The Forgotten Origin of the Porcine Uncertainty Principle
In 1935, Erwin Schrödinger introduced what would become one of the most famous thought experiments in physics: Schrödinger’s Cat. The idea was simple enough. Place a cat in a sealed box with a quantum mechanism that may or may not kill it. Until the box is opened and observed, quantum mechanics suggests the cat must be treated as existing in a strange superposition of two possible states: alive and dead. Schrödinger intended the whole thing to demonstrate how absurd quantum mechanics could become when applied to everyday objects. But according to a little-known story, shortly after proposing the experiment, Schrödinger became dissatisfied with it. The problem, he reportedly realized, was the cat. Cats were simply too predictable. If you put a cat in a box and closed the lid, there were really only two important questions: Was the cat alive? And was the cat dead? Schrödinger felt this did not adequately capture the true chaos of uncertainty. He needed an animal capable of producing a mu...