Schrödinger's Litterbox

In 1935, Austrian big-brain physicist Erwin Schrödinger developed a thought experiment that has since seeped into public awareness in recent decades because it's totally far out, man. Largely without complaint from animal rights groups, curiously.

 

The original thought experiment called for a steel box in which are placed a cat, a quantity of a radioactive substance, a Geiger counter, and a death trap. Originally the death trap was a vial of hydrocyanic acid that is triggered to spray in the box when the Geiger counter detects sufficient decay of the substance. Later versions of the story called for a shotgun to blast the box, which I actually think might be more humane.

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This hypothetical experiment illustrated the phenomenon of quantum superposition as described in the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox: without opening the steel box you can't know if the kittycat has been murdered by the acid, or if it's still happily snoozing.

 

What's totally far out, then, is that the cat is both alive and dead until the moment the box is opened. Only when the box is opened and its condition observed does the superposition collapse into one definite state, and at that point the cat becomes either alive or dead for real.

 

When I was told this story as a teenager, I was totally like whoa. The universe suddenly seemed just a little more magical and far out, and the complex relationship between observation and reality, which fascinated me already, became even more awesome. I imagine there are scads of bright minds out there, young and old, for which this story created a sense of wonder and awe.

 

It's sad to realize that this completely misses the point of the story. Schrödinger used this story to poke holes in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (and not to simply illustrate it) by inventing a situation that would produce superposition, but which is obviously nonsense. Cats obviously aren't both alive and dead. Trees that fall in the forest do make a sound, and bears shit in the woods all the time.

 

I know, it was a huge disappointment to me, too, when I learned this, but we owe it to ol' Erwin to recognize what he was trying to tell us. We weren't supposed to be totally like whoa, we were supposed to realize that cats are either alive or dead, and that therefore this superposition stuff was rather suspect.

 

The universe, alas, is perhaps a little less wondrous now. But take heart: this was in 1935. Much has been learned since then and with the construction of truly awe-inspiring machines like the Large Hadron Collider, more is being learned and supposed and debunked every day. There may be even more radical realities for us to marvel at.

 

I just hope they're not illustrated with lolcats.