Tuesday, January 06, 2009

DEAD AND/OR ALIVE

Quantum mechanics offers a popular thought experiment entitled Schrödinger's cat.

In said thought experiment, a cat, along with a flask containing a poison, is placed in a sealed box shielded against environmentally induced quantum decoherence. If an internal Geiger counter detects radiation then the flask is shattered, releasing the poison which kills the cat. According to Schrödinger, the cat remains theoretically both alive and dead until the box is opened and an accurate assessment can be made of the cat's state. (No cats were actually hurt during the course of this experiment. It all happened in Schrödinger's head.)

This is a concept soap opera fans are intimately familiar with. At any given point, a plethora of characters is simultaneously (presumed) dead while they are (actually) alive. GL's homebound Phillip being only the most recent example. (Though I am, as always, tempted to put ATWT's James Stenbeck in that category, since he is, well... James Stenbeck.)

Another Oakdale character, Dusty Donovan, also experienced the Schrödinger Cat effect.

Especially as it pertains to the ATWT tie in book, The Man From Oakdale.

The Man From Oakdale takes place in a world where Dusty is dead while, at the exact same time as the book is promoted in the show, Dusty is, in fact, alive.

How did this scientific phenomenon come about? Find out here!

3 comments:

schiffeg68 said...

I had to wonder if Henry read his own book after watching yesterday's show, since he told a customer on the show that the book was centered around Dusty/Craig searching for Johnny. Yet in the book, Dusty is not a factor.

Unknown said...

Thank you... I love it when we can incorporate paradoxes and Quantum mechanics with ATWT. :)

laroc said...

I wondered about that too since the summary I saw referred to Craig and PAUL hunting for Johnny, nothing at all about Dusty.