shroedinger's cat (was Re: [UA] Request from a new guy)
Cassady Toles
Con_Job at excite.com
Thu Apr 26 15:40:42 PDT 2001
You're missing part of the punchline of shroedinger's cat. The idea was
live cat in box that it was impossible to hear the cat through. Opening it
(or shaking it to feel if the cat wakes up) poisons the cat, killing it
instantly. As long as the box was closed, the cat was both alive and dead.
It was a demonstration of the concept that watching something changes the
outcome.
I've been toying with the Schrödinger's Box as a Major Artifact. Stuff a
live cat in it and as long as the box remains closed, the cat is alive
and dead at the same time. As long as the cat is in a state of quantum
uncertainty, everybody in presence of the box can flip flop their skill
rolls, and you can force others to flip-flop their skill rolls by
defeating them in Soul Combat. The box is rumored to be cursed, and its
owners usually die in freak accidents.
All of these effects only occur when being watched. The owner of the box
cannot use this ability on someone he is not actively observing, and the
curse always causes freak accidents in view of others. Imagine the owner
who has had his box so many years he becomes desperately afraid (fear
passion) of being percieved. He would live in the sewers or some such place
and only travel about at night. He would only speak if threatened, and tend
to hide behind whatever is nearby when someone walks past. This could work
really well with one of my patented Urbanomancer Homeless Freaks TM.
Now, if somebody could find a way to simbolically put his life into the
box (making the cat a proxy or something like that), such person would
exist in a state of quatum uncertainty. Not dead, not alive. There are
probably big advantages to be gained, but also a nasty drawback. If the
box is ever opened, he has a 50% flat chance of dropping dead instantly.
And the box must be opened at some point, because the cat can suffocate,
and then it would be dead in *both* states...
If you put in the cat proxy, you can only be killed by someone opening the
box, or the freak accidents listed above. But wounds, injuries, starvation,
etc. will never kill you. (This could easily lead to causing unnatural
checks, when someone blows you in half with a shotgun and you continue to
crawl foreward on your arms. This also gives hardcore reasons not to play
around too much with bad boys with guns--you can't be killed, but you can
have your head cut off and think how much that would suck.)
If the owner of the box is killed by a freak accident (major unnatural
phoenomena) and someone opens the box, they find the cat alive and the
poison still sealed and unreleased. The cat looks at them, meows once then
dies. (unnatural check is appropriate here)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am the messiah in the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Drink of me
and
no peace." -- Cobra Baghdad www.peoplehateme.com
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