Tim Attwood wrote:
> 
> ...Schrodinger's cat...
> 

Some random reflections (so to speak) on The Cat that I've been saving 
for just the right moment...


You see a lot of drawings of Schrodinger's Cat.  You never see a drawing 
of Schrodinger's Lab Assistant--you know, the guy with the scratches all 
over his face.


Prepare a second box.  Put the lab assistant inside.  If an atom decays, 
tell [1] the lab assistant, "I already checked the other box and the cat 
is alive."  If not, tell him, "I already checked the other box and the 
cat is dead."  Then have him retrieve the cat and see what he finds.  It 
is absolutely certain that the results will surprise somebody, somewhere.


A Schrodinger quote from the Wikipedia article:  "The psi-function of 
the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead 
cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts." 
Scene:  Schrodinger's lab, late at night.  Schrodinger's Lab Assistant 
yawns, checks his watch, and opens the box.  We briefly see a look of 
horror cross his face before *something* hurls itself out of the box... 
  Coming soon to a theater near you--THE ATTACK OF THE UNDEAD CAT!!!


 From a recent episode of House:
Dr. Watson--er, Wilson [2]:  "Unless you're a dead cat, you can't be in 
two places at once."  (Or words to that effect.)
Dr. House:  (Stares off into space for a moment)  "Oh--physics joke."
Whoa.  Beware The Cat.  The Cat is ubiquitous.  And that show is doomed, 
dammit.


Didja ever notice that, in the second picture on the Wikipedia page for 
The Cat, he appears to be sitting in a Cornell box...except that the box 
is monochrome...and the yellow Geiger counter is not only shadowless but 
isn't turning the floor yellow...which could reflect badly on The 
Cat...so to speak...?  (Then I read the Schrodinger article, and it all 
made perfect sense. [3])


Schrodinger's Cat's Litter Box...OK, let's just don't go there.


--Sherry "That Reminds Me, It's Time to Feed the Cats" Shaw


[1] If you feel like it, you could use a computer that conveys the 
chosen message in such a lifelike way that the lab assistant can't 
whether he's talking with a computer or a human.

[2] Dr. House's apartment number is 221B.  The series is just full of 
Easter eggs like that.

[3] But I'd been drinking.


-- 
#macro T(E,N)sphere{x,.4rotate z*E*60translate y*N pigment{wrinkles scale
.3}finish{ambient 1}}#end#local I=0;#while(I<5)T(I,1)T(1-I,-1)#local I=I+
1;#end camera{location-5*z}plane{z,37 pigment{granite color_map{[.7rgb 0]
[1rgb 1]}}finish{ambient 2}}//                                   TenMoons

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