• mathemachristian@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago
    Extreme dork doing an ackshually alert

    This is not a case of “Schrödingers cat” because which field is the bomb and which is empty is already determined. The information is present in the memory of the program prior to the observation. Schrödingers cat is a paradox about a quantum superposition where two states exist simultaneously but are collapsed into a definite one by the act of observation. The cats fate is tied to the states of this quantum and therefore prior to observation the cat is both alive and dead, since both states exist simultaneously. It is only after observation that the definite state is determined.

    • elrik@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The game could be programmed in such a way that the state isn’t determined ahead of time.

      Or you, the player, the computer and the game state could all be in the infinitely branching, never collapsing wave function of the many-world hypothesis where every outcome exists.

    • xionzui@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      But the state of the cat is also already determined in a real experiment because it is linked to the outside through air and the walls of the box via vibrations and temperature. Probably even through photons coming off the cat hitting the box. I don’t know if there’s any way to fully disentangle it from the experimenter. This theoretical cat superposition only exists as a thought experiment

      • mathemachristian@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Right, it’s meant to extrapolate the idea of two states existing simultaneously from the very abstract mathematical formulas used to express it into something more comprehensible to show the absurdity of the idea.

    • MightyGalhupo@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Shut up, the joke is that you have no way to know which is which (and from my experience, the one with the mine is whichever one you choose, kinda like dropping bread with butter and the butter is always the side that hits the ground)

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      schrodingers comment: if I don’t read it, did you make it?

      we need to make more memes mocking the abuse of this concept

    • Mango@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      You’re wrong. Quantum isn’t how the world is, but how the mathematical model is. The superposition is “we don’t know yet because we haven’t looked”. The truth is present in reality just like minesweeper’s information is present in memory.