薛丁格的貓

Schrödinger wrote[2]:

One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter, there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer that shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.

It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a "blurred model" for representing reality. In itself, it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.

—Erwin Schrödinger, Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik (The present situation in quantum mechanics), Naturwissenschaften

(translated by John D. Trimmer in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society)

看到這邊，應該不會有人想繼續往下看>_<，全世界應該也只有少部分的人能了解這個思想實驗。簡單的說" 一隻貓被放在一個含有毒物罐的封閉箱子裡，這個毒物罐可能被打開也可能關著，而這隻貓的死活與毒物罐息息相關。然而箱子外的觀察者來說，這隻貓同時處於活狀態或死狀態，直到和子打開為止。" 也就是說我們看的這種在原子科學領域的不明確性，要透過直接觀察原子裡才能解除這個不明確性。

    一直以來，都蠻享受用比喻來描繪一件複雜的事情。對我而言，我就是站在箱子外的那個觀察著，我看到一個多重狀態交互作用所產生的外在現象，就像是同時處於活狀態及死狀態的貓。譬如，某支股票大漲，我看到的其實市場交互作用後的結果，股票漲則是外在表現。又譬如說一個project delay 了，這是原物料來不及進貨，資訊溝通不良等眾多因素交互作用所造成的現象。

    我們的眼睛，大多看到外在的表現。如果外在的表現是結果，那我們是否該打開箱子去了解一下貓的狀態。如果外在表現，只是過程的一部分，那一隻多重態的貓可否跟另一隻多重態的貓產生一種新的狀態呢?

    大師 Peter Drucker 對高等教育體制評論時曾說過" 他看見了未來高等教育的危機，只是現在還沒有人看見" 就是說，他看見一件將發生卻沒有被看見的事情。我的眼睛，一直從各個不同的角度看著這世界外在一切的表現；就像從外面各個角度去觀察這個箱子，應該說很多個箱子。也的確好奇打開一些箱子看到了貓。也有過將箱子連結的經歷。對我來說，將看到的一切寫下來，是個很好整理思考的方式。也許有一天，藉由自己看見及思考，也能看見一些將發生卻未被看見的事，這樣也能簡單的向彼得大師邁進一步。

Benjamin

[1] 照片出處

[2] Wiki Schrödinger's cat