Quantum Computing as Viewed from the Perspective of Platonic Metaphysics (and it's effect on Bitcoin and the Legal System)
There’s been a lot of concern about how bitcoin’s SHA256 encryption will no longer be secure when quantum computing comes online, but there’s currently in development quantum resistant SHA that will be able to resist such an attack. Most probably don’t understand the greater ramifications of quantum mechanics. It’s generally ignored outside of this field and the legal field still operates as if Newtonian physics is in charge. There’s no judgement for “guilty” and “not guilty” at the same time even though that is now potentially part of physical reality.
To understand how quantum computing works, you first have to understand a little bit about quantum mechanics. Light can be thought of in terms of wave phenomena and particles. Einstein claimed that light is made of tiny particles called “photons” and other scientists demonstrated that light also behaves as a wave with interference patterns. The usual expectation for someone familiar with Newtonian physics is to think in terms of particles.
Back in the 1800's some scientists conducted a double slit experiment, with a beam of light passing between two vertical slits in a wall that would then project to a back wall. The expectation was that there would be two illuminated vertical beams, but that’s not what happened. Watch the video below to see why…
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At the sub atomic level, the macro laws of physics appear to break down and there is a lot of baffling weirdness. The material universe appears to have a lower limit of numerical division such that there’s not a number of lower value in the practical sense. In theoretical mathematics, one can divide infinitely. Neils Bohr theorized that matter was composed of a nucleus with orbiting electrons similar to what one sees with planets orbiting the Sun in the solar system. But when the atom changed energy state, there was a “quantum” jump from one orbit to the next with no in between. It’s as if the fabric of space no longer has continuity at the lower levels.
source - light that passed through the double slit behaved differently upon observation.
Bohr also said that there’s a minimum level of energy below what one can not go, which is called a quanta. These quanta are not divisible. You can’t have half a quanta, it is either all or none.
Platonic Metaphysics as a Lens
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We might start by asking the question “what is distance?”. Does it partake of the principles of Sameness or Otherness? If the big bang theory of the universe is correct, then in the beginning everything was in a nearly infinitely small space approximately the size of an electron. But what is the size of an electron? If there is nothing else yet to compare it to, how do you know what size the universe is?
Comparison involves a principle known as the indeterminate Dyad and requires a step beyond that which involves the realm of eidetic numbers. This means that comparison can’t happen yet because originally was the Monad (the principle of oneness and unification) and order has not been established yet in terms of before and after, nor cause and effect. Can cause come after effect relative to the passage of time? Scientists recently saw something come out of a black hole for the first time (this is assuming we aren't seeing backwards in terms of time).
In this sense, the big bang theory would be that Monadic moment in which everything existed all at once. Plato seems to have associated the ideas of the Monad, Oneness and the realm of Nous with “sameness” and the principle of the Dyad, Duality and Hule (the material world) with “otherness”. The Dyad acts as a principle that introduces contrariety into the world, by saying "this, not that".
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So I ask again how do we get “distance”? If defined in computer science, is it a boolean variable or a real number? At some point distance has to first arrive by saying “not the same place”. This doesn’t happen under the principle of Sameness, but is a result of the indeterminate Dyad saying “not Same”, or “not here”. This is in essence a boolean variable first at the quantum level, then becomes a real number at the macro level of Newtonian physics.
Einstein objected to this idea but didn’t have a good explanation for this behavior which is something that he worked on for the rest of his life. He died unable to come to terms with the quantum mechanical view of the world. Light seems to have properties that allow it to be in two places at the same time. Einstein called this “spooky action at a distance”.
Now back to the video at the top... Remember that the wave function was collapsed simply by observation? It went back to behaving like a particle. This is because observation is a choice. It partakes of the idea of "this one, not this one" and so it's more in line with the idea of duality and the indeterminate Dyad. But the wave function is more in line with the principle of Sameness and the realm of Nous, because it represents all potentialities.
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The basic idea is that the Qubit uses light to manifest this boolean state of zeros and ones typical in traditional computers, but without being limited to one or the other. A Qubit is capable of representing both true and false at the same time using quantum entanglement. Remember Schrodinger’s Cat? The act of observing the cat produced a single result. Either the cat was dead or it was alive (or guilty vs not guilty, true vs false), but if it’s not observed, then the state is multiple. If one then creates a loop which is analogous to passing that light wave through one slit called true and another called false, then doing this multiple times, the number of states that can be calculated (or represented) escalates very quickly in hyper logarithmic fashion.
The phenomenon of quantum enganglement seems to make the reality of the universe meaningless without observation, because observation collapses the wave function into one or the not one instead of a probabilistic potential. What does this say about the act of judgement? Does the cause precede the event or does it come after the event? Since electrons can be anywhere in their orbits and when split by wave function, they can spin in the opposite direction (but if one spins up, the other must spin down and vice versa given the same orientation), one can introduce complex representation with minimal work in a computational circuit.
An implication of quantum entanglement (what Einstein called "spooky action at a distance") is that the speed of light can be exceeded. Remember the "quantum leap" where the electron made that jump instantaneously? What distance is this being measured over? Is there really any distance at all? At that level the speed of light seems to be instantaneous but at the macro level the speed of light as a particle is 186,000 miles per second (which means that the speed of light as wave phenomena cannot really be measured?).
Quantum phenomena potentially undermines both encryption and the legal framework for assessing right and wrong. While the damage to encryption is likely only temporary, the damage to the legal framework and the principles of cause and effect will likely become more permanent as more people come to understand that ethics and morality and end results may not necessarily have the links we think they do. Can a judge make someone guilty or innocent simply by observation?
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umm read it all but its really hard to understand i understood phenomena of interference of light but did not understood its relation with quantum computing .
Very interesting article.
It is correct that there are superluminal effects in physics, but so far none of them allows to transmit any information. If I set up an entangled pair of particles, I keep one and I send the second to someone in another galaxy. If I measure later, that immediately gives me information on the far away particle.
The problem is that I can in no way influence what I will measure, so I cannot send information to the person in the other galaxy.
I completely see the concerns of bitcoin quantum security. I also understand the idea of quantum law, but this problem seems to be purely philosophical. Am I missing something?
Quantum entanglement used in computing with lasers can produce predictable results but have to be preserved with supercooled chips. The problem at this point seems to be how to read the results of that state.
I am not aware of these developments. I will look into the results and their interpretation.
Anyways, reading the results is certainly the main issue currently, but in my understanding this is not related to superluminal information propagation.
Unfortunately entangled particles themselves have to obey the speed of light rule, yeah we could communicate instantly over vast distances with them but not until they have been distributed, which could take millions of years by any practical means.
Indeed the universe is meaningless without an observer but when a single photon that's been around since the beginning of time (or any other particle) counts as an observer there is no reason to think we are special in that respect and a crime is still a crime whether a judge "observes" it or not. It annoys me when people take the logic of Quantum Mechanics and apply it to the macro world, you cannot do the Schroedinger's cat experiment for real, that was the point of it.
As for quantum computers, don't worry, unlikely we could build anything that does not de-cohere before rendering anything other than trivial results. This is not a limit of our technology, it's the nature of the universe.
complex stuff, does a quantum computer store data in the alternative universe the one that exists between a particle and a wave?
I don't know. It might be that because of time, that each forward moment is a fracturing into different universes. Then the measurement that one makes is what comes out in your reality while the measurement that comes out everywhere else is not.
hmm, it's very hard to articulate unless your a particle physicist I guess.
There are different interpretations of quantum mechanics and all of them are more philosophy that actual physics. This is because all of them make the same predictions. The real problem is not with quantum mechanics, it is with making a human understand quantum mechanics.
One of these is the many worlds interpretation. In this way of thinking, the Universe forks to realise everything that could happen from the given initial conditions. When you make a measurement you just try to figure out in which of the possible Universes you happen to live.
In quantum computing you carefully set up a quantum system that is able to do a simple computation. In the many worlds interpretation, the system will now do all possible computations at once (but creating different forked Universes), and whenever you measure you will find which one it did in the Universe you live in. So it did do only one operation, just like a classical computer.
So where is the advantage. In a classical system you will always find the same answer if you repeat the same operation. For a classical computer to find a different answer, takes as much time as to set up the system for a different computation. In a quantum computing system this is no longer needed. You only need to wait a very short quantum time-scale and repeat the same operation. This time your path through the web of all possibilities is different and you find another answer to a different question. In practice this timescale is so short that when you measure, you directly obtain a superposition of all possible computations (doable in the system you prepared) at once.
kinda makes sense and I think that's what I was getting at. The computations take place in another dimension (forked universe) and in this universe appear almost instantly as the outcome of the computation. It is mind blowing to be fair. I guess consciousness is a bit like a quantum computer too.
I love the merging of science and spirituality. It is amazing to see that science is now proving a lot of what the ancients have stated for centuries.
If indeed thoughts are things and our thinking is really just "observing", then selecting a positive outlook and narrowing it down in the field of possibilities. Of course, choosing the reverse is true.
As an aside, with the race to quantum computing be run by many companies, isnt the one who wins given a huge advantage or will it be one gets it and others follow closely behind?
Quantum is one of those game changers and in the hands of one company, could be very dangerous? Or is that just the conspiracy theorist in me?
Quantum resistant SHA is also being developed. I don't think we have that much to worry about. These machines are incredibly expensive to run, so they will be used for those things that are really important.
It's also the case the dismantling is 10x easier than creation.
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