Courtesy of one of my StumbleUpon faves, NacMacfeagle.
 | Suggested Literature Meme Rules:- Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
- Open the book to page 123.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the next three sentences.
- Tag five people & post a comment at the originating blog after you've posted it to your blog.
Note: I don't tag people. Most good memes do manage to get decent circulation even if not in the manner envisioned by their creators. |
Tonight's selection is from the well received book Programming the Universe by Seth Lloyd. Surprisingly enough I happened across a brand new hardback copy at a greatly reduced price at the Town and Country supermarket in Salem, Arkansas. Apparently my tastes in literature are fairly different from this region's general preferences. A cursory glance at the offerings on the shelves of the Fulton County Public Library also tend to bear this out. So be it.
"In the Schroedinger's Cat paradox, the state of the particle, detector, and cat after the measurement is |left, no click, cat alive> + |right, no click, cat dead>. In some weird quantum way, the cat is alive and dead at the same time.
"The Schroedinger's Cat paradox has inspired much confusion. Stephen Hawking got so tired of this paradox that he would often say (in paraphrase of Joseph Goebbels), 'Whenever I hear the words 'Schroedinger's Cat,' I reach for my gun.'"
Okay, so I included a fourth line. Sue me. It was still effing funny!
