this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2025
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In the reflection, the box appears to have a cat in it. There is no cat in the original (right side) box.
This is a joke on the famous "Schrödinger's cat", a thought experiment about quantum superposition where a cat inside a box is both alive and dead at the same time, up until the moment someone looks into the box.
To me as a layman, this sounds like utter hogwash, so it's funny because it "proves" the experiment as best as it can be proven (which is not at all).
I suspect many theoretical physicists think the same way, but they've learned these equations that tell them they need to believe this hogwash. Let's spare a thought for their troubled souls...
Ive kinda got beef with it. Its the same parable as "if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around does it make a sound?" Yes, it does. Even if its a tree falling 9 galaxies over it makes a sound if there is an atmosphere and its heavy enough. You think all these planets and shit are just soundless all the time because no one is around? Hogwash., bufooonery, turpentine!
You're not alone brother, Einstein himself had beef with quantum mechanics (as did most of the guys who developed the whole field, AFAIK).
His famous quote "god doesn't play dice" isnt about destiny or religion or something. It's specifically about this, about how the universe is mostly deterministic (the tree DOES make a sound, the cat IS alive OR dead) except in quantum physics where things supposedly are random and based on probability? Hogwash.
Proving that it is hogwash, however, is a Nobel prize and a ticket to immortality...
A picture of the thought experiment is not a joke. What's the joke here?
Or are people laughing at haha cat?
Schrödinger's cat itself is a meme (https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/schrodingers-cat), did you not know?