\nIt gave us the only use for the html blink tag which shouldn’t be punishable
\nby death – observe:
\n
![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/shroedinger.png?w=850\")
<\/p>\nThe perfect name for a temporary boolean variable…<\/p>\n
Actually, it refers to possibly the most misunderstood theory in the history
\nof quantum physics.
\nIt all started as a thought experiment by Shroedinger (the physicist), who
\nsuggested the following:
\nSay you have a cat in a box.
\nThe box is hooked up to poison gas source.
\nThat in turn is controlled by a switch, which is activated if the quantum
\nstate of an atom is 1 and not 0.<\/p>\n
Now, because of Heisenberg, if you try to SEE what the quantum state is,
\nyou’ll change it ! Because quantum states decay, it will change over time,
\nbut you cannot predict WHEN it will happen – and kill the cat.<\/p>\n
So until you look in the box – is the cat dead or alive ?<\/p>\n
Shroedinger’s intention was to prove that a Grand Unified Theory of physics
\nwould not explain or predict the entire universe – a cat can only be either
\ndead or alive, but even though you’ve simplified it to a system where a
\nsingle particle quantum state determines this – you nevertheless cannot
\npredict the final outcome.<\/p>\n
Then a bunch of physicists who didn’t like this, met up in Bern and held a big
\nconference about Shroedinger’s cat. Is it alive ? Is it dead ?
\nEventually they decided: well bugger this, we must be able to predict. So they
\ninvented a new state. Saying that until you look the cat is BOTH alive and
\ndead and everything in between. This is known as the Bern convention.<\/p>\n
This has had a huge impact on quantum physics, not the least of which was to
\nlead to a whole lot of otherwizse sane scientists inventing the multiverse
\ntheory – which would be almost fine if it didn’t basically imply that with
\nevery decision you make you create a new universe – all of us !
\nIt’s a sort of an ultimate science-making-man-god thing, where there must now
\nexist a universe in which I did not click send !<\/p>\n
Shroedinger himself callled the Bern Convention “nothing less than a cop-out”<\/p>\n
All of which brings us to the single best outcome of the whole thing.
\nIt gave us the only use for the html blink tag which shouldn’t be punishable
\nby death – observe:
\n<\/p>\n
(Note most modern browsers no longer have a working blink tag, but in older days that would have worked if it was in html).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is meant to be funny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aj-venter","category-uncategorical"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-du","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":546,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/02\/12\/time-travel\/","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":0},"title":"Time Travel","author":"nathaniel","date":"12 February 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Am doing some research for a lecture I have to give on Tuesday about Experimental Film theory and aesthetics in 12 Monkeys, and I found this interesting article: Time Travel . So, he lost me on the last two paragraphs, but the rest is really interesting. It's a cool adaptation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "pop culture"","block_context":{"text":"pop culture","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/pop-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1196,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/04\/latest-artthrob\/","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":1},"title":"latest ArtThrob","author":"nathaniel","date":"04 June 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest issue of ArtThrob is live (\"South Africa's leading contemporary visual arts publication\"), and I have to say how impressed I've been with the new Johannesburg editor, Michael Smith, over the last few months. We've never met, but his reviews are thoughtful, thorough, descriptive and critically engaged - what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2003\/04\/22\/sad-day-for-research-that-promises-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":2},"title":"sad day for research that promises change","author":"nathaniel","date":"22 April 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"The Latest Theory Is That Theory Doesn't Matter. Could this possibly be for real? (need free subscription) I know we are in dire straights and all, and we are yet again (thanks Mr. Bush) looking for simplified \"answers\" instead of posing good questions, but how could big names like Henry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":769,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/09\/14\/a-dead-cat\/","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":3},"title":"a dead cat","author":"kaganof","date":"14 September 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "kaganof"","block_context":{"text":"kaganof","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/old-categories\/kaganof\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":772,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/09\/15\/a-dead-cat-context\/","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":4},"title":"a dead cat (context)","author":"kaganof","date":"15 September 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "kaganof"","block_context":{"text":"kaganof","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/old-categories\/kaganof\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":776,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/09\/16\/a-dead-cat-close\/","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":5},"title":"a dead cat (close)","author":"kaganof","date":"16 September 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "kaganof"","block_context":{"text":"kaganof","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/old-categories\/kaganof\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}