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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">For years I’ve struggled to understand quantum theory. For months I’ve struggled to understand Trump. I understand both better now, because Trump has invented quantum politics and become Schrödinger's Candidate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you know “</span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Schrödinger's cat”? This highly respected thought-experiment dramatizes how parts of the universe behave quite differently from our familiar reality (and from classical physics). I’ve never been able to hold all the elements of the cat experiment in mind long enough to grasp “quantum superposition” or the “uncertainty principle.” </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For those new to Schrödinger's cat, here’s a brief over-simplified summary - skip this section if you don’t need it.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHATUF73LTA-_pddk1dVju7XVd4nYPwGvQvyGKMbj2sJuwyi30jOvOOZaugnqTed_AeCopDaUTVQtJQl5vOPYS7Bw5xD_ASwbzJzabGjNkrn7BVChS4omt5u2hRpqxDfrNrAb/s1600/SchrodingersCatCROPPED6513125065_ef7cfa6256_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt=" - photo of real cat in box with relevant items" border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHATUF73LTA-_pddk1dVju7XVd4nYPwGvQvyGKMbj2sJuwyi30jOvOOZaugnqTed_AeCopDaUTVQtJQl5vOPYS7Bw5xD_ASwbzJzabGjNkrn7BVChS4omt5u2hRpqxDfrNrAb/s200/SchrodingersCatCROPPED6513125065_ef7cfa6256_b.jpg" title="Schrodingers Cat " width="200" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: #252525; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Once upon time, a cat and a device are sealed together inside a box. The highly sensitive and reliable device will release a deadly poisonous gas whenever it first detects even the smallest instance of radioactivity. The box does not block radioactivity. But, when closed, the box does not reveal anything about its contents. <b>Without opening the box, we cannot know whether the cat is alive or dead.</b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet when someone looks in the box, the cat will be seen to be either alive or dead. </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, within the closed box the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That status is offered as an illustration of “quantum superposition.”</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, how has Donald Trump helped me understand, finally, quantum superposition? I.e., that until we open the box, the cat is BOTH alive and dead? Isn’t that a contradiction? And aren’t contradictions excluded from rational discourse by classical logic, mathematics, rhetoric, the legal system, ...journalistic standards?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; line-height: 22.08px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today (May 8, 2016) in “Trump, Truth and the Power of Contradiction,” Michael P. Lynch almost revealed how Donald Trump has finally brought us to the brink of understanding quantum uncertainty. Trump has embraced contradiction. Lynch writes “...Mr. Trump is most effective when he simply says the opposite of what he said before. In part, that’s because Mr. Trump’s contradictions are loud and confident….But it is also because when a person says something as well as its opposite, his listeners can infer that he really believes whichever statement they wish him to believe.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But Lynch didn’t go quite far enough: Trump’s contradictions are like Schrödinger's cat. Trump believes </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the statements...until we open the box. Trump is Schrödinger's Candidate!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Schrödinger's Candidate </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[“Schrödinger's Trump?” Or, may I immodestly call this Gilbert’s Candidate?]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Imagine a candidate for elected office unfettered by previous political achievement. A candidate who has never exercised the power, or been restrained by the responsibility, of holding public office. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prior to the results of his first election, this candidate can, indeed, espouse contradictory policies, make contradictory commitments, and embrace contradictory principles. During the campaign, no one can know which of two or more conflicting positions the candidate will take if he ever has the opportunity to do so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The candidate’s most fervent, hopeful, and naive supporters can each believe that the candidate truly supports and will energetically pursue only </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">their </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">side of each contradiction. </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But those of us who understand the new quantum politics know better: Within the election campaign, the candidate is </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">simultaneously </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pro and con. Really.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you, Donald Trump.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steven W. Gilbert, May 8, 2016</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PS: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How satisfying that only a Reality TV star could demonstrate so effectively a fundamental feature of Quantum Reality.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More…”Schrödinger's cat” in Wikipedia 20160508, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Trump, Truth and the Power of Contradiction,” Michael P. Lynch, professor of philosophy, University of Connecticut, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">New York Times</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> op-ed online as of May 8, 2016: </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/trump-truth-and-the-power-of-contradiction.html?_r=0" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/trump-truth-and-the-power-of-contradiction.html?_r=0</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Print version, New York edition, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">New York Time</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s, May 8, 2016, page SR2 headline: “ Truth, Politics and the Power of Contradiction.”</span></span></div>
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