The Outrage is Rigged!
Quantum mechanics enters the conversation about NFL refereeing
Let me be clear: I do not have a degree in physics and no expertise in what is and isn’t going on at the atomic level. I can barely discern truth from fiction at our macro level; it’s a struggle. But as a picture maker of the absurd, i.e., a cartoonist, I had to take this idea from sketchy vagueness to a finished cartoon.
Many cartoonists and fans of the art form follow Daily Cartoonist to get their fix of industry news and views from journalists Mike Peterson and D.D. Degg.
On January 25th, Mike penned a column titled, “Where Ignorance is Bliss …” in which he referenced the controversial ending to the AFC Championship game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Did Josh Allen make that fourth-down plunge Sunday? It’s not about the line of gain or where the refs spotted the ball. It’s about whether you’re a Chiefs fan, in which case he was short, or a Bills fan, in which case he made it.”
Were both states true? Now that the term “alternative facts” has muscled its way into our language, reality appears to have become a subjective experience. Mike’s observation made me think about the famous Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment.
Erwin Schrödinger photo credit: www.nobelprize.org
From the Caltech Science Exchange:
Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level. It aims to uncover the properties and behaviors of the very building blocks of nature.
I don’t want to go too far off the road, but my point is that the micro-universe is a very strange place where one thing can be in multiple places or states at the same time, as explained in this cool video about Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment.
So, if atomic-level weirdness could be applied to our macro level, where was the ball at its furthest advance? Did the Bills rightfully earn a first down, or did they rightfully fall short and give the ball to Kansas City? It’s a guessing game when a ref spots a ball he cannot observe.
I hope this layman’s attempt to shed photons on a cartoon gag is not both funny and unfunny at the same time, but I learned something along the way, and I hope you did, too.