|
For those of you who never, ever even thought of studying quantum mechanics, and have noooo f'n idea about the 'inside joke' going on itt, I present the inevitable link to wikipedia:
Schrödinger's cat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The gist of it -- and how it applies to the above -- is as follows: in the 'schrodinger's cat' thought experiment, the cat could either be alive or dead; however, due to some obscure equation in quantum mechanics, the cat must be considered both alive and dead at the same time (i.e. it exists in a 'superposition' of both states). However, we could, at any time, "open the box" the cat is in and 'observe' whether it is indeed still alive.
The idea is analogous to our situation with whether or not the 'next card dealt' is the ace of spades. In probability theory, the card has a probability assigned to it, based on known information, that it is indeed the ace of spades. However until we actually observe it is that exact card, we can merely assign a probability.
(At least that's my rudimentary understanding of it. I looked it up in wikipedia, for god's sake. Go me.)
|