Dirk waves over the bartender and slides his glass out with a nod, looking for a refill. "Schrodinger proposed the idea of a cat in a box with a radioactive isotope with a fifty/fifty chance of decaying and killing the cat. The box, for the purpose of the mental excercise, is soundproof, yet designed such that the cat running out of air, food, or water is not an issue. Because the probability of the cat being alive or dead is an even split, and because our observation affects the nature of reality- and it does, I'll explain quarks later if you'd like- so long as you have yet to open the box and observe the cat's state of existence, it is in a state of... open possibility, if you will. Until observed, the cat is simultaneously both alive and dead. Existential uncertainty."

((OMG I can't believe I typed that without looking it up...))