A hypothetical situation.

[Tommy Allison]

Let's say every day, a cat stares up at my window from my alley. This cat, just stares, does nothing, but stares. It looks just like MY cat, but isn't my cat.

You never see the cat show up, and you never actually see it leave.

If one were to take a photograph of it, should one expect to photograph a cat?

If said cat were just an alien, using a screensaver like Derrel Sims talked about?

[neuromancer]

Solving the Schrödinger's equation associated with the probability of finding or not finding the cat in the foto gives me the following solution! here's the pictorial representation of the same!

[Gene Steinberg]

Originally Posted by neuromancer

Solving the Schrödinger's equation associated with the probability of finding or not finding the cat in the foto gives me the following solution! here's the pictorial representation of the same!

Cute cat, but my wife is allergic. We can only handle dogs, so long as she walks them of course

[CapnG]

Damn you, Scrhoedinger! I can't pet a possible cat!

[Rick Deckard]

Originally Posted by Tommy Allison

Let's say every day, a cat stares up at my window from my alley. This cat, just stares, does nothing, but stares. It looks just like MY cat, but isn't my cat.

You never see the cat show up, and you never actually see it leave.

If one were to take a photograph of it, should one expect to photograph a cat?

If said cat were just an alien, using a screensaver like Derrel Sims talked about?

When you say "hypothetical" do you really mean "actual"? To me this sounds like "I have a friend, who has a problem...".

My advice - take a picture and see for yourself...

...after all, the camera NEVER lies, right?

[Aaron LeClair]

Originally Posted by Tommy Allison

Let's say every day, a cat stares up at my window from my alley. This cat, just stares, does nothing, but stares. It looks just like MY cat, but isn't my cat.

You never see the cat show up, and you never actually see it leave.

If one were to take a photograph of it, should one expect to photograph a cat?

If said cat were just an alien, using a screensaver like Derrel Sims talked about?

Not sure I follow. Is this a sort of thought experiment like Schrodinger's cat? If the cat is a hallucination, no pic would show a cat. If it is a real cat then yes you could take a pic of it.

I know of some cases where it is thought by some that owls, deer, aliens etc. were used as screen memories. I guess one could say that your seeing a cat is alien or human mind control, but I wouldn't conclude that over a real cat or hallucinating without supporting evidence. I saw none given in the hypothetical. Any conclusion is a belief to some degree. The degree is dependent on the quality and quantity of evidence/facts and knowledge that backs it up or not. Low evidence = more room for belief. High evidence = less room for belief and more reason and possibility of a fact and certainty. Sorry, a little hard to explain.

[Tommy Allison]

I actually had a friend who had a similar experience.

I was debating on drawing a comic about this sort of thing where aliens would be impersonating, or seeding someone's mind with something else in order to fool the person into believing they weren't seeing an alien.

I think it's been done before though.