“And when Hell is full, the dead shall walk the earth.” So said George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. However that’s as close as this blog will get an undead moggy, despite my misleading talk of zombie cats at the end of the last entry. No, today I’d like to go on with an example of superposition in real life as proposed by Austrian physicist, Erwin Shrödinger.
We’ll get to his cat in a bit, but I think I’d best mention the preparations for our little play that have been made so far. I say Our play as the production team for the Guild’s Copenhagen is slowly growing. Some names are still under wraps, as nothing is concrete yet, but negotiations to nab some top people are happening. I can announce that my Production Assistant/ Dramaturge/ Person-who-has-random-ideas-bound-off-them-at-ridiculous-times is Lindsey Welch. Bless her, as if she isn’t doing enough; what with performing in Guys and Dolls (tickets still available, folks), helping Stacey with the Youth Theatre, and being a teacher (and all the evening planning that involves), she agreed to help me get my ideas into a coherent whole to present to the cast.
Very ably assisting Linz is my Production Manager, the very wonderful Angela Atfield. Despite – or maybe because of – Angela’s relative innocence in the role, her enthusiasm and precise planning is a wonder to itself. At our first meeting, amongst a stack of papers, scripts and set designs, she took minutes, worked her way though a tightly ordered agenda and still managed to get the creative juices flowing (by the way, if you see a magnificent black mountain bike flying past you in the Gravesham area, it may very well be called Vala. Do say hello).
But we are still in need of people. Aside from as many of you as we can get to be at the Guild on 30th January from 10am for the first workshop, we may be in need of some technical bods. For those that love a challenge, the show requires a couple of Audio/ Video Operators. The main pairing will need to be available for rehearsals towards the end of the production schedule, and the show nights themselves. The roles are a fundamental part of the show, helping to illustrate the theme of perception and perspective. And, if everything goes to plan, they would be instrumental in giving this show its ‘that’s a bit different’ edge I’m looking for. So, if you are interested in the show, but don’t think you fit the character roles, then this could be a way to get involved – either way, faithful reader, you would be very welcome.
As to the characters, I’ve had a couple of comments about the ages as described elsewhere on the Guild website. Let me start by saying that regardless of your age, if you can convince the panel (Angela, Linz, Me and fellow Exec Member, Jane Fenlon) that you can embody the ideas and experiences of Margrethe, Niels and Werner, then so be it. As long the whole works from an audience point of view (e.g. the ages of the trio are in keeping with each other and the content) then we will obviously go with the best for the part. So again, if you have even a small urge to be with us, please come down and show us why you are the best for the show, and what you can pull out of your box of tricks.
And speaking of boxes of tricks…
Concerned that the newly proposed superposition of particles, the overlapping of potential placement, was a phenomenon exclusive to atomic structure, Schrödinger and Einstein – yes, the great man of reason and question – set out in letters a discourse regarding its application to larger, living entities. Schrödinger’s thought experiment went thus:
“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.”[1]
By this mechanism, Schrödinger was able to scale up the probability of the radioactive particle decaying (letting go of an electron from its atomic structure) – and its inherent probability that it will not decay – to a matter of life and death for a cat in a box.
Now the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics, when applied to Schrödinger’s Cat states that until the box is opened and we have observed the result, we cannot with 100% certainty predict the outcome of the cat’s fate. As the particle may decay at any time over the hour of unobserved activity, the probability of it doing so can be translated as the cat being alive or dead (the particle being no-decayed/ decayed accordingly). Until we look, the outcome is undetermined, uncertain and incomplete. Hence the cat, unobserved, remains in two states. It is, according to the Copenhagen Interpretation, only at the moment of observation that the wave function of the particle (it being in two places at once, as suggested by the two slit experiment) collapses and one or the other becomes a true reality.
Of course, there are other interpretations of Quantum Physics to help make this more confusing. If you are interested – and if you’re a science fiction fan, this may be of particular interest – look up Many Worlds Theory, or the Relational Interpretation.
But that’s enough physics for today. I imagine that the next blog entry will have me and my team in the grip of workshop frenzy where I hope to be joined by as many of you as possible. Until then, be nice to cats.
[1] Schrödinger, Erwin (November 1935). "Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik (The present situation in quantum mechanics)". Naturwissenschaften. Via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger's_cat
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