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Title: Schrodinger's Cat Paradox Marks 90 Years as Quantum Question Endures
Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/02/0...
A thought experiment involving a cat trapped in a steel box with a
potentially lethal device, first proposed by physicist Erwin Schrodinger in
1935, remains at the center of scientific and philosophical debate as it
marks its 90th anniversary. The paradox, initially published in a technical
review of quantum mechanics, presented a scenario where a cat could
theoretically exist in a superposition of states -- both alive and dead
simultaneously -- until observed, highlighting profound questions about
quantum reality. "Schrodinger understood that under no circumstances could
his cat be considered to be both alive and dead at the same time," science
writer Jim Baggott noted in a recently published essay. Baggott co-authored
"Quantum Drama: From the Bohr-Einstein Debate to the Riddle of Entanglement"
in 2024. The thought experiment gained cultural traction largely through
science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin's 1974 short story "Schrodinger's Cat,"
which wrestled with the paradox's philosophical implications. This sparked
widespread appearances across literature, film, and television. The paradox
continues to divide physicists between those accepting quantum mechanics as a
mathematical framework for prediction and others, like Einstein and
Schrodinger himself, who considered the theory fundamentally incomplete.
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