The Big One

[dakegra]

Post Ten Thousand.

Created on 14th March, 2003
61,665 comments received
34,617 comments posted
171 friends though some appear to no longer have LJ accounts, others have drifted off to other places and at least one is no longer with us. anonymous_greg, you are still a great big hole in my online life.

Crikey. Those numbers... they scare me.

For post 10,000, I thought I'd share a Conversation With The Bean from the other day.

We were strolling home from school when talk turned to Schrödinger's Cat. EB asked if his friend had called and I replied that I had no idea as we hadn't actually got home yet.

I went on to say that his friend's call was much like Schrödinger's Cat - until we checked our messages when we got home, we'd have no way of knowing whether his friend had called.

Conversation turned, somewhat inevitably to who this Schrödinger dude was and what was the whole cat business anyway.

I explained about the cat, the box and the rest of the shenanigans. About how you couldn't know if the cat was alive or dead until you actually opened the box, and how the cat existed as a probability wave, neither alive or dead until someone opened the box at which point the waveform collapses.

EB took this all in, asking pertinent questions as we went along. He paused for thought (and narrative effect, clever chap) before offering this gem.

EB: I'm surprised they managed to get the cat in the box in the first place...


this anecdote is several orders of magnitude funnier if you know who this Schrödinger dude is in the first place, as evidenced by me having to explain it twice in short succession the following day. However, you're all a clever bunch. I can hear you laughing.

Comments

[alibee.livejournal.com]

This post means he isn't little anymore. He's perpetually too little to talk about S's cat in my mind.

TIME! IT MUST STOP!

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

MAKE IT SO!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Here's to the next ten thousand!

(*Marvin voice* The first ten thousand posts were the worst, and the second ten thousand? They were the worst too. After that I went into a bit of a decline.)

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

lol. Hopefully the first ten thousand haven't been entirely terrible.

:-D

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

On the contrary, they have frequently brightened my day!

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

huzzah!

[quaero-verum.livejournal.com]

Epically awesome.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

:-D

[caitirin.livejournal.com]

*giggle* That's a great 10,000th post, my friend.

And WOW, EB is old enough to know about Schrödinger's cat? Didn't you just bang your head on the sink last week or something for LB?

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

He hadn't heard of it, but was bemused by the entire cat-inna-box scenario. He also mused that you'd better hope the cat wasn't alive when you opened the box, or it'd most likely try and claw your face off.

We agreed that you'd probably open the box to find the cat had left. Which I suspect is an Eddie Izzard routine from waaay back. :-)

[songster.livejournal.com]

Don't think Eddie Izzard did quite that gag - I know he did Pavlov's cat though.

Alive / Dead / Bloody Furious is definitely a Pratchett joke from ~twenty years back, though I suspect it's been around in some form since about 17 seconds after Erwin S first opened his mouth on the issue.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

ah, sounds like something out of The Unadulterated Cat. Must dig it out and have a look-see.

[songster.livejournal.com]

Google suggests it's Lords & Ladies.

[caitirin.livejournal.com]

I read this to Elaby and we both got a good laugh :)

[boliviafang.livejournal.com]

That is brilliant. Sounds like something Monty might encounter on one of those rare babysitting gigs.

I never liked the Schrodinger story, as you might guess, because of any probability of a negative cat-outcome. But I like the theory and, of course, it reminds me of a quote:

(the actual introduction to the quote is lost to the mists of time... as so often happens, I was struck by the poetry of a response, rather than the meat of a topic)

"And now we’ve got Bobbi staring at an oven, waiting for Schroedinger’s Souffle. The cat appreciates it very much, whatever the result."
-Cyli, 1994

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

The second time I told the story it was to a co-worker with an extreme fondness for cats. Her face visibly dropped when I explained the mechanics of the box. She asked if we could call it Schrodinger's Dog instead.

And that quote is quite the most marvellous thing, which sums you up to a tee. Or is that tea?

Mmmm, tea.

[boliviafang.livejournal.com]

p.s. You are, now that I stop to think about it, the coolest dad I know.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

awww *blushes*

[fragglechick.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha! Brilliant!

[fragglechick.livejournal.com]

Also, you created your LJ ten days before me! We're almost LJ-twins! (although you've written 9 times more often!)