Free Will 327 - | Ue ny, | Ss 5 NS, a ae. = V = = _- = Schrédinger’s Cat - both Alive and Dead Since radioactive decay is a quantum event, we have to assume it might or might not have happened right up until the point of measurement. It is the same with any quantum event: photons reflecting from a piece of glass, measuring the spin of an electron or measuring the polarization of a photon. All these quantum effects exist in superposition until measured. But in the real world, we don't experience superposition. If I miss the train, I miss it. I don’t partially catch it and partially miss it, and I don’t experience any such quantum ambiguity. The only place I ever see such effects is watching science fiction movies. In real life the large scale world is certain. At what point does this quantum uncertainty transition to our classical certainty? What is the state of the cat before I - a sentient observer — open the box? Was the result of the decay measured by the Geiger counter, the cat, or are we waiting for someone to open the box and observe the result? The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics — named after the main center of early quantum theory at the Niels Bohr Institute — says the cat is both alive and dead until I make a measurement. The cat is said to be in superposition, meaning a live cat and a dead cat inhabit the same volume of space-time ‘experiencing’ both alternatives and waiting for my measurement. This seems nonsensical, but Copenhagen quantum folk simply say, “That’s the way it is; the mathematics works, if you don't like it, tough. Nature does not have to explain herself? Einstein strongly disagreed with this position. He believed the world is certain and laws must govern radioactive decay and, therefore, the breaking of the vial and the life and death of the cat. There must be some, as yet, undiscovered theory. He reasoned as follows: A particle HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016017