Schrödinger's cat in popular culture

Schrödinger's cat is a seemingly paradoxical thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrödinger that attempts to illustrate the incompleteness of the theory of quantum mechanics when going from subatomic to macroscopic systems.

In 1935 Schrödinger published an essay describing the conceptual problems in QM1. A brief paragraph in this essay described the cat paradox.

"One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following diabolical 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 one 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 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 decayed. The first atomic decay would have poisoned it. The Psi function for the entire system would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts." ''1 E. Schrödinger, ``Die gegenwartige Situation in der Quantenmechanik, Naturwissenschaftern. 23 : pp. 807-812; 823-823, 844-849. (1935). English translation: John D. Trimmer, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 124, 323-38 (1980), Reprinted in Quantum Theory and Measurement, p 152'' (1983).

It was not long before this evocitive concept was picked up by science fiction writers some examples are:


 * "Schrödinger's Cat" is a science fiction story written by Ursula K. Le Guin in 1974. It appeared in The Compass Rose, published in 1982. The story deals with Schrödinger's Cat, stoves and quantum decoherence.


 * In Coming of the Quantum Cats, by Frederik Pohl, a man meets his many corresponding selves as he travels into the multiverse.


 * The Schrödinger's Cat trilogy is the name commonly given to a trilogy of science fiction/conspiracy theory novels written by Robert Anton Wilson. It consists of The Universe Next Door, The Trick Top Hat and The Homing Pigeons.


 * In Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett, the cat Greebo is placed in a box and enters a superposition of being Alive, Dead and Bloody Furious. Upon opening, his waveform seems to have collapsed into the third state.


 * In American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Sam states that she "believes that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead.)"


 * In the manga Hellsing, there is a catboy named Schrödinger. He looks human, save for the furry cat ears perched on his head. This being claims to be everywhere and nowhere at once, and as such, has the ability to teleport and to survive contact-range gunshots through the skull.


 * In the anime Master of Mosquiton, there is a discussion between Schrödinger and the vampire Saint-Germain, wherein Germain claims he can control fate. To prove this, Germain predicts the cast of a die.  Just as the die is about to land as predicted, Schrödinger's pet cat bats the die so that it lands on a different number.


 * In the roguelike computer game NetHack, monsters known as quantum mechanics may carry a chest containing Schrödinger's cat. When opened, there is a 50% chance of finding it dead and a 50% chance of it jumping out alive.


 * A cat named Schrödinger appears as a semi-recurring character in Checkerboard Nightmare, a webcomic by Kristofer Straub. Schrödinger can see all possible states of existence at once, and as a result is very much insane, as detailed in his first appearance.


 * A cat named Schrödinger appeared in the television series Stargate SG-1.


 * A cat named Schrödinger also appeared in the television program Sliders. His owner, Quinn Mallory, studied Quantum Theory and invented a device to travel to other dimensions.


 * A cat named Pixel in the classic Robert Heinlein novel, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. The cat is affectionately termed "Schrödinger's Cat" due to his ability to be wherever his favorite person (in the case of the book, the narrator) is.  His ability to walk through walls is due to the fact that Pixel does not know that it is impossible.


 * The webcomic Two Lumps: The Adventures of Ebeneezer and Snooch has an episode about Schrödinger's cat. "They're talking about schreddin' cats and puttin' 'em in a box!!!"


 * Dan Simmons' novel Endymion begins with hero Raul Endymion trapped in a Schrödinger cat box.


 * Steve Martin's 1998 book Pure Drivel includes a piece entitled "Schrödinger's Cat", which presents a summary of the theory, followed by several ficticious, nonsensical theories, including "Wittgenstein's Banana", "Apollo's Non-Apple Non-Strudel", and "Chef Boyardee's Bungee Cord" (which begins, "A bungee cord is hooked at one end to a neutrino, while the other end is hooked to a vibraphone...")


 * In the 40th anniversary Doctor Who audio book "Zagreus" produced by Big Finish and released in 2003, the Doctor is locked in a lead lined box that contains cyanide in an effort to explain his situation of being neither dead nor alive. Afterwards, the Doctor does mention he met Schrödinger’s Cat.


 * Dirk Gently describes an attempt to enact the experiment in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams. By using clairvoyance to see inside the box, it was found that the cat was neither alive nor dead, but missing, and Dirk's services were employed in order to to recover it.


 * Saturday by Ian McEwan refers to Schrödinger's Cat.


 * Schrödinger's Cat is discussed in "The Summer of Love" by Lisa Mason.


 * In the episode of Futurama entitled "A Clone of My Own," there is a brief shot of a night club called "Schrödinger's Kit-Kat Club"


 * A two headed cat, one head being conscious the other sleeping or presumably dead, appears in one of Christopher Stasheff's series of "Her Majesties Wizard" novels, along with other thought experiment beings, the most notable being Maxwell's Demon.


 * George Alec Effinger's novelette, "Schrödinger's Kitten" (1988), received both the Hugo and the Nebula Award. Schrodinger's Kitten was published in book form in 1992.


 * Amanda Jaworski, the lead character in Carol Hill's feminist science fiction classic "The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer", has a cat named Schrödinger.


 * Schrödinger's Cat appears in Ian Stewart's novel Flatterland.


 * In the episode of "Numb3rs" entitled "Identity Crisis", Charlie re-phrases Schrödinger's Cat to illustrate the point that the tests used to disprove/prove a murder suspect's identity is built on a false premise.


 * In an episode of the 1940s radio drama "Maddox's Bedtime Stories for Kid Geniuses" entitled "Little Eve and Gogo", the main character is a teenage female scientist named Kat Schrödinger.


 * In Hopdinger's Cat, an award-winning short story by the Roaming Janitors, Colin demonstrates that Schrödinger's cat itself is the problem with the experiment, since it, of course, knows whether it is alive or dead.


 * In the latter two books of the Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons, protagonist Raul Endymion is kept in a 'Schrödinger's cat box' as a criminal punishment. He awaits execution, but since the neo-Catholic society he is being punished under regards murder as a sin, the box is used to keep his state as undead and his death at completely random chance.  Therefore, no one would directly cause his execution.


 * In the September 25 comic of Brewster Rockit: Space Guy, a reference is made to Schrödinger's cat. The characters open the box and the cat jumps out of the box and onto another character's face.


 * In both Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga games, Schrödinger is the name of a cat that always seems to be at the right place at the right time. It is revealed that Schrödinger was the name of a cat that Sera kept as a pet.  Coincidence?  You be the judge...