concept
Schrödinger's Cat
Something held in two contradictory states at once until you actually check.
Origin
In 1935, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger imagined a cat in a sealed box with a radioactive trigger that might or might not have killed it. According to a literal reading of quantum mechanics, the cat would be both alive and dead until observed. Schrödinger meant it as a reductio ad absurdum, not an endorsement — but the image escaped and took on a life of its own.
Modern usage
Used casually for anything in superposition — 'Schrödinger's email reply', 'Schrödinger's startup' (alive and dead until somebody checks). A staple of internet humor.
In the wild
Until the all-hands, the layoffs are Schrödinger's layoffs.— tech Slack
Tags
quantum
uncertainty