Who’s Afraid of Schrodinger’s Cat

Schrodinger’s cat is the symbol of the new physics. Conceived by quantum theorist Erwin Schrodinger to illustrate the apparently insoluble conundrums associated with quantum reality, the cat has become a symbol of much that seems unfathomable in 20th-century science. Schrodinger’s cat lives in an opaque box with a fiendish device, triggered by the random decay of a radioactive sample, that determines whether the cat is fed food or poison. If a decay particle hits one switch, the cat gets food; if it hits the other it gets poison. Since in the quantum world all possibilities co-exist, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time. Aimed at the law reader, this study explores the key concepts of modern science – chaos theory, the uncertainty principle, relativity and quantum physics – ideas that fall beyond the realms of common sense, but lie at the heart of 20th-century science and philosophy. It highlights fresh ways of thinking that are required to approach these concepts, as well as revealing new ways of looking at ourselves, and at humanity’s place in the world and the universe. Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall are the authors of “The Quantum Self” and “The Quantum Society”.