In very simplistic terms, Determinism is the idea that our choices and decisions are in reality merely the *effects* of surrounding conditions, or perhaps that events in time are predetermined, rather than the result of our own free will.

Schroedinger's Cat was a paradoxical thought experiment answer to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, so to tie everything together, we need to start with the Copenhagen Interpretation.

In very simplistic terms, the Copenhagen interpretation is an abstraction of how quantum matter behaves, by representing quantum matter as a "wave function" of all possibilities, which, when measured, "collapses" to an actual measurable state. For example, the position of an electron orbiting an atomic nucleus at a given moment is essentially impossible to predict, but one can predict a mathematical function that describes the *probability* of the position of the electron at a given moment. Once actually measured, the position of the electron at that moment is finally known for certain. The Copenhagen Interpretation and importantly the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle say (again in very simplistic terms) that the position of the electron was *indeterminate* and that it exits equally at all possible locations described by its wave function, and that it only occupies an actual location when a measurement is actually taken, -or more simply, it doesn't take on a real location until you actually go look to see where it is.

Shrodinger theorized the use of a "diabolical apparatus" to couple a quantum experiment to a macro-scale living thing (a cat). If the Copenhagen Interpretation (including the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle) were to be accepted, we'd say that the position of a subatomic particle is indeterminate, and simultaneously located equally at all locations described by its wave function, until we open the lid of the experiment box and look to measure where the particle really is. If the particle is coupled to an apparatus whereby it sets off a geiger counter in one position, and if the counter is coupled to a hammer that breaks a vial of poison boxed up with the cat, then the cat must also be simultaneously alive and dead, until we open the box to measure the location of the subatomic particle, and discover whether it indeed set off the geiger counter. But in the macro-world, we don't have simultaneously alive and dead cats.

If we run Shroedinger's experiment backwards, starting with the macro scale cat, we can say that the cat in the box is obviously either alive or dead, and thus the subatomic particle's position either did or did not interact with the geiger counter, and that our act of measuring the position does not determine the fate of the cat; the cat's fate was predetermined by the actual position of the subatomic particle without our interference, whether we choose to open the box or not, which is what we set out to show: That the fate of the cat was the effect of a real state (the actual position of a real subatomic particle), and that our free will to examine that state (or not) had no effect on the cat's living-or-dead status, it was not existing in both alive-and-dead states, it was instead one, or the other, regardless of whether we chose to examine and measure the position of the subatomic particle, and thus influence the fate of the cat. It was, *deterministic*.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenberg_Uncertainty_Principle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_interpretation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat

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