/2009/04/on-shadow-photons-and-re...

and a follow-up written ten years later:

https://blog.rongarret.info/2019/07/the-trouble-with-many-wo...

> if a sound is made, does the universe permanently keep a record of it? I would imagine the waves would die down, until at a certain quantum level, they will stop entirely.

> Or, if two particles annihilate each other, is it possible from the resulting particles/energy produced to know which particles were involved?

These are really great questions! The facile answer is that all known physical processes are reversible in principle, but the actual truth is more complicated than that. For starters, quantum measurement may or may not be reversible depending on which interpretation of QM you subscribe to. On the currently-most-popular account, the Copenhagen interpretation, measurement is by assumption irreversible. There are many reasons to believe that this is not the case, that measurements are in fact reversible (in principle, not in practice) but no one really knows, and no one can know because the process of reversing a measurement is indistinguishable form the normal state of affairs. It might actually be happening all the time. There is no way to know.

For more info see:

http://blog.rongarret.info/2014/10/parallel-universes-and-ar...

(And its prequel: http://blog.rongarret.info/2014/09/are-parallel-universes-re...)

If you want a deeper understanding of all this stuff I recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Physics-Princeton-Foundati...

https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Mechanics-Experience-David-Al...

The "interpretation" that you are using of QM is just one of many proposed interpretations. Specifically, you are referring to an interpretation called the "Von Neumann–Wigner interpretation". It's not an interpretation that I buy into.

The only interpretations that really make sense to me are objective collapse theories and the Many Worlds interpretation. For neither of these interpretations does human consciousness cause wave function collapse.

If you want to know more about the various interpretations of QM, there's a Wikipedia page on them here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_quantum_mec...

If you'd like to know even more, here's a good book on the topic:

https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Mechanics-Experience-David-Al...

Well I don't believe that you need to posit a fundamental consciousness-property to explain collapse. There are clearer explanations that rely only on what physicists (mostly) already accept, which David Albert explains well: http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Mechanics-Experience-David-Alb... But maybe you do need to posit that to explain things like thoughts and feelings.