Kitty and Tom Wonder Outside the Box

Kitty and Tom Wonder Outside the Box

Tom: “Trapped in the box of quantum time, aren't we all Schrodinger's cat?”

Kitty: “I was alive last time someone checked.”

Tom: “Kitty, if we are all cats IN the box, who opened the box and checked? And how did you know that the box had been opened? And, if you weren't the person who opened the box, how do you know that the opener found you alive?” 

Kitty: “I guess I'd have a 50% chance of being alive and therefore seeing who was opening my box, right?” 

Tom: “Nope. According to Schrodinger that's not the way the box works. The cat exists simultaneously both dead and alive. It's state is not determined until it is observed by an Observer. When observed, it will then resolve into one of the two states, but the odds are not necessarily 50/50. Observation by a like thing, i.e., another cat in the box, does not force the observed cat into the resolution of its status. It is only when the box is opened by an outside observer that the cat's status is resolved. But, the observed cat may not even be aware that the box has been opened or that it has been observed. So, regardless of the odds, even if your box has been opened and you have been observed and you are still alive, you may not even know that the box was opened, let alone see who opened it. Taking this a step further, might we not say that the box is opened and an observation is made every time one of the cats dies? But yet who has seen the Box Opening Observer (BOO for short)? But, since we are all in the box, both those dead and alive by our observation, are, actually under Schrodinger's idea, both still simultaneously still dead and alive. In our limited experience every time the BOO has ever opened the box (with maybe one exception?) a cat's status has been resolved in favor of death (unless we were to consider birth as the BOO observing the cat to life, but that's a rabbit trail we shall not run here and now). But who is to say that it will always be so? That it will always be the case that when the BOO opens the box that a cat within the box will be perceived by its co-cats to die. Might it not be, considering the flexibility of quantum mechanics, that "eventually" (to the extent that time concepts can apply outside the box of quantum time) when the BOO opens the box, that the cat's inside discover that rather than a perceived living cat dying, that the perceived dead cats have actually resolved their states to life? Maybe when that happens, the BOO will leave the lid off.”

Kitty: “But does the cat really exist in both states? How can one know without observation?  And observation may or may not change the thing being observed. According to Heisenberg's principle, it does, of course....”

Tom: “And that raises a whole 'nother realm for speculation: When the BOO opens the lid and observes you, how do you change other than a change of state?”

Kitty: “Did the opening of the box move me physically a hair left or right? There are other ways to change....” 
Tom: “Ah, but that's the point Kitty, can we even know if we are changed, let alone how? Just as a general proposition if one cat dies every time the box opens, isn't it inevitable that, even if nothing else changes all the cats, that one death does?” 

Kitty: “I don't know!!” 

Tom: “Neither do I.  But I suspect that it does.”

Kitty: “And I suspect you are right. How cool - this has always been one of those side interests of mine..!” 

Tom: “St. Silouan the Athonite taught that all of humanity is a single essence and that each person is a hypostatic expression of that unified essence and, hence, anything that happens to any human happens to all. Maybe the same applies to cats in the box.” 

Kitty: “I think that is true. That's why we have to treat each other with more respect - we're all part of us.”