"Schrödinger's cat" was a famous thought experiment devised by Human physicist Edwin Schrödinger in the early 20th century to illustrate the uncertainty principle. In this scenario, a cat is in an enclosed box with a device that, if an atom of a radioactive substance decays, the cat will be killed. While in the box and unobserved, the scenario suggests the cat is both alive and dead, and only assumes a single state of being once observed. (TOS novel: Preserver, SCE eBook: Sargasso Sector)
A similar thought experiment in Vulcan science was called T'Pral's Sehlat. (TOS novel: Preserver)
The Bynar Soloman considered that the odds for any event were essentially 50/50, with Schrodinger's cat and the uncertainly principle both giving the cat a 50% chance of being alive. (SCE eBook: Sargasso Sector)
The Vulcan language concept of arivne interrelated matter, energy and thought, and was a philosophical counterpart to the scientific ideas expressed in the experiment. (TOS novel: Planet of Judgment)
Zefram Cochrane weighed the experiment against the notion of quantum realities: that the universe would split in two at such a decision point, with the cat being dead in one reality and alive in the other. (TOS novel: Preserver)
History[]
A program hidden within a quantum singularity caused distortion waves from Empok Nor that destabilized space-time, threatening Bajor and its wormhole. But Sonya Gomez warned that taking action meant choosing a perspective against the hidden program, possibly the wrong one according to the thought experiment. (SCE eBook: Lost Time)
When the USS da Vinci was caught in the effects of a sentient Uncertainty Drive in the Sargasso sector, the drive was shut down when Soloman described the thought experiment to it. Stating it aloud defined specific laws of physics for the drive to obey, made it think that it was being observed by Soloman, and that its state should be nonfunctional. (SCE eBook: Sargasso Sector)
A theory of quantum Darwinism might provide a solution to the thought experiment. (DTI novel: Watching the Clock)