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arXiv:2512.17991

Recasting Schrödinger's Cat Thought Experiment as a Remote Measurement Problem

Lucas L. Brugger, Cristhiano Duarte, Bruno F. Rizzuti

quant-phSubmitted Dec 19, 2025• Announced Dec 22, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

With 2025 being declared the Year of Quantum Science and Technology, our contribution seeks to provide a fresh perspective on Schrödinger's cat thought experiment. We reinterpret this experiment by viewing it through the lens of quantum theory as a generalisation of classical probability, rooted in a Bayesian subjectivist framework. In this revised approach, we treat the experiment as a remote measurement problem. Specifically, we explore how the beliefs of two agents, Alice and Bob, who are spatially separated yet share a quantum state, are updated when local measurements are conducted on their respective systems. Through this reinterpretation of the well-known experiment, we also aim to offer an educational perspective that will be beneficial for young scientists interested in the field of quantum theory.

Comments
13 pages, 3 figures

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With 2025 being declared the Year of Quantum Science and Technology, our contribution seeks to provide a fresh perspective on Schrödinger's cat thought experiment. We reinterpret this experiment by viewing it through the lens of quantum theory as a generalisation of classical probability, rooted in a Bayesian subjectivist framework. In this revised approach, we treat the experiment as a remote measurement problem. Specifically, we explore how the beliefs of two agents, Alice and Bob, who are spatially separated yet share a quantum state, are updated when local measurements are conducted on their respective systems. Through this reinterpretation of the well-known experiment, we also aim to offer an educational perspective that will be beneficial for young scientists interested in the field of quantum theory.
The most discussed thought experiment in quantum mechanics (QM) is the one of the dead+living cat, which sets out to explain what is known as the measurement problem. Since the first years of QM, and despite various arguments, the widespread beliefs of the past few years have tended towards including a conscious observer in the act of measurement. Various different opinions have been expressed on the measurement problem by various schools of thought and leading physicists, but none of them has been decisive. Especially, the introduction of an observer (human-brain-consciousness-mind-intelligence) carrying out measurements into the experiment or into the setup of the experiment has led to even more complex problems. Today also, new solutions are being put forward. This article deals with the thought experiment of Schrodinger’s cat and suggestions for alternative solutions by introducing a conscious observer. NeuroQuantology |June 2012 | Volume 10 | Issue 2 | Page 216-229
Schrodinger's cat is traditionally presented as a paradox highlighting the tension between quantum superposition and classical observation. Standard interpretations invoke either a fundamental wavefunction collapse, ontological branching of universes, or subjective Bayesian updating. In this paper, we propose a reinterpretation grounded in the Informational Observer Framework, according to which the paradox does not originate from an ontological superposition of macroscopic states, but from an unresolved informational configuration at the observer level. The cat itself is never simultaneously alive and dead; rather, the observer remains in a state of informational compression prior to interaction. Within this framework, wavefunction collapse is reinterpreted as an observer-level informational phase transition, not as a fundamental physical discontinuity. This approach preserves macroscopic realism, avoids ontological inflation, and reframes the measurement problem as an emergent informational phenomenon.
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[Author’s Note (April 2026)]Supersession Notice: This 2025 paper explores the early KB-Flux framework. It has been structurally overhauled and formally superseded by “The Light & Flux (L&F) Framework (2026)”. While the 2025 version relies on cognitive metaphors—treating the wave function as a “generative model” —the 2026 L&F framework provides a rigorous mathematical proof deriving complex Hilbert space from finite-inference constraints. It replaces “phenomenal grammar” with the Simplex Projection (𐍀), grounded in metabolic and thermodynamic mandates. Researchers seeking the formal Non-Derivability Principle and a stratified three-tier ontology should refer to the 2026 version. Original AbstractReaders are advised to treat the present paper strictly as a historical record of the framework’s initial development. For the current, accurate formulation, please refer to the new publication.The measurement problem—why quantum superpositions yield definite outcomes upon observation—has persisted as the central interpretative challenge of quantum mechanics for nearly a century. This paper proposes that the problem dissolves when viewed through the joint lens of Kantian epistemology and predictive processing (Bayesian brain) theory. Drawing on Kant’s distinction between phenomena (experience) and noumena (reality-in-itself), we argue that the quantum wave function (Ψ) does not represent a physical field in the noumenal world, but rather the generative model of a prediction-generating cognitive agent. In this framework, "superposition" represents a state of uninitialized probabilistic expectation (Latent Space), while "collapse" is reinterpreted as a Bayesian belief update—the discrete transition from a probability distribution to a definite value, necessitated by the information-processing constraints of the observer. By treating the observer not as a passive witness but as an active inference engine, this framework: Naturalizes the collapse postulate: Measurement is the update of an internal model, not a physical discontinuity in nature. Resolves nested-observer paradoxes: Wigner's Friend is resolved by treating reality as a distributed system with eventual consistency, where distinct agents hold distinct local cache states. Grounds the Born Rule: We argue that the squared-amplitude probability rule (P=∣Ψ∣2P=|\Psi|^2P=∣Ψ∣2) serves as a transcendental constraint (akin to Gleason’s Theorem) required for the internal consistency of any probabilistic agent. This interpretation suggests that the "weirdness" of quantum mechanics reflects the necessary architectural constraints of any finite mind attempting to model an inaccessible reality, effectively treating physics as the "User Interface" of reality.
This paper reviews and suggests a resolution of the problem of definite outcomes of measurement. This problem, also known as ‘Schrodinger’s cat’, has long posed an apparent paradox because the state resulting from a measurement appears to be a quantum superposition in which the detector is in two macroscopically distinct states (alive and dead in the case of the cat) simultaneously. Many alternative interpretations of the quantum mathematical formalism, and several alternative modifications of the theory, have been proposed to resolve this problem, but no consensus has formed supporting any one of them. Applying standard quantum theory to the measurement state, together with the analysis and results of decades of nonlocality experiments with pairs of entangled systems, this paper shows the entangled measurement state is not a paradoxical macroscopic superposition of states. It is instead a phase-dependent superposition of correlations between states of the subsystems. Thus Schrodinger’s cat is a non-paradoxical ‘macroscopic correlation’ in which one of the two correlated systems happens to be a detector. This insight resolves the problem of definite outcomes but it does not entirely resolve the measurement problem because the entangled state is still reversible.