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]
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
- The character Quinn in the series Sliders has a pet cat named Schrödinger. In the pilot episode (1995), Quinn can't bear the idea of sending his cat into a machine he invented because he's afraid of something bad might happen and decides it's better to go inside himself.
- In the Stargate SG-1 episode, "Enigma" (1998), Samantha Carter gives a pet cat named Schrödinger to Narim. After explaining the name Schrödinger, Narim comments that his society calls that concept Kulivrian physics. Narim's response to Carter's inquiry about whether or not he has studied it is: "Yeah, I've studied it...among other misconceptions of elementary science."[3]
- In the Futurama episode, "Mars University" (1999), Professor Farnsworth is lecturing on the effects of quantum neutrino fields and the blackboard behind him displays an explanation of "Superdupersymmetric String Theory" and a diagram explaining "Witten's Dog". Witten's Dog, named after Ed Witten, is a parody of the classic Schrödinger's cat paradox. Astrophysicist David Schiminovich created both the equations and the diagram, based on "an equation that constrains the mass density of neutrinos in the universe".[4]
- In the Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda episode, "A Heart for Falsehood Framed" (2001), Beka Valentine falls in love with a thief whose alias is Schrödinger's Cat.
- In the Doctor Who audio adventure Zagreus, the Eighth Doctor is transformed into the destructive Zagreus after he is exposed to an anti-time explosion after he was forced to use his TARDIS to contain it- anti-time being as destructive to time as anti-matter is to matter-, but shifts between his own personality and the 'Zagreus' personality, realising that as long as he remains in the TARDIS the universe cannot decide which personality is in control, noting the similarities between this situation and the Schrödinger's Cat experiment.
- Charlie Brooker, on his program Screenswipe (2006), compares the British version of the game show, Deal Or No Deal, to the Schrödinger's cat parodox, in that any of the amounts of money could be in any box until they are opened and the contents are revealed.
- In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX episode, "It's All Relative" (2006 Japan, 2007 USA), Dr. Eisenstein uses a card known as "Schrödinger's Cat", which allows him when he draws outside his Draw Phase to shuffle the drawn cards back into his deck and draw the same number of cards again. This may be a result of the "Schrödinger's Cat" (either life or death) paradox.
- The "Blink" (2007) episode of Doctor Who features a race of beings known as Weeping Angels. They are described as being "quantum-locked", which means they do not exist when looked at but can prove deadly when unobserved. At one point, the Doctor also mentions that he has met Schrödinger's Cat.
- In the Bones episode, "The Pain in the Heart" (May 19, 2008), Dr. Jack Hodgins said to Dr. Zack Addy that a crime scene is like Schrödinger's Cat; the lab was a crime scene which they could not disturb, but they could not solve the crime without entering the lab.
- An episode of the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, "The Theory of Everything" (2008), features the gravestone of a deceased couple's cat named Schrödinger Martin. This is a reference to the episode's theme: that everyone in the cases is connected by String Theory.
- In The Big Bang Theory episode, "The Tangerine factor" (May 19, 2008), Leonard's attempt to arrange a date with Penny results in both Penny and Leonard's seeking Sheldon's advice. Sheldon advises Penny that “just like Schrödinger's cat being alive and dead at the same time”, her date with Leonard currently has both “good and bad” probabilistic outcomes. The only way to find out is to “open the box”, in other words collapse the wave-function of an uncertain date into a specific outcome. Also, in the episode "The Russian Rocket Reaction" (Oct 13, 2011), Sheldon characterizes his relationship to Leonard as "Schrödinger's friendship", in the sense that Leonard is simultaneously his friend and mortal enemy (as he may or may not attend Wil Wheaton's party). When Sheldon tries to explain the paradox to Penny, she gives an approximate description: "[...] there's this cat in a box and until you open it, it's either dead or alive or both [...]".
- In the Defying Gravity episode,"Love, Honor, Obey" (2009), the astronauts lose all communications with mission control while in a protective shelter during a solar flare. Steve Wassenfelder, the ship's theoretical physicist, describes their situation as akin to Schrödinger's cat, for mission control does not know if the astronauts are alive or dead until communication can be reestablished.
- In Season 1, episode 6 of FlashForward, "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps" (2009), Simon references Schrödinger's Cat as he is trying to explain why the blackouts happened. He describes it using the metaphor of holding a tiny cat in a closed hand with a poisoned sardine. If the cat eats the sardine, he will die; if not, he will live. But the outcome will be unknown until the hand is opened. Until then, the cat may be both alive and dead simultaneously, with reality ultimately being decided upon the intrusion of an observer.
- In the visual novel Umineko no Naku Koro ni, episode 3, the main character Battler uses Schrödinger's Cat in his battle against the witch Beatrice to deny the existence of magic.
- Charlie Brooker, on his program Newswipe (2009), refers to the media coverage of Jade Goody's death as paradoxical in the same way that Schrödinger's cat is. He shows a visual metaphor using a stuffed cat to explain, then comments,"But that's the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics for you."
- Nearly a third of an episode of the series, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei is devoted to Schrödinger's cat, referencing it in the way that there are infinite possibilities for anything in a box. Examples include Schrödinger's lunch box (Which may or may not have mold), Schrödinger's boxed-wives (Which could all possibly be ideal), and refusing to face reality (by boxing things with possibly bad outcomes).
- In the 2007 anime, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, Lordgenome claims that the Anti-Spirals are able to use something called a Schrödinger Warp, meaning they are everywhere and nowhere at the same time, but nobody knows where they are until they appear within regular Space-Time.
- The Futurama episode, "Law and Oracle" (2011), features an extended car chase scene in which Police Officer Fry apprehends Erwin Schrödinger, who is transporting a box containing "a cat, some poison und a cesium atom." When asked if the cat is alive or dead, Schrödinger responds that "it is a superposition of both states, until you open it and collapse the wave-function." Upon opening the box, Fry finds a living cat, who attacks him, while his partner discovers "there's also a lot of drugs in there." It is later revealed that the cat has agreed to testify against Schrödinger.
- In the 2011 anime, "Mawaru Penguindrum", Schrödinger's Cat is openly referenced.
- In Hellsing Schrodinger is a werewolf character that embodies the elements of the Schrodinger's cat principle in that he can be alive and/or dead, but it is more accurate to refer to his abilities as omnipresence, as so long as he knows himself he can be both anywhere and nowhere. This was established when Alucard blew Schrodinger's head off with his gun, only to find out moments later that he was already back at Major's command chair.
Film
- In Schrödingerskatze (2011), a short-film written, produced and directed by Jupiter de la Bâtardise, the plot is entirely based on this principle.
- In A Serious Man (2009), written by the Coen Brothers, protagonist Larry Gopnik mentions Schrödinger's Cat in a discussion about the unpredictability of future events.
- In Repo Men (2010), Jude Law's character mentions the Schrödinger's cat example in the beginning of the movie.
Video games
- In Digital Devil Saga, a game produced by Atlus, there is an enigmatic cat-like creature revealed to have some connection to God, whom the main character can see throughout the games. His name is 'Schrodinger'.
- In Wild Arms 3, the character of Shady the Cat, owned by a Maya Schrödinger, is based on Schrödinger's cat, and is claustrophobic as a result of the "experiment."
- In NetHack, one of the monsters encountered in this roguelike game is called 'Quantum Mechanic', which often carries a chest. The chest either contains a cat corpse, or causes a cat to appear. Reading the source code to the game also reveals that the game does not determine the state of the cat until the chest is opened.
- In pop'n music, a song titled Schrödinger's Cat was composed by Tomosuke Funaki for the arcade version of Pop'n Music 16 PARTY. It is accredited to being the first 43 in any arcade pop'n music game, the highest difficulty level in the series.
- In Rock Band, a daily battle of the bands was entitled Schrödinger's Cat. It featured the songs "Alive" by Pearl Jam, "Dead" by The Pixies and "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi.
- In Gundeadligne, the first stage is "Le chat noir de Schrödinger - Schrödinger's Black Cat", This stage's boss is called "Chatnoir", whose appearance is that of a Cat girl (nekomimi). [4]
- In Elements the Game, Schrodinger's Cat is an Entropy creature that has an ability Dead and Alive. This activates death effects without killing the cat.
- In the publicity web-comic for the Valve game Portal 2 the fate of the protagonist Chell is a reference to Schrodinger's Cat. Also GLaDOS mentions a "bring your cat to work day" and that she has the boxes and the neurotoxins (poison) and just needs the cats. There is also an achievement called Schrodinger's Catch in which the player catches a blue box before it touches the ground.
- In BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, after a fight between Tager and Lambda-11, during Tager's storyline, Kokonoe references Lambda-11 and Tager being similar to two Schrödinger's Cats.
- In Bioshock 2, Hidden within a mass of ice, there is a deceased cat, upon melting the ice and closely examining it the display reads Schrödinger.
- In Portal 2, One of the facts that the Fact Sphere lists reads, "The Schrodinger's cat paradox outlines a situation in which a cat in a box must be considered, for all intents and purposes, simultaneously alive and dead. Schrodinger created this paradox as a justification for killing cats"
Web comics
- One of the earlist xkcd strips, titled "Schrodinger," is based on Schrödinger's paradox[5]
- Dresden Codak features a Schrödinger strip[6]
- LukeSurl.com features a Charles Dickens and Schrödinger strip[7]
- Cyanide and Happiness features a "90% of the General Public Won't Understand Week", Strip with a reference to Schrödinger and his cat[8]
- The website Abstruse Goose features a series of comics "Schrödinger’s Miscalculation"[9][10][11]
- The Order of the Stick features a strip about "Schrödinger's Ninjas" in its first book.
- Questionable Content mentions Schrödinger's cat in its own absurd extrapolation from the Copenhagen interpretation[12]
- Zach Weiner's Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal features a one panel misunderstanding Schrödinger's Cat[13]
- Patrick Connelly's Schrödinger features comics around Schrödinger the cat[14]
- MS Paint Adventures, in an extra from the Problem Sleuth adventure, the Midnight Crew used Schrödinger's cat to deal with a meddlesome wasp.[15] The fate of Nepeta Leijon of Homestuck also references Schrödinger's cat.
- In Irregular Webcomic, the MythBusters test the Copenhagen interpretation by conducting the thought experiment in practice in these strips.
- Laika & Qubit is a weekly web comic featuring soviet space dog, Laika, and Schrödinger's cat, Qubit, on a surreal adventure by Paul K. Tunis.
Music
- Eyedea: On the "Infrared Roses" track from his 2001 CD, The Many Faces of Oliver Hart, Eyedea proclaims, "The curiosity that killed Schrödinger's cat was the only thing that kept it alive, matter of fact".
- Mark Rosengarten: On his 2007 CD, Schrodinger's Cat Strikes Back, this high-school chemistry teacher performs a song that humorously depicts Schrödinger's Cat getting her revenge for such a diabolical idea.
- Tears for Fears: The track titled, "Schrodinger's Cat", is featured as a B-side on Tears for Fears' single, "Break It Down Again".
- The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger: Sean Lennon (son of John) and Charlotte Kemp Muhl released a song entitled "Schroedinger's Cat" on their 2010 album "Acoustic Sessions." The lyrics apply principals from quantum mechanics to relationships with the line, "Can't be sure that I exist when you are not around."
- The song Love and Hatred by The Crüxshadows features the lyrics, "Can you hear the cat within the box, can you hear electrons moving free, watching something, watching nothing, in status somewhere in between..."
- Ukrainian underground metal-band Code Veronica released a song entitled "Shroedinger's Cat (feat. x_Remytia_x)" on their 2009 album "Теорія струн".
Merchandise
- The ecommerce website ThinkGeek sells a t-shirt based on the Schrödinger's cat experiment. One side of the shirt reads, "Schrödinger's cat is dead." The other side reads, "Schrödinger's cat is not dead." This parodies the concept of the cat being both dead and alive. The site also sells a shirt for women which reads "Hello Schroddy", and features a white box with a red bow, being a play on both Schrodinger's Cat and Hello Kitty. The description reads, "This might not be Hello Kitty. It might be Goodbye Kitty. We cannot possibly know without observing, and then we change the outcome."
- The website [ Shirt.Woot!] offered a psychedelic t-shirt based on the infamous cat.
- The website SnorgTees sells a shirt displaying a wanted poster that reads: "Schrodinger's Cat: Wanted Dead & Alive."
References
External links