I heard what has probably been the best analogy I've ever heard last night. I thought it was so good I would expound on it for all those who didn't hear it.
Have you heard of Schroedinger's Cat? Not Pavlov's Dog, which was an experiment in psychology and behavior modification. Schroedinger, the physicist, worked with quantum mechanics and theory. Schroedinger's Cat is a theoretical experiment in which a cat is placed in a box with a radioactive element, Geiger counter, hammer, and a vial of HCN. If the element undergoes alpha decay the Geiger counter will detect it and drop the hammer on the vial of HCN. The HCN dissociates and makes cyanide and kills the cat. If the element doesn't undergo alpha decay the cat is fine. Until the system is observed the atom exists in both the decayed and undecayed states, and therefore so does the cat (so to speak). So from the time the cat is placed in the box to the time the box is opened the cat is both alive and dead.
That's fascinating on numerous levels in itself. It's hard to conceive, but in quantum theory there is one cat, but it is both alive and dead. To be more accurate, it is described in terms of wave functions. Until the system is observed there are superimposed wave functions for a single object. Once observed the wave form collapses to a single equation.
Now, if we also look to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle we can understand Schroedinger's Cat even better. Heisenberg worked with subatomic particles, and stated in 1927 that the more we know about the position of a particle, the less we know about momentum, and vice versa. Along with that we discover that by observing a system we change it. Combining the two, we get that until the system is observed it is quite possible for the cat to be both alive and dead in our reality, our limited ability to observe the system without changing it decides weather or not the atom decays, and furthermore whether the cat lives or dies.
Moral of the story: We have to observe the system before we can either let the cat live or kill it. In other words, you have to take a chance and try living to know how wonderful or how terrible it can be, but most importantly you decide your own reality.
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3 comments:
Some of us prefer to stick with "What are you talking about? The cat is either alive or dead. Just because you don't know which doesn't make it both." Of course, many of those of us believe that everything that happens is a chain reaction that started with the Big Bang. My exact brain chemistry leads me to predetermined but unpredictable choices just like exact quantum states lead to predetermined but unpredictable physical results.
Why must philosophy and physics EVER overlap?
I'm quite happy with my "reality," thanks.
You do raise a good point about philosophy, though, since basically everything that is now science started out as philosophy before we could quantify it so fully.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
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