Cat in a box

Who is Schrodinger's cat? Arguably the world's most famous purely hypothetical feline. Never lived, but some say he's both dead and alive. At the same time. Ask your nearest physicist.

Erwin Schrodinger was a Nobel winning German physicist who died in 1961. The cat was part of a thought experiment he devised to explain one of the fundamental ideas of modern physics: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

Shorn of jargon, the Uncertainty Principle says something very simple: the act of measuring something changes the result of that measurement. Heisenberg showed that simultaneously determining both the position of an electron and the speed at which it is moving is impossible. If you can measure its speed accurately, that measurement will itself make its location wildly uncertain. And vice versa.

Put another way, measurement decides the state of the electron.

This is not such an esoteric idea. Examples abound, and not just among electrons. Imagine an anthropologist visiting a remote tribal village to study its inhabitants. His very presence disturbs the villagers, who will behave differently with this stranger in their midst. So by simply observing, the anthropologist affects what he wants to observe; and thus can never hope to get a true picture of life there.

This is all very well with tiny particles nobody can see anyway, and maybe also with distant tribals. But what about everyday objects around us? What about, say, cats?

Well, that very question occured to Schrodinger. His famous thought experiment goes something like this. Let's say we have a sealed box with a cat in it. Also in the box is a device that can randomly emit marbles. In the course of a minute, the chances are exactly 50-50 that it emits one. If it does, the marble breaks a vial and releases a poisonous gas into the box. Kitty is instantly asphyxiated. Otherwise, nothing happens.

We put the box somewhere far away, where we have no way to tell what's going on inside it. Suppose we turn on the device for exactly one minute. Question: what happens to the cat?

It must seem like a trivial question. The answer is that we don't know. We cannot predict whether a marble was actually emitted. So we don't know if the cat is alive or dead.

But if we walk up to the box and open it to hear -- let's hope -- the loud miaow of a very puzzled cat, only then do we actually know that it has survived its uncertain ordeal.

Before then, the best we can say about the cat is the non-sequitur that it is either alive or dead. But that's not really such a non-sequitur. It is entirely consistent with the laws of physics to think of the cat, before we open its box, as being both alive and dead, with a probability of 50 per cent for each state. Here's the point of the experiment: our act of opening the box and observing the cat -- taking a measurement, in other words -- is what puts the cat definitely into one of those states.

Cat, alive.

So what's the point, you want to know. What's so earth-shaking about this cat shut in a box?

There are many points, actually: the effect of measurement, the idea of uncertainty, the fact of indeterminacy (of that, perhaps another time). But probably the deepest and yet simplest point is this interesting view of the world: reality takes shape only when, precisely when, we sense it. Until then, it's uncertain. That's the Principle.

The anthropologist gets a picture of tribal behaviour only when he actually observes them, even if that changes the way they behave. We really know the fate of that poor cat only when we open Schrodinger's box.

All of us have wondered on these lines. Is my image in a mirror really there if I cannot see the mirror -- if I've turned my back to it, for example? Does a tree falling in a forest make a sound, if nobody is there to hear it?

Is there reality without observation, existence without consciousness?

Schrodinger's cat showed that the laws of physics might answer that last question with "no". That may be too extreme a view for most people's tastes, people who believe reality surrounds them without needing to be looked at. Then again, Schrodinger's cat wasn't real himself.

Nayee Kavita

Nayee Kavita
Phir sagar manthan hua
Nikala amrith,rantanaaagar, aur vish
Devata ne liya amrith

danav ne ratanaagar
Bacha hua vish rah gaya
shiv nahi aayae pine vish
wahi vish manav ne baant liya

             --Written by Pravin Chandra

Today Diary

Today's Diary Today I am feeling very bad for the lack of aggression. Everyone should have certain level of aggression, power and sense to apply it wherever it required. Many times some odd situation comes and we get fumbled. We failed to do what we wanted to do. In some cases we lose respect, money and remains shattered with the thought of retaliation only. We should of-course be knowledgeable, polite but not coward and funked.

This was not a good week for me. I was low in spirit and was feeling very lonely, weak indeed I was very upset with me because of my incapability to do something. I categorize myself as a generous, amiable person having lots of respect for ethics. But when somebody try to take unethical benefit and granted from my simplicity then I found its really unbearable especially when I couldn't voiced against it. Point is that this world is full of cunning, cruel people. Even though you don't harm him they will attack on you for fun. I am not saying that we should also become like them, but we should always prepared to face those kind of persons. Its possible only when we will make ourself rich, powerful, influential.

The Triple Filter Test

In ancient Greece, scholar and intellectual, Dr. Socrates was reputed to
hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great
philosopher and said,
"Do you know what I just heard about one of your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Dr. Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd
like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?" asked the man.

"That's right," Dr. Socrates continued.

"Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a
moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple
filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that
what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and wanted to tell it to
you"

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not.
Now let's try the second filter, the filter of goodness. Is what you are
about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"No, on the contrary, it is bad "

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but
you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, Because
there's one filter left: the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell
me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really." Replied the man.

"Well," concluded Dr. Socrates, if what you want to tell me is neither true,
nor good, and nor even useful to me, why tell it to me at all ."

Thank you for everything

Thank you for everything

Alan Cohen


The story is told about a woman Zen master named Sono who taught one very simple method of enlightenment. She advised everyone who came to her to adopt an affirmation to be said many times a day, under all conditions. The affirmation was, “Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.”
Many people from all arenas of life came to Sono for healing. Some were in physical pain; others were emotionally distraught; others had financial troubles; some were seeking soul liberation. No matter what their distress or what question they asked her, her response was the same: “Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.” Some people went away disappointed; others grew angry; others tried to argue with her. Yet some people took her suggestion to heart and began to practice it. Tradition tells that everyone who practised Sono’s mantra found peace and healing.
Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever. My friend Lisa, an attractive woman in her late 30s, came to one of my seminars after I had not seen her for a number of years. She informed the group that a year earlier she had been diagnosed with a brain disorder that required immediate surgery. The surgery was done, a steel plate was inserted in her head, and her doctor keeps her under close observation. Lisa reported that now she lives from day to day. Privately I told Lisa that I was sorry she had gone through this whole ordeal. “Oh, don’t be sorry,” she told me emphatically. “I’m not sorry at all. This was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It really got me to appreciate my life and relationships. I married a wonderful guy and we are thinking about having children. I wouldn’t trade the experience if I could.” Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.
Can you imagine what your life would be like if you simply dropped your complaints? Its a radical proposal, since most of us have been trained to question, analyse, and criticise everything we see. But then we end up questioning, analysing, and criticising ourselves. Then we miss out on joy, the only true measure of success.
The ecstatic mystic poet Hafiz proclaimed, “All a sane man can ever think about is giving love.” One evening I received a phone call from my friend Cliff, a Jewish guy from Brooklyn who discovered A Course in Miracles and became a world-class love exuder. Cliff just went around finding good and beauty in everyone he met. On the phone, Cliff told me, “I just called to tell you how much I love and appreciate you.”
“Well, thank you Cliff,” I answered, delighted. “I really appreciate that... What prompted you to call me at this moment?”
“My knee was hurting me, and I knew that the only way I could feel better would be to give more love. So I began to think of the people in my life who I care about, and you came to mind.” Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.
In my book Handle with Prayer, I state that the highest form of prayer is gratitude. Instead of asking God for stuff, start thanking God for stuff, and you will find that God has already given you everything you could want or need, including the adventure of discovering more riches every day. Life is a big treasure hunt. Eventually we grow weary of seeking treasures outside ourselves, and we begin to look within. There we discover that the gold we sought, we already are. The beauty we overlooked because we were focusing on what was missing, still lives and awaits us like an anxious lover. As T.S. Eliot nobly noted, “The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”