Words from the Author: I had been so determined, in the past of course, to write some fiction that at least made sense to me. However, running out of ideas was the major obstacle to further pushing the fiction to a more perplexed and interesting height. Also, unplanned writing was very destructive in the perspective of a professional writer. Having learned a lot from previous experience and been thinking carefully for a while, I finally am confident enough to start a new story that was inspired by a conversion with my roommate. The story falls by and large into the category of science fiction, but at the same time, it somewhat exaggerates the roles human minds can play towards Mother Nature.
Chapter 1. The "Cat" Obsession
Scott was, in most people's eyes, otherwise a very "normal" kid when he was not trying to talk to people about his strange theory that the world was chosen by the human mind. It was hard to imagine why this third year American History major would come up with such an irrelevant idea, but the truth was, he would die for his theory and was desperate to make everyone he knew to accept it. His roommate Mike, on the other hand, wasn't at all surprised and knew exactly that this all started from a science seminar Scott went to, and in fact, the only science seminar he was interested in.
The seminar was given by Professor Walls from Physics department, intended to introduce some basic quantum mechanics knowledge to the undergraduates. Scott had planned to play basketball that day when he passed by the poster, but then he met Maggie, the girl he knew from high school and still his best female friend.
Maggie was a blond girl who always had that typical pony tail a dozen other girls would have in the gym nicely laced in Scott's favorite color-baby blue. More often than not, a pretty blond like her shouldn't be expected to carry a huge pile of science books walking around campus, but to Maggie, this was just what she loved and also the reason why she chose school of education: in hope to become a science teacher in high school one day. Scott totally agreed her idea of becoming a teacher since he thought she was so pretty that even the naughtiest boys in class would be too preoccupied staring at her to do any "monkey business" and apart from that, she was also a very patient person always ready to explain every single question except that Scott though she spoke too fast and sometimes she was seemingly out of breath.
Maggie offered free dinner provided that Scott went with her for the one and a half hour long seminar. "That sounds like a good deal." Scott laughed "So?" Maggie raised her eyebrow. "Well, I have nothing to lose, do I?" "Of course you don't. I am not talking about the dinner, but you know what? Professor Walls is one of the most renowned persons in this field and is incredibly good at making the profound theory simple enough for us to understand. Besides, as a science teacher-to-be, what if some school kid asks me one day `Miss Hagen, why is a cat in a fridge both dead and alive at the same time?' And.." "Spare me Maggie, I am going with you NOW." Scott interrupted her. "Alright, let's go then. Let's see, 304, Vincent Hall, there, let's go across biology...oh my God, it should start at any minute!" Maggie gasped. "Come on Scottie!" Scott had to run after her wondering why this crazy girl with those heavy books could run so fast. "By the way Maggie, you mentioned a cat in a fridge just now? What was that?" "Well, it's a vivid demonstration of some theory in Q physics, why don't I tell you later?"
304 Vincent Hall was a half-oval auditorium with a huge screen in the center. When they pushed the entrance gate open, Maggie was surprised to see that the room was so empty. She grabbed a bottled water from the reception desk and Scott took a piece of chocolate cookie and a can of Pespi. As Maggie insisted, they sat closest to the speaker, Professor Walls.
Mr. Walls was a middle aged man with a little bit belly, brown eyes under a pair of thick glasses glowing with intelligence, his hair curly and dark black, almost as black as Scott's.
A student stepped to Professor Walls and said something, he nodded smiling. And then the student cleared her throat. "Good afternoon everyone, it is my honor to introduce our speaker today Dr. Walls. Dr. Walls has been doing research on quantum physics in our university for 12 years and has achieved tremendous success. He is an expert on quantum state superposition of subatomic particles and has published a lot of papers pertinent to that field. Dr. Walls is also a dedicated teacher and mentor for our undergraduate students. He is currently teaching Phys512-Introduction to Modern Physics. Now, let's welcome Professor Walls!" "Thank you! Thanks for coming and thank you Caroline, for the nice introduction. As you are all aware that ..." "Why should I be aware?" Scott muttered. "Shhhhh..." Maggie signaled him to be quiet.
Scott was lost at the very start of the talk and was half-asleep; the content was the least of his concern while he was still thinking about where to go for dinner. But then all of sudden something caught his attention. "...Cat." Maggie obviously had noticed Scott's sudden interests. She turned her face towards Scott and smiled.
"Now let me read what Sir. E. Schrodinger wrote in 1935." Professor Walls held up a piece of paper and readjusted his glasses.
"One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. 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 Geiger counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which 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 Radioactively decayed. The Wavefunction psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.
It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a "blurred model" for representing reality. In itself it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks."
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if anyone or many of you are confused if this is the first time that you've heard about it, the point being that subatomic substances in quantum physics, before any measurement is done, are a superposition of many states. Your measurement will give you one of the many states, but not all. In other words, what you just saw was only YOUR choice. However, this will never happy to our world..."
Scott didn't say a single word but was totally absorbed for the next hour in the rest of the seminar. He didn't realize he was actually listening each single word Professor Walls said until Maggie asked him how he liked the seminar.
"It's ok." Scott said pretending not excited. "Just ok? I think it was absolutely fantastic. I need to talk to Professor Walls for a second. Wait me here, will you?" Maggie rose to run to Professor Walls before Scott could say anything.
Scott was still thinking, thinking really hard. He felt like he just had a brain surgery by this whole new theory. To him, who had been spending most of his time reading Native American tribes and archeological discoveries in the world, Scott never tried to know anything about physics. But now it was all different as if he had just found that buried treasure awaiting to be opened and explored.
He was very quiet at dinner but Maggie was not paying attention since she had been practically chattering ninety nine percent of the time. Scott listened to her talking stuff related to the seminar with great interests for the first time in his life, not feeling bored but rather, very much with enjoying himself.
They split up when Maggie was near her dorm building. She gave Scott a quick kiss on the cheek and said "Good Night" to him, then quickly disappearing into a bunch of laughing girls. Scott walked on his way to his own dorm still disturbed by what he had heard today.
"Hey dude, you are back. I thought I'd be seeing you at the Fitness Center. Where the hell have you been?" His roommate Mike asked at the first sight of his come in. "I went to a seminar with Maggie. It was quite fun actually." Scott replied as he got himself seated on a chair, looking tired. "What? Maggie? The freaky science girl of yours? I thought she was not your type." Scott didn't say anything, but instead, he paused and changed the subject. "Mike you heard about some theory of the fate of some cat in quantum physics?" "That's Schrodinger's cat." "Yeah, right, Schrodinger. How did you know that?" "I guess I learned that from an introductory physics course. Not sure if I should buy it." "Oh, yeah? Why not? I think that's an awesome theory." Scott got excited. "Scott, dude, what have you been smoking? You are weird. If I were you, I would spend more time thinking how to take Maggie to my bed. Geez, she is hot despite what she is." Mike sensed Scott's unpleasant expression on his face and continued. "You know what I mean, she is just, you know, a bit of out of line sometimes. Oh, I almost forgot, Jake just called and we are so going to his party now." "You go ahead. I don't feel quite well." Scott lied since he had decided to spend the night in the Science Library. "Come on, dude, you need party to spirit you up." "Nah, I will pass." Scott yarned. "Tell Jake I don't feel well." "Sure. Take care." Mike got to his feet and left their dorm. "You too."
Standing in the physics section and faced with those books, Scott inhaled deeply, feeling a sense of overwhelming. He couldn't remember when was the last time when he was actively searching for a science book. Then his eyes rested upon a book named "Fate of Schrodinger's Cat: An Introductory Book to the Quantum World". "Yeah! Sweet!" Scott said to himself, and decidedthat this was exactly the book. He checked out and he straight to his dorm.
In the following week, Scott had been reading as long as he got a moment. And of course, the subject between him and Mike was always about Schrodinger's cat which was driving Mike insane.
Scott merely smiled at Mike's comments about how he was much too addicted to the cat and continued to indulge in his new found pleasure. For some reason, he began to believe that the existence in the world, in his own interpretation, wasn't just what he saw; it also depended on what he chose to think about it.
Stay Tuned for Chapter 2. The Road Trip
Hi guys,
You might have discovered that there are some grammatical or spelling mistakes because I am a Chinese student and have only been in the States for a little more than a year. So I will really appreciate if you write to me with your feedbacks, especially something about the language which I am not entirely at. Thank you!