Schrödinger’s Internet

Cliffy died in 2010, but I did not know that until last week. Until then he was still alive to me.  I liked him, had not heard from him in many years and, as I have done so many times before, went looking for him online.  The adage holds true, be careful what you ask for. I want to add, be careful what you look for.

I am the North American representative for INACH (International Network Against Cyber Hate),  an accomplished internet investigator and researcher, and usually find what I am looking for - eventually.  We have all searched for people from our past who mean something to us. Helping others in this way, and with other online challenges, is extremely rewarding. When all the digging through endless piles of online manure is done, we sometimes find a pony, sometimes a rhinoceros, and sometimes tears.

People disappear for any number of reasons. There is no way to totally disappear, but with a little effort and time, you can get close. When someone does not want to be found, you should respect that. When they have disappeared, not by choice, you must respect that.  There are always exceptions, but they all come at a price.

Until last week, Cliffy was both alive and dead. Something called superposition.  That is the essence of the Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment. When I found Cliffy, opened the reality of things on the internet, the reality of the two possibilities collapsed. Cliffy was indeed dead.

The internet acts like Schrödinger’s box, holding the truth of different realities but requiring an act of will to open it up and find the reality.

I do not think Schrödinger liked cats. I do not think he gave much thought to the cat. It was all about the box and the experiment.

I do not think the internet industry likes us. It historically has not given much thought to the people inside the internet. Internet users have, for far too long, been secondary to the internet itself and the experiment of all the stuff inside. The internet companies own the boxes on the internet and can decide to collapse the possibilities of information and help determine the reality, if they are brave enough.

This is the great conundrum of science and commerce. What comes first, the experiment or the cat; the totality of possibilities of information or the reality.  

Schrödinger’s cat is not a real cat. Schrödinger’s box is not a real box. It was never meant to be left closed. Superposition may be real, but it is not reality. You only get reality when you open the box and feed the cat or bury it.

I do not like that Cliffy is gone, but that is the reality. To change reality is to fictionalize it.