Before we open the box, the Schrödinger cat is in a state given by:
Ψ = Aψa + D Ψd , . . (1)
where ψa is the eigenstate where the cat is alive; Ψd is the eigenstate where the cat is dead; A is the probability amplitude that the cat is alive; and D is the probability amplitude that the cat is dead.

Current interpretation: Before you open the box, the cat is Ψ. After you open the box, Ψ physically collapses to either ψa or Ψd . Ψ is a real parameter, in that the collapse is a physical process. That is, before you open the box, the cat is physically in a quantum “nether” world where it is both alive and dead at the same time. It changes from this superposed double existence into just one of them when you open the box.

Probability Indeterministic interpretation: Before you open the box, the cat is either alive or dead at any given time. Not both. You cannot know which because the causal chain that will kill the cat is not deterministic. The quantum process can kill the cat at a time t or it might not have. Either is possible, in principle, and there are no hidden variables that exist which, if known, would let us determine that the cat is alive or dead at the time t. The quantum processes are probabilistic that could kill the cat.

The laws of Quantum Motion produce the equation (1), which tell us the probability amplitudes of whether the cat is alive or dead at any given time t. We can test the Quantum Theory by opening the box at an ensemble of times t and comparing the empirical statistical data with the equation. Period.

Ψ is a mathematical object that contains the most we can know and predict about a system, since the quantum laws of motion are non-deterministic. We can call this object the system’s “quantum state,” but it is not a physical parameter itself. It contains predictions about observable parameters. From the interpretation, it is obvious that when you open the box, the state does not collapse. The “wave function” does not collapse. What happens is that we are simply testing the prediction (equation 1) of the theory. Period.

Of course, one can obviously see how this repudiates the idea that quantum “entanglement” is real, since the so-called “collapse” is not a physical process. The collapse is, at most, the process of calculating the prediction of the theory.