Second Coming the novel: Extending the Entertainment

Is Schrödinger’s quantum cat both
alive and dead in a balanced universe?

In the novel, Paul Genet tells his story to the abbot of a monastery he seeks to join. After Paul finishes, the abbot asks Paul questions to further help decide whether to admit him or not. Here, Paul comments on one of the conundrums of quantum physics. —Editor

Abbot: Is Schrödinger's cat both dead and alive in your balanced quantum universe?

Paul: Schrödinger’s point, as I understand it, was that the cat in the box is “suspended” between life and death until a “measurement” is taken which “collapses the wave function.” Until the measurement or “observation” occurs, the cat can be considered both alive and dead.

The context for Schrödinger’s cat is Niels Bohr’s Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics where there is no objectively real universe until an observation (measurement) creates one. The state of the cat as alive or dead is contingent. Bohr’s interpretation has no preference.

In an opposing interpretation, called Many Worlds, the cat is also both dead and alive, but for an entirely different reason. An observation from the Many Worlds perspective creates branching objectively real universes: the cat is alive in one universe and dead in a parallel universe.

The equations of quantum mechanics support both the Copenhagen and the Many Worlds interpretations. In other words, the math is neutral. You are free to choose the interpretative flavor you prefer: chocolate or vanilla. The flavor I prefer is strawberry. That is, the equations support yet a third interpretation called Hidden Variable. The only requirement is that the hidden variable has to be non-local. Balance qualifies because it operates system-wide instantly.*

So, is Schrödinger's cat both dead and alive in my strawberry-flavored balanced quantum universe?

In a balanced quantum universe, there is only one objectively real universe. It is just like the one we experience day to day. The cat is objectively either alive or dead all along but we do not get the answer until we look in the box. If the cat is alive, balance requires that outcome for self-consistency. Alive or dead, it is the balance of the entire universe that determines the state of the cat. Balance superdetermines all states of existence instantly. Everything in a balanced quantum universe is necessary. No event can be contingent or arbitrary.

[Assuming balance requires that the cat be alive, the question of whether it both exists and does not exist at the same time is a different question, and is addressed below in “Why there is something rather than nothing.” —Editor]

Balance as the operating principle of the novel’s universe

‘Second Coming’ protagonist, Paul Genet, answers questions about his universe:

What is time?

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?

Will there ever be a coherent theory of quantum gravity?

Is the universe a computer?

Are superstrings the theory of everything?

Is Schrödinger's cat both alive and dead in a balanced quantum universe?

Does God exist in the balanced universe of Paul Genet?

What is the true nature of existence?

What is the origin of language?

* Non-local in quantum physics means instant connections across the universe as if time and space did not exist. Scientific experiments since 1982 have verified non-local connections which Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.” In a balanced quantum universe, balance, a non-physical principle, qualifies as the unknown hidden variable Einstein colleague David Bohm refers to in his book, “Wholeness and the Implicate Order,” —Editor