In 1935, a discussion between Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger occurred, centered around the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Basically, the Copenhagen Interpretation says that Objects have pairs of properties that can’t be measured at the same time. Observing or measuring an object is irreversible, and an object’s properties are only defined by the measurement results. The Copenhagen interpretation states that these quantum descriptions are objective and independent of personal beliefs.

Schrödinger tried to simplify this with a “thought problem”. Imagine a steel box, inside this steel box is a cat, a Geiger counter, a vial of poison, some radioactive material, and a mechanism that would break the vial of poison if the Geiger counter detected a single decaying atom from radioactive material.

This tipping point is called “superposition” in which the unobserved cat is both dead and alive at the same time, because the box is sealed.

Once the box is opened, the observed cat is either dead or alive, but not both.

This “thought problem” has been the center of theoretical quantum physics ever since.

My first reaction is “Why a cat?” I’m assuming it must be something that is alive. It can’t be a pet rock, all pet rocks are both alive and dead all the time, even when observed. Schrödinger wanted the shock value to be obvious.

It couldn’t be your favorite succulent. A nice cactus could fit in the box, however the problem of when the cactus dies is an issue. I suspect that many observed alive cacti are actually dead cacti and we don’t know it for months.

So why a cat? A dog would scurry around knocking things over, making a mess of the box, and barking continuously.

Why not a human? Because the whole thought problem is based on a sealed box, where everything is unobserved, because when the object is seen it changes states. And a human would see all this, and try to figure out how to get out of the box.

In this reality, the cat choice is perfect, the cat is sitting or laying in some mysterious cat-like existence, pondering its Egyptian background.

There is the problem for me. Alive things are always aware of their surroundings and moving to stimulus, that’s a definition of being alive. The thought problem breaks down because it is flawed at the root.

It is all connected to the egotistical statement, “I think, therefore I am”. Because we are curious, we use time and measuring tools to define existence. Does anything exist unless man observes? This is the ultimate ego statement that only defines us as a part of reality.