Open the Schrödinger’s Cat Box
I was halfway through a quantum physics for beginner book and came across a Gedankenexperiment (German: “Thought Experiment”), called “Schrödinger’s Cat”. The experiment is to place a cat in a sealed box with a vial of poison and a radioactive source. There is a 50% chance that the radioactive source decays, which triggers the vial to shatter and release the poison that kills the cat.
According to the Copenhagen interpretation, as time passes, if the box remains closed, the cat exists in a superposition of alive and dead states. Until the moment we open and peek inside the box, the superposition collapses into one state or the other.
Confined in the Schrödinger’s box for the past twelve months, every day has been indeterminate. Sometimes, we feel alive and dead inside emotionally. One thing we know is in this short life, we will eventually collapse, end up dead, and lose everything. You might as well enjoy the privilege of being alive and be bold to try out something new or pursue a dream.
Another thing is that it is quite rare for a human to live for seventy years, ten as a child, ten as an old person, and that leaves fifty years. Half of that is night, which leaves twenty-five years. Considering bad weather, illness, and calamity, after all, how many good days can a person have left in his/her life? (This is inspired by a random clip that I watched a while ago but I can’t find the source.)
With a superposition of emotional states, we might stay alive, feel dead inside at the same time, and have many things that we do not understand now but if we invest time to explore and research, we will at least get something, an answer, or probably a miracle.
As the year wraps up, it is time to open Schrödinger’s box and reveal which state I am in. Hey, I am still alive for 2024!
