Schrödinger's cat in popular culture

Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, usually described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The thought experiment presents a cat that might be alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event. In the course of developing this experiment, he coined the term Verschränkung (entanglement).[1]

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Literature

It was not long before science-fiction writers picked up this evocative concept, often using it in a humorous vein.[2] Several have taken the thought experiment a step further, pointing out extra complications which might arise should the experiment actually be performed. For example, in his novel American Gods, Neil Gaiman has a character observe, "if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead." Likewise, Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies adds the issue of a third possible state, in the case of Greebo, "Bloody Furious" (In Pratchett's later novel The Last Hero, Death attempts the experiment himself, but cannot understand the mechanics of it, wondering if it implies that he will kill the cat just by looking at it).

Robert Anton Wilson wrote a trilogy of novels dealing with themes related to quantum mechanics, collectively known as the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy.

Douglas Adams describes an attempt to enact the experiment in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. By using clairvoyance to see inside the box, it was found that the cat was neither alive nor dead, but missing, and Dirk's services were employed in order to recover it, Dirk deducing that the cat had simply grown tired of being subjected to the experiment and wandered off

In Libba Bray's book Going Bovine, three stoners argue whether the cat is alive or dead, or does the person who opens the box create the possibilities. There are constant references to a band called Copenhagen Interpretation, who disappear into thin air in the middle of a benefit concert.

In Adam Felber's comic first novel, "Schrödinger's Ball" (2006), Dr. Erwin Schrödinger is a character, and there is much exploration of quantum mechanics.

In "Schrödinger's Cat-Sitter" by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre (published in Analog magazine, July/August 2001), a time-traveler named Smedley Faversham visits the past to interview Erwin Schrödinger but gets tricked into taking care of Schrödinger's wife's cat while she is away and Schrödinger is visiting Max Planck. In attempting to take care of the cat, Faversham inadvertently locks it in a cabinet with a Geiger counter, a vial of acid, and a hammer, unintentionally enacting Schrödinger's thought experiment, but with results that remain as uncertain as in the original case.

The title character (though not a main character) of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls", a kitten named Pixel, is of indeterminate existence and as such, has the ability to turn up in places that are specifically sealed to outside access. When this ability is questioned, the answer is "He's Schrödinger's cat", leading to the response, "Then Schrödinger had better come get him".

In Dan Simmons' books Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, one of the main protagonists is sentenced to death by being locked in a larger version of a Schrödinger's cat-box, so that random chance, rather than any single person, is responsible for his eventual death.

In the S.M. Stirling "T2" novel trilogy, John Connor mentally compares his, Skynet's technology and ultimately everyone's existence to the Schröedinger principle of entropy.

The award-winning New Zealand science fiction novelist Glynne MacLean [1] tells the cat's perspective of the famous thought experiment in the short story Viennese Meow [2] published by Prima Storia [3].

On a somewhat more serious level, Ian Stewart's novel Flatterland, (a sequel to Flatland) attempts to explain many concepts in modern mathematics and physics through the device of having a young female Flatlander explore other parts of the "Mathiverse." Schrödinger's Cat is just one of the many strange Mathiverse denizens she and her guide meet; the cat is still uncertain whether it is alive or dead, long after it left the box. Her guide, the Space Hopper, reassures the Cat with a modern view of quantum decoherence. Ursula K. Le Guin wrote a story entitled "Schrödinger's Cat" in 1974 (reprinted in The Compass Rose, published in 1982), which also deals with decoherence. Greg Egan's novel Quarantine, billed as "a story of quantum catastrophe," features an alternative solution to the paradox: in Egan's version of quantum mechanics, the wave function does not collapse naturally. Only certain living things—human beings among them—collapse the wave function of things they observe. Humans are therefore highly dangerous to other lifeforms which require the full diversity of uncollapsed wavefunctions to survive.

Also, in the young adult novel, "Will Grayson, Will Grayson", by authors John Green and David Levithan, one of the main characters is perplexed by the concept of Schrödinger's Cat, and references it throughout the book.

Animals other than cats

Fiction writers have confined other animals besides cats in such contraptions. Dan Simmons's novel Endymion begins with hero Raul Endymion sentenced to death by imprisonment in a "Schrödinger box."

In the fortieth-anniversary Doctor Who audio drama "Zagreus" (2003), the Doctor is locked in a lead-lined box also containing cyanide in an effort to explain his situation of being neither dead nor alive. Afterwards, the Doctor does mention that he has met Schrödinger's Cat.

Kōsuke Fujishima's manga series Ah! My Goddess featured a play on Schrödinger's Cat. During one storyline, a storage room was expanded to infinite proportions and the main characters encountered a Schrödinger's Whale, an extremely rare species with the ability to travel through space-time in a five-dimensional quantum state. The male lead in the series, Keiichi Morisato, befriends the whale and teaches it songs by real-life musical group The Carpenters (in the original English translation, it was Matthew Sweet) - but their time spent together is short, for the whale must move on or risk its safety as its wave function collapses. Because of this need to keep moving through quantum states, Schrödinger's Whales hardly ever meet, the reason they are so thin on the ground — but miraculously, Keiichi secured the future of the species by teaching it the songs. After discovering the whale had gone, he found out that it had learned Only Yesterday by itself (Missing Time in the translation) - this gave the whales a call that they could locate each other by.

In Peter Milligan's metaphysical comic Animal Man, Schrödinger's Cat is explained using a theory of pizza delivery mix-ups, resulting in both pepperoni and plain pizzas occupying the unopened box.

Television

Film

Video games

Web comics

Music

Merchandise

References

  1. ^ E. Schrödinger, Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik, Naturwissenschaftern. 23: pp. 807–812; 823–823, 844–849. (1935). English translation: John D. Trimmer, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 124, pp. 323–38 (1980), reprinted in Quantum Theory and Measurement, p. 152 (1983).
  2. ^ Sam Stall (2007-05-01). 100 Cats Who Changed Civilization. p. 34. ISBN 9781594741630. http://books.google.com/?id=coXIF8WbEKEC. 
  3. ^ http://www.gateworld.net/sg1/s1/transcripts/116.shtml
  4. ^ Gordon Farrer (2006-01-06). "Sum thing to do with maths genius". The Age (Melbourne). http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--radio/sum-thing-to-do-with-maths-genius/2006/01/05/1136387564868.html. Retrieved 2007-08-28. 
  5. ^ "Schrodinger (xkcd)". xkcd. http://xkcd.com/45/. Retrieved 2011-11-22. 
  6. ^ "Trouble in Memphis". Dresden Codak. http://dresdencodak.com/2006/02/13/trouble-in-memphis/. Retrieved 2010-06-06. 
  7. ^ "076 - What the Dickens?". lukesurl.com. http://www.lukesurl.com/archives/227. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  8. ^ "90% of the General Public Won't Understand Week". Cyanide and Happiness. http://www.explosm.net/comics/949/. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  9. ^ "Schrödinger’s Infinitesimal Miscalculation". Abstruse Goose. http://abstrusegoose.com/6. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  10. ^ "Schrödinger’s Miscalculation — Part 2". Abstruse Goose. http://abstrusegoose.com/7. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  11. ^ "Schrödinger’s (emotional) Miscalculation — Part 3". Abstruse Goose. http://abstrusegoose.com/74. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  12. ^ "Powers of Observation(#715)". Questionable Content. http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=715. Retrieved 2009-01-03. 
  13. ^ "SMBC(#973)". SMBC. http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=973#comic. Retrieved 2009-03-23. 
  14. ^ "Schrödinger's Catbox". Patrick Connelly. http://www.schrodinger.gludepeg.com/. Retrieved 2009-04-24. 
  15. ^ "MC: Attempt to put an end to Probability Theory Wasp's meddling with superior shadow-based magic.". MSPA. http://www.mspaintadventures.com/extras/ps000029.html. Retrieved 2009-12-14. 

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