Schrodinger's Cat is Alive and Dead

 

 

Schrodinger’s cat is…?

How can we logically express the uncertainty of Schrodinger’s mental experiment, where it is not determinable whether the cat is alive or dead? It would be usual to say “either the cat is alive or dead” but this does not satisfy those who hanker after a third possibility not expressible under the restrictions of the tertium non datur. This paradoxical situation can be expressed by combining the two propositions: p: “Schrodinger’s cat is alive” and ~p: “Schrodinger’s cat is dead” into a single, encrypted proposition. This proposition can then be decrypted into p by applying ~p and vice versa as shown below. The combined proposition has no meaning in English but can be interpreted as representing neither p nor ~p that is to say it represents the state p and ~p.

The encrypted proposition is:

The proposition is derived as shown below by representing p and ~p by means of hexadecimal

numbers, which are then combined by addition. The decryptions are accomplished by subtracting the hexadecimal strings for p and ~p respectively, and then converting the result to characters.

s ¶ Ë Ú á Ó Í × Õ Ì × ™ š “ ƒ Ä Õ ” ‰ Ü “ Ð Î × É

S c h r o d i n g e r ' s c a t i s a l i v e

83 99 104 114 111 100 105 110 103 101 114 39 115 32 99 97 116 32 105 115 32 97 108 105 118 101

S c h r o d i n g e r ' s c a t i s d e a d

32 83 99 104 114 111 100 105 110 103 101 114 39 115 32 99 97 116 32 105 115 32 100 101 97 100 115 182 203 218 225 211 205 215 213 204 215 153 154 147 131 196 213 148 137 220 147 129 208 206 215 201

s ¶ Ë Ú á Ó Í × Õ Ì × ™ š “ ƒ Ä Õ ” ‰ Ü “ Ð Î × É

32 83 99 104 114 111 100 105 110 103 101 114 39 115 32 99 97 116 32 105 115 32 100 101 97 100 83 99 104 114 111 100 105 110 103 101 114 39 115 32 99 97 116 32 105 115 32 97 108 105 118 101

The End