I guess I had had too much of the news.  I was looking for something different and much calmer to watch at night.  Something to expand my mind but cause no stress.  I came across a show called “Cosmos,” hosted by a crazy astrophysicist who found a way to make complex ideas understandable.

“What surprises us,” he would say, “is how quantum physics arose to face off against Newtonian physics.”

And what is quantum physics?  I found a definition somewhere that says it “governs the way the universe behaves at the scale of atoms, electrons and photons.”  But I’m not sure that describes the peculiarity I’m thinking about.

I had long remembered a phrase describing quantum physics.  Something about a box and a cat being in the box.  Either the cat was only in the box because we saw the cat, or the cat saw the box which made the box exist.  If we didn’t observe the cat or the box, they weren’t there.  I don’t really remember, but it was something about the requirement for things to be observed – in the quantum world — in order for those things to be measurable.

The way this astrophysicist explained it, I finally understood.  I’m not sure I can explain it any better now, but I was on board!

Next he talked about photons – I hope I get this right – and how two photons will develop a connection that is never broken.  This connection between them is called “entanglement.”  The suggestion is that the two photons can move to various places in the galaxy or universe and remain in constant communication.

Any pupil of Einstein would recognize the problem arising here.  How could two things communicate instantly at tremendous distances?  This knocks down Einstein’s theory that nothing can travel faster than light.

Then I started listening to Youtube videos given by a scholar, discussing the scientific basis for why thoughts can affect things – basically, the “mind over matter” approach to life.  And what do you think?  She starts talking about entanglement!

Was this destiny that I came across two different teachers talking about the same quantum story at the same time?  Or were the astrophysicist and the scholar entangled so that they were communicating between each other faster than I could keep up?

I think I’ll ask our cat, Coco, about this.  She likes to sit in her Fancy Feast box and wait for her next meal.  The question is:  If I don’t look at her in the box, is she really there?

Coco in her Fancy Feast box

Coco in her Fancy Feast box — while I’m looking at her!

I guess I had had too much of the news.  I was looking for something different and much calmer to watch at night.  Something to expand my mind but cause no stress.  I came across a show called “Cosmos,” hosted by a crazy astrophysicist who found a way to make complex ideas understandable.

“What surprises us,” he would say, “is how quantum physics arose to face off against Newtonian physics.”

And what is quantum physics?  I found a definition somewhere that says it “governs the way the universe behaves at the scale of atoms, electrons and photons.”  But I’m not sure that describes the peculiarity I’m thinking about.

I had long remembered a phrase describing quantum physics.  Something about a box and a cat being in the box.  Either the cat was only in the box because we saw the cat, or the cat saw the box which made the box exist.  If we didn’t observe the cat or the box, they weren’t there.  I don’t really remember, but it was something about the requirement for things to be observed – in the quantum world — in order for those things to be measurable.

The way this astrophysicist explained it, I finally understood.  I’m not sure I can explain it any better now, but I was on board!

Next he talked about photons – I hope I get this right – and how two photons will develop a connection that is never broken.  This connection between them is called “entanglement.”  The suggestion is that the two photons can move to various places in the galaxy or universe and remain in constant communication.

Any pupil of Einstein would recognize the problem arising here.  How could two things communicate instantly at tremendous distances?  This knocks down Einstein’s theory that nothing can travel faster than light.

Then I started listening to Youtube videos given by a scholar, discussing the scientific basis for why thoughts can affect things – basically, the “mind over matter” approach to life.  And what do you think?  She starts talking about entanglement!

Was this destiny that I came across two different teachers talking about the same quantum story at the same time?  Or were the astrophysicist and the scholar entangled so that they were communicating between each other faster than I could keep up?

I think I’ll ask our cat, Coco, about this.  She likes to sit in her Fancy Feast box and wait for her next meal.  The question is:  If I don’t look at her in the box, is she really there?

Coco in her Fancy Feast box

Coco in her Fancy Feast box — while I’m looking at her!