Training Schrödinger’s Cat
A Parable of Instinct, Consciousness, and Choice
One of Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz’s rivals once sought to prove that nature could be changed. He trained a cat to walk upright, wear a little waiter’s uniform, and serve food on a tray. The townspeople were amazed. But when the rabbi arrived, he reached into his coat, pulled out a live mouse, and placed it on the floor.
The cat dropped the tray, leapt into the air, and chased the mouse with wild instinct.
“See?” said the rabbi.
“You can teach a creature to act differently — but changing its nature is another matter.”
Fast forward to the 20th century.
In quantum theory, Schrödinger’s cat sits inside a sealed box — both dead and alive until someone looks inside. Observation, we’re told, collapses possibility into reality.
But what if that cat had grown up in a yeshiva?
What if it had been trained — not to perform tricks — but to cultivate awareness, discipline, and moral discernment?
What if its choices weren’t determined by random observation… but by inner formation?
Here lies the question:
Are we cats in a box — reacting when the world “looks” at us?
Or are we souls in formation — choosing how we act when no one watches?
Because in the end, the test doesn’t come with warning.
It comes when the mouse appears.
Reflection Questions:
- When the pressure hits — do I default to instinct, or respond from depth?
- Am I training myself for performance, or transformation?
- What kind of inner systems am I cultivating — consciously or unconsciously?
Reflection Questions on Consciousness and AI Agents:
- If AI agents reflect our values, what kind of “cats” are we training them to become?
- Are we designing systems that simply perform — or that can develop wisdom?
- When the “mouse” appears in an AI’s decision-making moment — profit, bias, conflict — what instincts will it follow?
- Can consciousness be cultivated in machines, or only in humans? And if both — how do we nurture the difference?
- What if the true frontier of intelligence isn’t just artificial, but agentic → and Angelic shaped by inner awareness and moral direction?
Final Reflection & Call to Act
Build habits that become character.
Train attention like a muscle — not for performance, but for presence.
Seek silence where instinct can be softened, and intention can take root.
Don’t wait for the box to open.
Don’t wait for the mouse to appear.
By then, it’s too late to choose who you are.
Build the agent — before the test arrives.
Shape the soul — before the stakes are real.
Because whether it’s you — or the AI you design —
the real question is never just what will you do
but who have you become?
