X-Envelope-to: politics@ohstvma.bitnet
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Thu, 23 Jul 1992 21:56:00 EDT
From:         "push the button, frank!" <SWEDE@DRYCAS.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: pavlov's dog vs. schrodinger's cat

(Gary walks back on stage, with his head bandaged up and a slightly dazed
look in his eyes.  The press watches with interest, while peanut vendors
patrol the aisles.  Gary steps up to the microphone and speaks).

"Hey, uh, is this thing on?  Um, I just wanted to say that Tim is correct
in saying that it's not true that the cat is both alive and dead, and that
it involves a superimposition of states which include the 'live cat' and
'dead cat'.  In one possible universe or eigenstate, the cat is still
alive, but in another equally probable universe, the cat is dead.  So, the
cat is *neither* alive *nor* dead - rather, it is a combination of all
possibilities.

"The point of all this is that boolean logic only allows two possible
outcomes, and is ill-equipped to deal with questions to which the best
answer can be summed up as 'maybe'.  I phrased my question to Travis as
one with only two possible outcomes (alive or dead), because I wanted to
demonstrate that boolean logic has very little to do with more complex
problems, like the Schrodinger's Cat paradox, economics, the abortion issue,
and so on.  Many times, issues are presented as black & white, 'if-you're-
not-part-of-the-solution-you're-part-of-the-problem' things, rather than
problems that will have different solutions for different groups.  While
quantum mechanics may someday find a way to reduce that wave function to
a single observed state, I highly doubt that Travis or anyone else will
manage a similar feat with the various political eigenstates they aren't
all that fond of.

"I have time for one quick question from the audience.  Yes, Linda?"

>i know this isn't very high-brow, but after interval t and also after the toxic
>gas dissipated, i would just go in and check the cat out...you know if i picked
>it up and dropped it and it landed on all 4's like a good cat and then took off
>for the hills, well i'd say, yup, that cat's kicking. but if it just landed wit
   h
>all 4's pointin up and stayed in that position awhile i'd say, yup, deader'n
>a door nail.

"That's true, you could.  However, the outcome is different every time, and
does not answer the question, to the satisfaction of pure boolean logic, if
the cat is dead or alive, without verifying the outcome empirically. By opening
the chamber, or making any determination of the cat's condition, the collapse
of the wave function is brought about - the ambiguity represented by a
superimposition of different states always collapses into a single actuality.
The fact that quantum mechanics is not currently able to give an account for
this collapse is seen by Tim and many other physicists as a sign that quantum
theory is incomplete, although that is not the only conclusion that has come
from this fascinating paradox.

"My main point, as I stated above, was more philosophical than scientific.
Indeed, that's what the subject line indicates: pavlov's dog, representing
a boolean, deterministic view of reality, vs. schrodinger's cat, representing
a more ambiguous, probabilistic view.  Both have value in evaluating our
surroundings and the political and social problems we face, and to rely on
one to the exclusion of the other is to reject a method of understanding
them.

"Now, you'll have to excuse me...I must be running..."  (Gary ducks as two
spin doctors try to gang tackle him, and he sprints off the stage into the
street, pursued by Tim, more spin doctors, knowledgable high school
geometry teachers, and scads of physicists, while it starts raining cats
and dogs, and Neils Bohr walks by muttering something about maps...)

Gary W. Olson                 "If the perception is nonordinary, then
SWEDE@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU   reality is nonordinary." - Fritjof Capra,
                                                      "The Tao of Physics"
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU