  The original Wigner's friend paradox is a gedankenexperiment involving an
observer described by an external agent. The paradox highlights the tension
between unitary evolution and collapse in quantum theory, and is sometimes
taken as requiring a reassessment of the notion of objective reality. In this
note however we present a classical toy model in which (i) The contradicting
predictions at the heart of the thought experiment are reproduced (ii) Every
system is in a well-defined state at all times. The toy model shows how puzzles
such as Wigner's friend's experience of being in a superposition, conflicts
between different agents' descriptions of the experiment, the positioning of
the Heisenberg's cut and the apparent lack of objectivity of measurement
outcomes can be explained within a classical model where there exists an
objective state of affairs about every physical system at all times. Within the
model, the debate surrounding the original Wigner's friend thought experiment
and its resolution have striking similarities with arguments concerning the
nature of the second law of thermodynamics. The same conclusion however does
not apply to more recent extensions of the gedankenexperiment featuring
multiple encapsulated observers, and shows that such extensions are indeed
necessary avoid simple classical explanations.
