El coco

Bare with me. Nerdy? Yes. Does it have a point? Also yes. Is it a good one? Debatable.

Do you know about Schrodinger's Cat?

In a conversation between Edwin Schödringer and Albert Einstein, Schrödinger came up with an analogy to explain the craziness of quantum mechanics.

The analogy:

Imagine you have a box with

1. A cat

2. A radioactive atom

3. A detector of radioactivity

4. And a bottle containing a poison

If the atom emits radioactivity ☢️, the detector will send a signal⚡ that will open the bottle ☣️, so the poison kills the cat ☠️

If the atom doesn't emit radioactivity, the detector will not send a signal to open the bottle, so the cat lives 🐱

The crazy part:

There is no way of knowing if the atom emitted radioactivity (and the poison's released) unless you open the box and check. This means that there is no way of knowing if the cat is alive or dead before opening the box.

Schrodinger's point in this analogy is that the cat is both dead and alive simultaneously, until you open the box and observe. This has implications in quantum mechanics, such as "an object can be in more than one state (in this case alive and dead) at the same time". And "the observation (act of opening the box) will define the state of the object". Por esto, la curiosidad mató al gato.

My very loose point has nothing to do with quantum mechanics, it is far more trivial.

There are things you won't know for sure until you try them. There is value in the act of "opening the box". Acting on something will create a reality, perhaps one you want... A new job, a new adventure, a purpose, fulfillment.

But there is also value in "not opening the box". We live in a world where action is glorified and honorable. But, consider this. Is the reality of a dead cat, better than the assumption of it being both dead and alive? Or let me ask differently. Is knowing always better than not knowing?

Some actions can have devastating consequences that can create a painful and miserable reality for you and/or the people around you. So it just may be, for an instance or two, that inaction has also hidden glory and honor, that will only be evident to you.

El coco es que, sometimes, siento que soy el gato, the poison, and the observer. All at once. How can this be?

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"Un coco" in Puerto Rican Spanish means - an obsession, or a crush, or to be mental