I don't know if I believe in the Schrödinger's Cat theory, a well known theory to illustrate the importance of the Observer effect. Those familiar with the theory can certainly recall how the cat is locked up inside of a box with no way of those on the outside to view, hear, or measure what's going on inside. With the cat is a vile of some toxic, radioactive material. If that cat gets into this vile, the cat will surely die.
Understanding what's inside of the box without being able to gauge the outcome, Schrödinger argues that the cat is both alive and dead. This is because the human element hasn't imposed the observer effect by opening up the box and confirming what is there.
But I think the Schrödinger's Cat theory suggests the human element to have way more importance than what we really have. Just because we can't see, hear, measure or detect in any way, it doesn't mean the reality doesn't exist. I'm surprised people haven't created a list of a dozen or more realities in that box. The cat could be sitting there, meowing, while waiting for its owner to open the box. The cat could be sleeping because its bored. The cat might also have been so frightened from being trapped in a box that it died of a hear attack. We can take it even further and say that while opening up the box, we inadvertently broke the vile which killed the cat. But regardless of the countless scenarios we come up with, there is still a definite reality in that box that we simply are unaware of.
If we religiously followed the Schrödinger's Cat theory, we could declare any number of realities to exist or not exist simply because we haven't confirmed them. In a dramatic example, we could say that your loved one has driven off in a car to--say--the store or any arbitrary place. A minute or two later, you hear emergency vehicles. Then, fifteen minutes later, you get a phone call which shows on caller ID as coming from the police. If you refuse to answer the phone and refuse to confirm whether or not your loved one was tragically killed in an automobile accident; then, according to Schrödinger, your loved one is both alive and dead. And I suppose if you favor the the reality of your loved one being alive, you can simply go with that one.
Oh, but a day or two passes (assuming the police or anyone else is unable to reach you) and your loved one hasn't returned home. You haven't received a telephone call, text message, email or even letter. I suppose you can theorize that your loved one simply ran away without telling you. Or maybe they simply got lost and were unable to find their way back home. There are any number of possibilities to explain why your loved one is missing. But it certainly wouldn't have anything to do with that car crash and the police trying to reach you.
The reality is, (KNOCK AND WOOD AND GOD FORBID THIS FROM LEAKING OUTSIDE OF THE WRITING) your loved one has died in a car crash. You simply refuse to see the truth. And no matter how much you try, you do not have the power to focus on an alternative reality, harness some mystical energy so that your loved one is still alive.
***
Some years ago, I went for a hike in the forest on a winter day shortly after we had just received a large amount of snow. This particular forest preserve was one that I had visited when I was younger. And something I remember in those past visits was a rusty, old Jeep that had been overturned and laying at the bottom of a ravine.
"Hey, maybe I should hike over there and see if it's still there."
I hiked about five minutes, and saw some rectangular mass buried beneath the fresh, fallen snow.
"There it is!"
I climbed down steep ravine and crossed over the frozen creek only to discover that the rectangular mass was a pile of logs buried in snow. The old Jeep had been removed from the forest at some point in the years that I hadn't visited.
I wonder if there are those who argue that had I not gone down to the ravine to confirm the existence of the jeep, dusted off the snow and touched it with my hands, that the reality of it existing down there would still be true. I've often wondered this myself. And yet I prefer to believe that regardless of whether or not I went down there, the Jeep was gone. I simply didn't take a closer look to confirm. If I went home, satisfied, that I found the Jeep during my hike in the woods, it wouldn't actually be there.
