You're not wrong. "Schrödinger's cat" is a thought experiment that is all about the paradox of observation in terms of quantum theory. It also has multiple solutions, depending on which theory of QT that you subscribe to.
The original idea was: a cat's in a steel box with a a radioactive isotope that has an atom that, if it decays will trigger a release of poison gas. So if the atom decays, the cat dies and if it doesn't, the cat lives. It's a paradox based on the concept of 'superposition'....namely that some things on the atomic level exist in multiple states until actually measured and observed, at which time they take an actual state. Schrodinger's cat takes that idea to the macro level: according to quantum theory, the cat could be both alive and dead, because the state of the atom is not determined until observed...but that runs counter to our reality, since the cat CAN'T be both alive and dead at the same time in our experience. That's why it's both a paradox and a thought experiment, because it's mostly about how to resolve these two conflicting ideas.
Now, to make it more complicated: depending on which theory of QT you subscribe to, the answer to this experiment changes. Neils Bohr, for example, believed that the simple act of measurement would determine the result...the cat would be dead or alive before any observation would take place. The 'many-worlds' theory of QT states that at that decision point, two universes spawn from one, with the cat dying in one and living in another. Another QT theory supposes that any change in the environment (temperature, gravity, air movement) would force the state to be determined...and so on.
What QT theory does NOT state from this idea is that something other what was put in the box is in the box. Now, you COULD extrapolate that the universe diverged when whoever bought the present made a choice of what to buy...but that's at a different point in time. Making that work in a story context would be harder, so I see why he went with this device here.
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The original idea was: a cat's in a steel box with a a radioactive isotope that has an atom that, if it decays will trigger a release of poison gas. So if the atom decays, the cat dies and if it doesn't, the cat lives. It's a paradox based on the concept of 'superposition'....namely that some things on the atomic level exist in multiple states until actually measured and observed, at which time they take an actual state. Schrodinger's cat takes that idea to the macro level: according to quantum theory, the cat could be both alive and dead, because the state of the atom is not determined until observed...but that runs counter to our reality, since the cat CAN'T be both alive and dead at the same time in our experience. That's why it's both a paradox and a thought experiment, because it's mostly about how to resolve these two conflicting ideas.
Now, to make it more complicated: depending on which theory of QT you subscribe to, the answer to this experiment changes. Neils Bohr, for example, believed that the simple act of measurement would determine the result...the cat would be dead or alive before any observation would take place. The 'many-worlds' theory of QT states that at that decision point, two universes spawn from one, with the cat dying in one and living in another. Another QT theory supposes that any change in the environment (temperature, gravity, air movement) would force the state to be determined...and so on.
What QT theory does NOT state from this idea is that something other what was put in the box is in the box. Now, you COULD extrapolate that the universe diverged when whoever bought the present made a choice of what to buy...but that's at a different point in time. Making that work in a story context would be harder, so I see why he went with this device here.