Schrödinger's Cat

[blackruzsa]

Just a bit of Before Watchmen for your.... well, whatever you'll feel about this.

Comments

[eyz]

I preferred Animal Man's "Schrödinger's Pizza" :P
(anyone got the reference? XD)

[arbre_rieur]

"Quantum physics says as long as the box is closed, it could contain anything, in any state of existence."

No.*

*I'm not a physicist, quantum or otherwise, so maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

[captainbellman]

The other reason this is bullshit is that it discounts the human character, which Dr. Manhattan showed himself to be constantly and acutely aware of throughout Moore's "Watchmen".

I'll explain: the above conjecture by this version of Dr. Manhattan apparently believes that literally anything could be in the box, and hence assumes that probabilities caused by human decisions are as infinite (and hence, unpredictable) as those caused by chance. But this is inaccurate, as human decisions are informed by character and/or experience, and having an intimate knowledge of them means that the probabilities they cause can be somewhat predictable. As shown in the original "Watchmen", Dr. Manhattan - like Sherlock Holmes before him, and Abed of "Community" after - is able to acutely observe and understand human character from an outsider's perspective much more precisely than a relatively normal person, and use the knowledge he gains from that perspective to predict their probable behaviour.

Thus: knowing his father as he does (as shown in the flashbacks in "Watchmen"), the above recollection by Dr. Manhattan should NOT state that the box could contain anything, because his intimate knowledge of his father, even before he became Dr. Manhattan, would be able to inform him of what sort of gift to expect: say, a watch, a physics textbook, a selection of papers by Einstein, etc. Probability might be infinite, but it can also be predictable when the observer knows what is probable and improbable.

QUOT

ERAT

MOTHERF*CKING

DEMONSTRATDUM.

[captainbellman]

Also: the blue wrapper is unnecessary. Trying to imply that Jon was 'predestined' to become the Doc is foolish, and typical of JMS' "Everything Is Connected" approach to storytelling. A nuclear reactor and an unfortunate chance made Dr. Manhattan, not the colour blue.

[skemono]

As Deepak Chopra taught us, quantum physics means anything can happen at any time for no reason. Also, eat plenty of oatmeal and animals never had a war. Who’s the real animals?

[abates]

"But no, it was another sodding pair of socks."

Been a while since I read it but...

[espanolbot]

Hrrm, reminds me of what Albert tried to explain the concept of the cat in the box to Death in... the Last Hero I think it was. Considering it was Death he was trying to explain it too, who points out that if he didn't know if something was alive or dead he'd be kind of bad at his job, it just results in the anthropomorphic personification giving Albert a cool look, removing the cat from the box and firmly stating "I can't abide cruelty to cats".

[crinos]

Somewhere Niels Bohr walks among us, Unobserved and IMMORTAL.

[blueprintstyles]

I don't think he's going off Schrödinger's cat, there are other theories that support this.

[liara_shadowsong]

...That's not how quantum physics works. Also, was it really necessary to make both his shirt and the wrapping paper blue? There's foreshadowing, and then there's implications of predestination. XP

[md84]

He's probably just taking comfort in the idea that in some parallel reality, he actually got a gift he wanted.

[icon_uk]

IIRC in JMS's Squadron Supreme, their Zatanna analogue Arcanna had the ability to manipulate parallel quantum dimensions to achieve the result that she wanted. She also used Schrodinger's Cat as the example of how her power worked.

[shadowpsykie]

aha! Bleedingcool puts it perfectly why I don't like this new interpretation of Manhattan!

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/08/22/dr-manhattan-rewrites-watchmen-and-chooses-his-own-adventure/


I need a VINDICATED icon....