So … What If Aliens’ Quantum Computers Explain Dark Energy?

When I lived within the Bay Area, I used to get along with my buddy Jaron Lanier to discover the implications of spectacularly bizarre thought experiments.

Outlandish thought experiments have been important within the mental historical past of science, however the level isn’t the weirdness itself. The payoff of interested by unusual issues like Schrödinger’s cat, the notorious cat that’s alive and useless on the identical time, is just not essentially that we must always then “believe” within the existence of such a cat. Instead, we will hope that unusual concepts will make clear the murky margins of our ideas; within the case of Schrodinger’s cat, in coping with the query of superposition. The level is to not confuse or bamboozle individuals, however to ultimately discover a method to assume that makes extra sense and is rather less murky.

The weird notion I need to think about right here got here from a dialogue of the seek for alien life kinds. There are quite a lot of methods to search for indicators of alien life within the universe, often involving a big array of telescopes. One strategy is based on the hope that maybe astronomers will get fortunate and probability upon an alien radio broadcast. But within the thought experiment Lanier and I explored, we thought-about a special and much more dramatic chance.

Suppose that there are many alien civilizations working massively capacious quantum computer systems of the type that Google and others are simply starting to construct right here on Earth. This results in a query of excessive weirdness: Would an excessive quantity of very distant quantum computation end in any astronomically observable impact? Could we people see proof of a universe teeming with quantum computer systems by rigorously inspecting the night time sky?

We considered numerous methods this is likely to be doable, however ultimately we centered on one great chance. So right here it’s: First, alien quantum computer systems may clarify the thriller of dark energy, as a result of computation by multitudes of alien creatures throughout the universe bends (or moderately unbends) the universe as an entire. Because we will observe the impact of darkish power, accelerating the enlargement of the universe, this suggests that we’ve got already seen proof that our universe is alive past us—we simply haven’t acknowledged it as such! And we discovered, luckily, that considering this virtually imponderable notion has a human-scale sensible payoff: It helps us make clear how we take into consideration believable relationships between gravity and quantum data. (If you assume that is unusual, it is best to learn a few of the competing concepts. One current paper means that darkish power is definitely an indication that point is about to stop to be time and switch into house as a substitute. We’d then be frozen out of time, however be 4 dimensional. Compared to that, our proposal, aliens and all, is virtually tame.)

Let’s undergo the argument step-by-step: What is a quantum laptop, and why would aliens be utilizing them?

Let’s assume that, similar to us, loads of alien civilizations will need the absolute best computer systems for some function or different. For the sake of argument, we’ll assume the aliens need to get pleasure from high-quality digital actuality, and they also construct computer systems to make that occur. If the computer systems that run alien VR are of the classical type we use today (primarily based on the mathematical framework laid down within the mid-20th century by laptop science pioneers John von Neumann and Alan Turing), then aliens would typically endure an inferior type of virtual-world expertise. You may assume that classical computer systems ought to be as much as the duty—in spite of everything, the particular results in motion pictures are getting pretty reasonable, and classical computer systems are in a position to calculate these results—however they aren’t. Remember that motion pictures are ready prematurely. Virtual actuality, nevertheless, should create sensations for the human physique on the fly and as rapidly as actuality does.

Classical computer systems can’t work that quick. Furthermore, there are circumstances the place the human physique is ready to reply to actuality on the highest doable degree of sensitivity. For instance, the retina can in sure circumstances, generate a neural response to a single photon. In a case like that, the human physique has turn out to be as discriminating as physics can probably permit. Just as classical computer systems can’t be as quick because the universe, they will’t be that discerning, both. If we assume that aliens elsewhere additionally developed to be as delicate to this final, quantum degree of actuality in some particular circumstances as we’re to gentle, then after they attempt to design a nonquantum supercomputer and VR equipment that would simulate actuality on the final degree of element, they might have run into issues. That’s one purpose we guess that discerning aliens would search the facility of quantum computer systems to run their digital worlds.