Schrodinger's Cat

The infamous thought experiment involving "Schrodinger's cat" is, like many other concepts, misinterpreted.  Instead of taking it to be an illustration of the asinine nature of a certain model of quantum mechanics--which holds two conflicting quantum events to both occur until an external observer notices them, at which point only one of them becomes actualized--some regard it as confirmation that logic does not govern all things, a complete impossibility!  The cat is supposed to serve as an analogy for quantum particles by giving an example at the macro level of ordinary experience.

In the thought experiment, a cat, locked in isolation, is threatened by a single radioactive atom, which may kill the cat via the effects of its decay--or may not decay at all.  How could one tell if the cat is alive or dead at a given time?  One would have to check, yet, just as one cannot see and not see a thing at once, one cannot find that the cat is both dead and alive simultaneously.  The cat could only be in one condition or the other, since there is no overlap between them.

Some people arrive at the egregious misunderstanding that the hypothetical cat in question actually is somehow both dead and alive at once--something which, if they deliberated in a sound manner, they should realize is an impossibility.  There is no such thing as two opposites being simultaneously true.  The point of such a thought experiment is not to argue against logic, which is self-refuting, but to highlight the flaws of the Copenhagen model of quantum mechanics, as well as to emphasize that non-observers cannot know whether the cat is living or not due to the seemingly equal probability of various quantum events.

Nothing in quantum physics contradicts logic.  Nothing in quantum physics can contradict logic.  Furthermore, no one needs science to demonstrate that contradictions are impossible, as they only need to contemplate reason itself to prove that logic governs all.  Science bows to logic, not the other way around.  Metaphysical ideas cannot ultimately be verified or falsified by scientific observation, but by the exercise of the intellect in accordance with the external laws of logic.

To be within the realm of possibility, an idea must contain no contradictions.  This is the first aspect of a concept to consider when investigating ideas that do not possess self-evidence (that is, the unique self-verifying nature that only a small handful of truths have).  Since existence and non-existence are exclusive categories, cats, as well as any other existents of the material or immaterial kind, by necessity can only exist or not exist at once.  It is rather alarming that someone might not realize this on their own, instead looking to quantum physics to settle a matter that is resolved without engaging in science at all.  That someone would require a scientist's affirmation of a basic logical truth before accepting it demonstrates only that the person in question lacks intelligence and is without significant intellectual autonomy.