The New Look of Quanta

Pravir Malik
3 min readSep 10, 2021

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I recently did an interview with Engati CX where I offered my perspective on quanta and quantum computing:

“The New Look of Quanta” is an interesting title Engati arrived at, and I suppose there is truth to it given the interpretation of quanta I have continually put forward. In its simplest form, the essence of such an interpretation is captured in this brief blog post, Quanta and the big bang, in a couple of paragraphs. A triangulated and more comprehensive approach to understanding its central place in the scheme of things is offered in Three Expressions of a Unified Field.

The interview itself covered some interesting ground:

  1. What are the potential benefits of this new paradigm of quantum computing? Note that I address the existing approach to quantum computing based on the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, and the quantum computing I propose, based on a ‘Quaternary Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics’ simply summarized as QIQuantum.
  2. What are the key principles of quantum theory that have direct implications for quantum computing? Here I made the point that any device that leveraged entanglement, superposition, annealing, or tunneling, or any combination of these at the quantum level, is by definition a quantum computer.
  3. What are the main challenges in building a scalable software systems stack for quantum computing? My emphasis here is on the alternative technology stack that a quaternary interpretation of quantum mechanics would offer, with its corollary implication of massive and unforeseen impact for new industrial development.
  4. There is much speculation regarding the cybersecurity threats of quantum computing. What is your take on this? Here I emphasized that while bottom-up entanglement is the approach to cybersecurity, entanglement as a phenomenon is already abundant and in fact ensures that the behavior of an atom with a particular atomic number, will remain consistent universally. The corollary to this is that phenomena such as entanglement and superposition need to be thought of differently.
  5. What is the current status of research in quantum computing? What is the vision ahead for quantum computing? Here I continued to draw a contrast between what I see as a limited possibility if the Copenhagen Interpretation remains central to quantum computing, versus a quaternary interpretation that would fling the doors of possibility wide open.
  6. Are there any other soundbites that you would like to leave with our audience? The biggest one remains that mystery that any quantum computer is tapping into by virtue of operating in the realm where the invisible becomes visible. Such a computer needs to be built to draw out the possibilities of such mystery, rather than regurgitate approaches already hammered out by digital computers.
Adapted from: canva.com

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