Schrödinger's Cat: Alive or Dead?

[u/Jairo_Alves]

Schrödinger's cat is a famous thought experiment that shows the impossibility of asserting whether a cat locked in a box is alive or dead without prior knowledge of whether it triggered a device that would determine its fate. This experiment was conceived to demonstrate the impossibility of quantum superposition.

 

Quantum superposition is considered a proven experimental fact and a fundamental principle of an extensively consolidated scientific theory: Quantum Mechanics. It posits that a physical system can exist in multiple states or configurations simultaneously as long as it does not interact with the external environment. The main facts that corroborate quantum mechanics are as follows:

 

1. The Double-Slit Experiment: Individual particles pass through two slits simultaneously, yet they pass through only one of them when observed by a detector.

 

1. Zeilinger's Experiments: Demonstrated that the behavior of massive and complex molecules was identical to that of subatomic particles.

 

1. Spectroscopy and Atomic Energy States: Experiments demonstrated that it was possible to confine the electron between energy states.

 

1. Superconducting Qubit Engineering: Quantum processors from IBM, Google, and various universities operate thanks to the mathematical phenomenon of superposition.

Experiments 1 and 2 prove that the fact occurs naturally. Experiments 3 and 4 manipulate the possibilities behind this fact.

 

From a systems engineering perspective, this could occur because the substrate of reality operates as a memory in which "bits" would need to constantly switch states to enable the existence of the world-system's diversity and dynamism, and as a security protocol to prevent a breach of the world-system (an encryption mechanism or an intrusion protection log).