Am I the only person who thinks of Schrödinger’s Cat when I’m holding a quiet baby?
Seriously, forget Schrödinger’s Cat. Schrödinger could have made his point in quantum physics with an ordinary baby.
For those that don’t know, the summation of Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment in quantum phsyics is “the cat is both alive and dead until it is observed”.
As every parent that of a baby knows, a much more practical application of that idea is: “every quiet baby is both awake and asleep until it is observed.”
Every parent reading this is now shouting “Eureka!” This explains it all. Any time a baby is quiet, you’re never sure if it’s awake or asleep, so invariably you look at the baby’s eyes to see if whether it’s awake or not, and invariably the baby is awake when you look at it. This isn’t coincidence, by looking at the baby you’re causing it’s quantum state to settle and you, as the observer, are causing the baby to be awake.
So don’t do it, resist the urge, if the baby is quiet, don’t look at it.
