The novel _Endymion_ imagines a “Schrödinger’s Catbox”: a sealed studio apartment with a radioactive sample hooked up to a geiger counter hooked up to a quantit

The novel _Endymion_ imagines a “Schrödinger’s Catbox”: a sealed studio apartment with a radioactive sample hooked up to a geiger counter hooked up to a quantity of cyanide gas. So it randomly kills its occupant. The need for the box is premised on the argument that whoever sticks someone in the catbox isn’t actually guilty of murder. The primary cause is the random decay of the radioactive sample. This is, of course, sophistry. But it illustrates how easily a can convince oneself that the presence of a random element waters down ethical responsibility. Particularly if there’s a financial or political incentive driving the desire for absolution of blame.