Page 14 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

Justice in Limbo

supporter, who then must fight to keep the evidence hidden from
the other reporter; that could go either way, with some moral
dilemma—not ethical—if one of them winds up murdering the
other. The second case is the same problem, but the antagonist is
the one to make the discovery, just ahead of the other; more
possibilities for mayhem of dubious justifiability. The other set of
alternatives is the converse: the judge is found alive, creating an
opportunity for the same sort of murders. How you end that sort of
nasty business depends on the sort of catharsis you want to provide
your readers.”
“Uh, thank you. Anyone else?”
Fred Feghootsky spoke up.
“As your title implies, the vanished lady is somewhere between
alive and dead. It reminds me of Schrödinger’s cat, the unfortunate
analogy to quantum states we are taught in physics: the cat in a
sealed box with a vial of toxic gas which might spill before the box
is opened. Until that act of observation occurs, it is somehow
proper to consider the cat both dead and alive—two incompatible
states of being treated as coexistent. Now, suppose the judge’s
plane flipped over and sank with her trapped inside, oxygen running
out and no way to contact anyone. The searchers together find
her—they would have to be skilled divers, of course—but cannot
tell if she is dead or alive inside. No way to find out unless they
break open the cockpit. That, however, would flood the fuselage
and probably drown her. But if they don’t open it, the judge will
asphyxiate—if she isn’t dead already. And if she still breathes, they
can’t tell if there is enough oxygen left to keep her going until the
professional rescuers arrive. So she is not merely both dead and
alive, but finding out would be an action that could kill her or save
her. Now you have the climax, resembling a scene where untrained
personnel must disarm a time bomb. And all those conflicts
between the journalists mentioned already would come to the fore,
leading to the possibilities nicely summarized by Rutger.”
“Well, that angle certainly hadn’t occurred to me. But I don’t
think I could invoke that physics paradox without providing more

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