In reading about Schrodinger's cat, I found the following in a Wiki reference:-
"..in which a quantum system such as an atom or photon can exist as a combination of multiple states corresponding to different possible outcomes. The prevailing theory, called the Copenhagen interpretation, said that a quantum system remained in this superposition until it interacted with, or was observed by, the external world, at which time the superposition collapses into one or another of the possible definite states."
A situation carries within it the possibility of multiple states/solutions, until observed...or perturbed. Meaning, that a closed box of Ravelin bakery goodies could possibly contain chocolate croissants, eclairs or creme brulee, until you open the box and lo and behold....black-and-white cookies! (That's my tip-of-the-hat interpretation, Copenhagen Institute). Very intriguing. I suppose my Kolkata sojourn could be that way....it could have been stellar, magical OR it could have been mundane, run-of-the-mill OR it could have been annoying, downright suffocating. Of course, once perturbed - the experience turned out to be quite annoying...but one wonders what the alternate "stellar, magical" experience might have been?
I read an example of the Copenhagen interpretation before knowing what it actually was, in Twelve Red Herrings where the reader was offered four different choices to the culmination of a story - Rare, Burnt, Overdone, A Point. I suppose you could term my Kolkata experience as burnt to a crisp. So, lets taste "Kolkata A Point".
It would have to be a Kolkata winter, in a dusty পাড়া - the hours between 10 am and noon. Too late for early morning, but just late enough for dust to be kicked up on the streets by shuffling feet, ripe for the rickshaw-horn to blare a few times before turning the bend, ears picking up on the sizzle of fresh-water fish plunged into hot mustard oil and the soft metallic ring of bangles on hard hands scrubbing soot off with ash and steel wool. You might find yourself bundled up in a woolly sweater that defies the possibility of body contours, shuffling around the house in blue Bata sandals...or you might be found whacking the shuttle across hastily-drawn badminton nets. Oh yes, it's childhood again. Eat, play, read, repeat. At your mother's bidding, fetch victuals from the neighborhood store, then squeeze in a ride on the 24/29 tram via Rashbehari. Thumbing through dusty secondhand books in Gariahat, eating a sandesh or two at Mouchak, sunbathing by the window on the same tram back home, the combination of wool and Sun starting to prickle a bit as the stellar experience draws to a close, ears now picking up on the rhythmic tick-tock of a ping-pong ball being thrashed across a table in the neighborhood boys' club.
"..in which a quantum system such as an atom or photon can exist as a combination of multiple states corresponding to different possible outcomes. The prevailing theory, called the Copenhagen interpretation, said that a quantum system remained in this superposition until it interacted with, or was observed by, the external world, at which time the superposition collapses into one or another of the possible definite states."
A situation carries within it the possibility of multiple states/solutions, until observed...or perturbed. Meaning, that a closed box of Ravelin bakery goodies could possibly contain chocolate croissants, eclairs or creme brulee, until you open the box and lo and behold....black-and-white cookies! (That's my tip-of-the-hat interpretation, Copenhagen Institute). Very intriguing. I suppose my Kolkata sojourn could be that way....it could have been stellar, magical OR it could have been mundane, run-of-the-mill OR it could have been annoying, downright suffocating. Of course, once perturbed - the experience turned out to be quite annoying...but one wonders what the alternate "stellar, magical" experience might have been?
I read an example of the Copenhagen interpretation before knowing what it actually was, in Twelve Red Herrings where the reader was offered four different choices to the culmination of a story - Rare, Burnt, Overdone, A Point. I suppose you could term my Kolkata experience as burnt to a crisp. So, lets taste "Kolkata A Point".
It would have to be a Kolkata winter, in a dusty পাড়া - the hours between 10 am and noon. Too late for early morning, but just late enough for dust to be kicked up on the streets by shuffling feet, ripe for the rickshaw-horn to blare a few times before turning the bend, ears picking up on the sizzle of fresh-water fish plunged into hot mustard oil and the soft metallic ring of bangles on hard hands scrubbing soot off with ash and steel wool. You might find yourself bundled up in a woolly sweater that defies the possibility of body contours, shuffling around the house in blue Bata sandals...or you might be found whacking the shuttle across hastily-drawn badminton nets. Oh yes, it's childhood again. Eat, play, read, repeat. At your mother's bidding, fetch victuals from the neighborhood store, then squeeze in a ride on the 24/29 tram via Rashbehari. Thumbing through dusty secondhand books in Gariahat, eating a sandesh or two at Mouchak, sunbathing by the window on the same tram back home, the combination of wool and Sun starting to prickle a bit as the stellar experience draws to a close, ears now picking up on the rhythmic tick-tock of a ping-pong ball being thrashed across a table in the neighborhood boys' club.
