Schrodinger's Cat Is Surely Dead

I think Dr. Edwin Schrodinger would laugh if he was told that his famous “Schrodinger's cat” thought experiment, which he created to disprove the most popular prevailing interpretation of quantum physics, was THE definitive example that quantum physics is “simply” super weird and real.

[Note1: For quantum science nerds only. Does not contain any computer security information at all.]

[Note:2 This piece was not edited by someone else and is likely full of grammar and spelling errors.]

In the famed thought experiment (no real cats were harmed), Schrodinger imagined an experiment where a cat was placed inside an enclosed structure and along with a sealed bottle of poison, which if opened, would kill the cat. Attached to bottle of poison was a contraption which consisted of a radioactive element, a Geiger counter, and a mechanical hammer which if activated would shatter the bottle of poison killing the cat.

Radioactivity is the process where one or more electrons are emitted from the involved atom(s) of the element. A single act of radioactivity, where a single electron radiates, is a quantum action/decision. No one can predict if it will happen or when. Just that it will happen and the probability of it happening in a given time period. And if the Geiger counter detects the radiation from the electron’s emission, it, in theory, causes the hammer to break the bottle of poison killing the cat (as simulated in the graphic below).

Schrodinger was trying to draw out the absurdity of the prevailing quantum mechanics theory known as the Copenhagen Interpretation. The Copenhagen Interpretation says that all the possible answers/outcomes of any single quantum answer/decision/action is all possible actions at the same time. This is known as superposition. And in quantum physics, any quantum answer is all the possible answers until the answer is observed. At the moment of observation/measurement only one of the possible answers is measured and will be forever more. So, at the moment of observation, the quantumness of superposition and all answers being the answer at the same time becomes one single answer forever more. This is known as the collapse.

Nothing else in the world that we know of acts this way. With most physics laws everything works according to a single law and mathematics and the outcome of any (non-quantum) answer can be predicted ahead of time. But at the quantum-level, no answer can be predicted. Any particular answer of any observation/answer is random, AND before the observation the answer is all possible answers. This is not conjecture. This is proven. This is science. No one argues that this is or isn’t how the universe, at the quantum-level works.

The part that is disagreed over is how all quantum answers are always “the answer” until the quantum event is observed. The majority of quantum scientists support the Copenhagen Interpretation, which says that only when the quantum event is observed, does it actually become a single answer. The act of observation/measurement causes an instantaneous “collapse” that moves the quantum coherence of the answer into our “classical”, non-quantum, world where only one answer is the answer.

I personally think, along with about 10-20% of quantum interested parties, think it is absolutely crazy. It isn’t just people like me who think the Copenhagen Interpretation is crazy, but world-class geniuses like Edwin Schrodinger and Albert Einstein. Einstein, once while walking at night with a friend who supported the Copenhagen Interpretation, looked up to the moon and said, “Do you really believe that the moon isn’t there when nobody looks?” Leave it to Einstein to state the dilemma beautifully with a simple sentence.

Schrodinger, with his cat-based thought experiment, tried to show how insane the Copenhagen Interpretation was by linking a quantum-level event (the radiation of an election) to a larger, “macro” event (i.e., cat dying). Schrodinger was saying that if we truly believed quantum-level answers were all the possible answers than the cat would have to be both dead and alive (and all possible states in between) at the same time, before observed. He really proposed quite the conundrum that has excited every quantum physics newbie learning about this “strange”, new, type of science.

Now, I’m the opposite of a quantum expert, despite writing a book and dozens of articles on the subject. My only possible specialty is TRYING to write about difficul science in an understandable way to lay people. I often fail in that, both in not clearly communicating to people…and also in sometimes getting the science wrong. It’s OK, I’m not perfect, and I can live with my mistakes. Quantum physics is hard. But that won't stop me from saying...

The Cat Is Surely Dead

In the famed thought experiment, the cat is both alive and dead, before being observed. I think the cat is surely dead. Why? Well, the radioactive emission of an electron is a very predictable and measurable event OVER TIME. Given enough time, an atom of a radioactive element will radiate. All radioactive elements have a half-life…and consequently a full-life, meaning that by the time the full-life of an electron has been hit, it will have emitted, for sure. So, given enough time, the electron will radiate and the cat will be dead.

Schrodinger’s thought experiment didn’t mention time. And he didn’t have to. But there is no experiment that doesn’t happen in the space-time continuum. Time has to be part of it. And over time, the electron will be emitted and the cat will die. And death is a non-reversible process (we can’t go back in time either). All the seconds that occurred where the electron didn’t emit the cat was alive. But just one instance of radiation and the cat is dead and will not be alive forever more.

Now before you go accusing me of begging the question, which I surely am, I wanted to use my proclamation to point interested parties to a concept of known as Quantum Darwinism. Quantum Darwinism says there are natural states/answers that tend to win out and become the permanent, uncomplicated, non-quantum answer that we know and love today.

Quantum Darwinism was created by a quantum physicist named Wojciech Hubert Zurek. He created it to explain, scientifically, how random quantum superposition ends up being a permanent answer in our normal observable world. Dr. Zurek is attempting to give an answer to the Holy Grail question of modern physics, that of “How does “weird” world of subatomic quantum physics end up creating the less weird macro world we love and observe?” Tens of thousands of physicists are trying to answer that question - to link quantum to macro in one big, consistent theory and equation.

Zurek says there are natural “pointer” states that end up being the “right” answer from a quantum decision more often than other answers.

The best discussion of Quantum Darwinism is from an article written by my favorite quantum writer, Philip Ball. Here it is: https://www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-darwinism-an-idea-to-explain-objective-reality-passes-first-tests-20190722/. If you want to get past Schrodinger’s cat, give it a read. It makes far more sense to me than the dead and alive cat required by the Copenhagen world.

Quantum Darwinism has also survived, since being announced by Zurek, several experiments to prove or disapprove it, such as this (https://www.sciencealert.com/quantum-darwinism-sounds-mind-breaking-but-this-theory-is-passing-tests) and this (https://futurism.com/quantum-darwinism-theory-experimental-tests). So far, it’s surviving. The experiments are supporting Zurek’s conjecture. Despite this I find in my talking with other people interested in quantum physics, even quantum physicist students, that they are unfamiliar with Quantum Darwinism. So, I’m spreading the news.

Which brings me back to the cat. It’s dead. Whatever electron was in the radioactive element has emitted itself! The average radioactive decay full-life is under 15 minutes. We’ve been thinking about Schrodinger’s thought experiment since he proposed it in 1935. I’ve been thinking about it more than 15 minutes today. The radioactive decay happened, the Geiger counter noted the emission, the hammer dropped, the bottle of poison shattered, and the cat is dead. Let’s put this one to bed. Let’s bury the cat. To do so, read about Quantum Darwinism. Or if you don’t want to read about it, you can hear Dr. Zurek discuss it here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27zMdaBgt6g.