Schrödinger's Cat

Schrödinger's Cat is an exercise in quantum mechanics that explains how something can be this and that at the same time.

Explanation A.

Explanation B.

Explanation C. My favorite.

Explanation of the explanation.

Superposition is a principle of quantum theory . . . . The principle of superposition claims that while we do not know what the state of any object is, it is actually in all possible states simultaneously, as long as we don't look to check. It is the measurement itself that causes the object to be limited to a single possibility.

Okey-doak.

This is my photo-safe.

Photo - - Safe.

These are devices designed to save the contents of your camera's memory card should you exceed the space there, and are disinclined to carry around your computer to download your pictures.

No cables required. Just poke the memory card in the matching slot, download your pictures, return the card to the camera, erase or reformat and be on your merry way.

I just spent a week on the Oregon coast. I did not bring my computer. I did make sure I recharged the battery in the PHOTO SAFE. The only camera I took was my Nikon D40 and two memory cards. This is the first trip ever, I didn't take a film camera along, at least for backup.

Progress marches on. Sometimes right over the top of you.

On my birthday, at the ocean, I took 485 pictures. This is easy to do, especially when one is trying to photograph tricky Oregon fauna that will not be still.

I use the RAW capture setting to get the most information possible for when I do get back to my computer, so 485 pictures, pretty much filled a 4g card.

I slid that memory card into the Photo Safe slot, feeling all techno-savvy and hip.

Trust is a beautiful thing.

Use the tool. Trust it works.

With some stuff, it does not pay to think about it. Like eating oysters.

Do not think about oysters while you're sitting in front of a plate of shooters. Think of sea breezes and blue skies. Do not think about oysters. Don't look at them either, if you can help it.

Do not think about the odds, everything is going hunky-dory in the Photo Safe while downloading pictures impossible to recreate.

In case #1, you're liable to barf.

In case #2, you'll probably go crazy.

Now, the designers of the Photo Safe, could have improved the situation by adding user friendly greetings to the view screen.

But they didn't. All mine does is illuminate a little spinny blue dial, then turn itself off.

It does not say, for example, Don't worry, darling, I have your RAW images in here and am holding them closer than a mother with a day old newborn.

Little blue spinny thing, OFF.

So, if Einstein and Schrödinger are right, as long as I don't look in the Photo Safe, my pictures are in there intact and I am happy.

As long as I don't look.