Is it ‘Schrödinger’s Cat’...or Homer’s?

Erwin Schrödinger (ES) is famous for many things but none more than his ‘existential cat’, perpetually suspended, like a certain Danish prince, between  life and death. “To be or not to be” takes on a whole new meaning in Quantum  Mechanics (QM): "To be and not to be."

According to the canons of QM, the biological status of ES’ puss is unknown,  and therefore, undetermined…until it is somehow ‘measured’. Being  ‘observed’ in this way forces the quantum to declare itself. Like many  millennials, quanta abhor commitment. They prefer to keep their options  open right up to the end. 

Measurement does not determine the cat’s fate, nor does it simply reveal  what is already a fait accompli. Rather, it forces the quantum ‘to decide’, to  determine its own fate and declare it publicly. 

Riddle: How is a science lab like a casino? Try your luck at roulette. You can  bet that the ball will land on a black space (vs. red) or on an even number (vs.  odd) or you can bet that it will land on some specific number. Unless your casino is crooked, your wager will not affect the outcome of the spin, but it  does determine that there is an outcome. (The croupier will not spin the wheel  until at least one player has placed a bet.) 

Prior to the spin, all possible outcomes, weighted on a probability curve, exist  in superposition. After the spin, only one outcome remains, and its probability  is 100%. 

The outcome is not just unknown prior to the spin, it is undetermined. Your bet  and the croupier’s spin simply ensure that there will be an outcome.  Dasein (that it is), not Wassein (what it is) – Heidegger. In the same way, the  croupier at CERN fires up the particle accelerator and collapses Schrödinger’s 

wave function by measuring it. The spin of a wheel at Bellagio is functionally  equivalent to the read-out on a dial at CERN.  

You’re 10 years old (too young to be betting in casinos) and your coach offers  to take you and your teammates to Baskin-Robbins after the ‘big game’; you  immediately and instantaneously sample all 31 flavors in your head. Based on  past history at BR, you are more likely to choose Pralines’n Cream than Wild’n  Reckless Sherbet, but at this point, all options are still on the table.  

When you arrive at the shop, you let your teammates order first. You want to  keep those options open as long as possible. You’re in a dilemma: you cannot  taste any ice cream until you commit, but once you do, 30 ‘virtual’ tastes  disappear. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, even with a spoonful of Rocky Road to  make the medicine go down. 

Finally your coach intervenes, “Order now or get nothing!” And so you do; you  blurt out your decision, “Strawberry Cheesecake please.” (Desperate as you  are, you remember your manners.) But you surprise yourself, you’ve never had  this flavor before, and heck, you’re only 10, you’ve never even tasted a  cheesecake before. 

Immediately, you regret your decision, “Why did I order this?” But you dare not  reverse that decision and risk getting nothing. The loss of 30 potential tastes is  devastating…until your first actual lick. OMG, it’s delicious! All other flavors  vanish from your mind. You made the right choice after all, and now you have  a new ‘favorite flavor’. Of course, had you ordered Nutty Coconut instead, nothing would have been any different. 

‘Schrodinger’s Cat’ is a brilliant thought experiment. Like ‘Zeno’s Tortoise’, it  makes a good pet for the long run. Erwin Schroedinger is certainly a worthy recipient of the Nobel Prize. But when Sweden called, there was no mention of his debt to Homer, the blind poet of the Eastern Mediterranean, c. 8th century  BCE.

Turns out, Homer had already conducted the exact same thought experiment in his Odyssey. Schrödinger merely showed that Homer’s model  was applicable to Quantum Mechanical phenomena. 

For all his brilliance, ES was upstaged by a poet of all things! Whispers of  ‘plagiarism’ filled the air in the Faculty Lounge that day, along with more than  the usual click-clacking of slide rules.  

Let’s set the stage: Penelope is the wife of the King of Ithaca, Odysseus, hero  of the Trojan War. Odysseus failed to return from Troy with the rest of the  Greek armada and Penelope is under tremendous pressure to declare her  husband dead so that she can marry one of her many parasitic suitors. 

But Penelope is not just the wife of some warrior; she has a mythological  identity all her own. Truth to tell, she is higher up the ontological food chain  than her husband. Part of the multi-cultural tradition of Indo-Persian Norns, she is ‘one who weaves the fate of the world on her loom’. We encounter  Norns in the Norse Edda, in the ‘Scottish Play’ (three witches), in Wagner’s  Ring, and elsewhere in Indo-European culture. 

As Penelope weaves, history unfolds. When she finishes, the fate of Odysseus  will be a settled matter of fact, and she will have no choice but to declare him dead. She will be ‘free at last’ (i.e. she will have ‘nothing left to lose’ – Janice  Joplin) - free to marry one of her suitors, doesn’t matter which one, and she dreads it.  

Penelope’s weaving converts potentiality, hope, into actuality, despair. But as  long as she continues weaving, she ‘keeps hope alive’ (Jesse Jackson).  Odysseus may yet return to Ithaca. History remains in suspense. 

So she hatches a brilliant scheme. Every day she weaves but every night she  unravels her prior day’s work. She obstructs the course of history; she  suspends the flow of time. Odysseus’ fate remains undetermined. He may still  be alive; he may yet return. He’s not dead until Penelope says he’s dead. 

Does Odysseus, adventuring around the Mediterranean, taking advantage of  an archipelago of ‘all-inclusives’, have any idea how much he owes his wife?

Each day, she recreates the wrinkle in time that allows Odysseus the  additional space he needs to ‘find himself’, i.e. to find his way back home. Penelope gives Odysseus the luxury of a ‘gap decade’. 

Penelope is the real hero of Homer’s Odyssey just as Molly Bloom is in James  Joyce’s retelling. They are the Norns whose weaving holds together the fabric  of their worlds. They are the homing beacons that tether Odysseus and Leopold to the real world. 

But even Homer was upstaged…but by none other than God himself. The  opening verses of Genesis describe cosmic superposition metaphorically: 

“…The earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a  mighty wind sweeping over the waters.”  

The primordial interaction with God, a transcendent consciousness, forces  the Cosmic Wave Packet to collapse, revealing a specific value, i.e. a photon,  light, triggering cosmogenesis and kindling the chain reaction that has so far  resulted in the Universe we have today. 

So perhaps the cat is neither Schrödinger’s nor Homer’s. Perhaps it is God’s.  In any case, it makes a great pet.

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Franz Marc’s Two Cats, Blue and Yellow (1912) depicts two vividly colored cats reclining together, rendered in Marc’s signature bold hues and simplified geometric shapes. The complementary colors—cool blue and warm yellow—create a visual and emotional tension that expresses harmony and duality between calm introspection and alert vitality. Through color symbolism and abstraction, Marc elevates the domestic animals into spiritual beings that embody his belief in the purity and instinctive innocence of nature.