Systematically Dismantling Atheism

[Chas]

Oh, for fuck's sake. The thought experiment is the satire.

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Oh, for fuck's sake. The thought experiment is the satire.

I know what you are saying, what I am saying is Erwin Schrodinger never intended his thought experiment to be satirical.

MM

Yes, he did.

According to Schrödinger, the Copenhagen interpretation implies that the cat remains both alive and dead (to the universe outside the box) until the box is opened. Schrödinger did not wish to promote the idea of dead-and-alive cats as a serious possibility; on the contrary, he intended the example to illustrate the absurdity of the existing view of quantum mechanics.

One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. 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.

-THE PRESENT SITUATION IN QUANTUM MECHANICS: A TRANSLATION OF SCHRÖDINGER'S "CAT PARADOX PAPER"
Erwin Schrödinger
Translator: John D. Trimmer