This is the most direct I've been in this blog. The similarities to the Schrodinger cat "thought experiment" astound me.
Sadly, they are not hypothetical.
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I’ve only ever heard of Schrodinger’s cat on two occasions. The first was when I read it referenced in a book review. I no longer remember the book or the author, but the reviewer thought it was relevant to something the author had written. So, I looked it up.
Apparently it is considered a classic paradox and was first conceived by Mr. Schrodinger, an Austrian, Nobel prize-winning physicist in 1935. Paraphrasing text from Wikipedia that can still be understood by a non-physicist, Mr. Schrodinger was posing the thought process that he felt illustrated the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. Schrodinger thought of the paradox as a “thought experiment” reacting to a paper written by Einstein, Polsky and Rosen about “quantum entanglements” and the of dual state of objects. Schrodinger and Einstein did what scientists do: they wrote each other.
The paradox is often illustrated by a hypothetical cat held in a box with say a poison nearby. Some of the poison leaks out. Without looking in the box, is the cat alive or dead? Can the cat be both alive and dead at the same time? There’s more, but it does get complicated. It has to do with particles that have exploded, or not. The second time I heard of the paradox was during dialogue in the new mini-series ‘Manhattan,’ about the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos.
The dialogue takes place while a young Chinese American physicist is being interrogated by a “suit” from somewhere. It seems Liao took some pages of research out of the work area and went back to his dorm room. The pages related to research he had done about radiology and he was going to contact Eastman Kodak in order to develop a patent. It was his research, and he thought he could come up with a few extra bucks in order to help support his family and get treatment for his young daughter who has myeloma.
A very dim view is taken of missing pages and personal appropriation. Liao admits to everything, but insists he is not a spy. He repeatedly says this, but the interrogation is harsh (no water boarding).
At some point in the interview the camera focuses on a cat that is directly behind Liao. The cat meows. The “suit” says something about it being abandoned in the desert and how tough that is for the cat. The screenwriters are having a field day with this. Liao asks for a lawyer. The “suit” explains that Liao is not in the United States, he’s nowhere. He’s inside a fenced in area that doesn’t exist. He doesn’t exist. He’s neither alive or dead.
The “suit” suddenly reacts to the cat, and asks Liao, “which one of you wunderkinds thought up that thing with the cat.” Liao looks a bit puzzled, but eventually responds that it’s Erwin Schrodinger’s cat the “suit” is thinking about. The “suit” now remembers, and says yes, he read about it in “Popular Science.” (We will guess the screenwriters did this research.)
The metaphors are thick now. Liao is either dead, or alive, but is he both alive and dead? Liao explains that the cat paradox is “complicated.” The “suit” says it doesn’t seem so complicated to him: the cat is either alive or dead. He thinks the cat is dead.
There’s more, but then I’d have to issue spoiler alerts. As I said, the first time I read about Schrodinger’s cat it only further informed me about something quite complicated and allowed me to understand the book reviewer who used the term. It definitely belongs in a story about the atomic bomb. But the second time I heard about the “cat,” the light bulb went off.
On September 16, 2002, when my Assistant Vice President John Harrison murdered two of my co-workers in his office, was he now alive or dead? I sat on the other side of the wall of his office but couldn’t see in, To see in, you’d have to get up and walk a few feet down the dead end aisle and look in.
When the gunshots seemed to subside within a manner of seconds, I waved to his secretary who had taken refuge under her desk that it seemed safe to make a run for it. She did, and I did, but only after looking back briefly at the closed glass office door that seemed to be keeping the smell of gunpowder in. Was he still alive, and waiting for someone to come close so he could finish them off as well? Or, was the last gunshot heard the one that was self-inflicted, and the one that ended his life?
In 2002 Schrodinger’s cat would have meant the name of a neighbor’s pet to me. Was John Harrison alive and dead at the same time? I didn’t care. I figured he was dead, but confirming that might prove fatal to me if he wasn’t. I quickly followed the secretary and the others I convinced to turn around, and got the hell out of there. It turned out John Harrison was dead, as well my two co-workers. Looking in to confirm it would have changed nothing.
At this point in my life I’ll never be in a physics or a philosophy class. But if Schrodinger’s cat ever comes up in a conversation, have I got story for them.
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