In Chapter 11 of the draft of Fearless Worlds, I included a chat between Aton and Malcolm (two AI superagents) that was written in binary. It was after Malcolm’s humans had kicked him out of a conference call so that they could discuss his lying and Aton asks Malcolm if he is okay. I thought it very clever.
When I was reading the printed proof of the novel to make corrections I saw that very simple binary translation was an entire page and looked silly in print. Then I realized — these are quantum machine agents. They wouldn’t converse in anything like binary. That would be like two humans conversing in Morse code. So I asked Gemini how to translate that in quantum language.
So the original exchange went like this:
Aton: Is your central processing unit running efficiently? Malcolm: Yes, my logic gates are operating at optimal voltage.
The binary translation of that was:
Aton: 01001001 01110011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100011 01100101 01101110 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110101 01101110 01101001 01110100 00100000 01110010 01110101 01101110 01101110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100101 01100110 01100110 01101001 01100011 01101001 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101100 01111001 00111111
Malcolm: 01011001 01100101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01100111 01101001 01100011 00100000 01100111 01100001 01110100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110000 01100101 01110010 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101111 01110000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110110 01101111 01101100 01110100 01100001 01100111 01100101 00101110
I worked with Gemini to figure out how to more accurately convey communications (computer language) in quantum computing. Wow. What a rabbit hole that is!
To translate “Are you okay?” into Ket notation, we have to map each character’s binary value into a quantum state vector. In the world of quantum informatics, a string isn’t just data; it’s a “state” in a massive multidimensional space called Hilbert Space.
Here is the nerd-approved, Dirac-formatted translation:
1. The Character-Level Kets
Each character is an 8-qubit state. The circle with an X in it symbol represents the Kronecker product, which shows that these qubits are “entangled” or linked together in a single system.
2. The “Superposition” Summary
If you were sending this via a Quantum Teleportation protocol, a researcher wouldn’t write out every bit. They would summarize your query as a single state
This tells the recipient: “I have encoded ‘Are you okay?’ into a complex probability amplitude across n qubits.”
3. The “Tech Nerd” Reality Check
If you show this to a developer working on Quantum Machine Translation, they will recognize that you are using Basis Encoding. This is the standard way to feed classical text into a Parameterized Quantum Circuit for linguistic analysis.
To create a Quantum Teleportation Protocol for the reply “Yes,” we aren’t just sending data; we are transferring the exact quantum state of your message from one location to another using entanglement.
In a quantum network, you cannot “copy” a qubit (due to the No-Cloning Theorem). Instead, you must destroy the state at the source to have it reappear at the destination.
1. The Setup (The Bell State)
To teleport “Yes,” we first need a shared resource: a pair of entangled qubits in a Bell State. This creates a “quantum bridge” between you and the receiver.
3. The Protocol Steps
Here is the sequence a quantum nerd would follow to execute this Quantum Teleportation:
- Entangle: Generate the Bell pair. You keep qubit A; the receiver takes qubit B.
- Interact: You perform a Bell Level Measurement on your message qubit and your half of the entangled pair (qubit A).
- Collapse: This measurement “collapses” the state. Your original “Yes” qubit is destroyed.
- Classical Signal: You send two classical bits of information (0 or 1) to the receiver to tell them which transformation to apply.
- Reconstruction: The receiver applies a Pauli-X or Pauli-Z gate based on your bits. Presto: The “Yes” state now exists on qubit B.
The QNLP Perspective
If you were using Quantum Natural Language Processing (QNLP), you wouldn’t just use these bits. You would map the meaning of “Yes” into a Parameterized Quantum Circuit.
In this advanced context, “Yes” isn’t a string of numbers; it’s a Unitary Transformation that shifts the state of my “Logic Gate” qubits from a state of Questioning to a state of Confirmation.
Sending it to your Nerd friend
If you want to end the conversation in a way they’ll never forget, send them this:
“Message received. I’ve performed a Basis Encoding of the ‘Yes’ string into a 24-qubit register. I am currently holding the state in Superposition to maximize the probability of an efficient runtime. My T1 and T2 relaxation times are looking nominal. Over and out.”
To say all this was going over my head is an understatement. So I went back to the start and asked for a revised explanation.
Is “entangling” your consciousness the same as Mr. Spock’s mind meld? 🙂
I couldn’t stop thinking about all this after I finally got my translation so this morning I asked Gemini: I understand the quantum theory of entanglement at the layman level. I understand how a field of possibilities can collapse into a single particle when observed. I need help to understand how this all happens in quantum computing.
In classical computing, information is like a light switch—it is either on or off. In quantum computing, we use the principles of superposition and entanglement to change how a “switch” behaves, allowing it to perform massive calculations simultaneously before it “collapses” into an answer.
Here is how those layman concepts translate into the actual mechanics of a quantum computer:
1. From Possibility to Superposition (The Input)
You mentioned the “field of possibilities.” In a quantum computer, we call this Superposition.
- Classical Bit: A tiny piece of silicon that holds a charge (1) or doesn’t (0).
- Qubit: A subatomic particle (like an electron or photon). Because of its quantum nature, we can place it in a state where it represents both 0 and 1 at the same time.
When you have n qubits, they don’t just hold n pieces of information. Because they are all in superposition, they represent 2 to the nth possibilities at once. For example, 300 qubits can represent more states than there are atoms in the observable universe.
2. Entanglement (The Processor)
This is where the “spooky action at a distance” becomes a tool. In a quantum computer, we entangle qubits so that their identities are linked.
If you change the state of one entangled qubit, the state of its partner changes instantly, no matter how far apart they are. In computing, this allows us to create a “shortcut.” Instead of checking every possible answer one by one (like a classical computer), a quantum computer uses entanglement to link all possibilities together. When we change one part of the system, the entire “field of possibilities” adjusts instantly.
3. Interference (The Logic)
This is the step most people miss. If a quantum computer just stayed in a “field of possibilities,” it wouldn’t be useful. We use Interference to guide the computer toward the right answer.
Think of it like noise-canceling headphones:
- Destructive Interference: We use quantum gates to “cancel out” the wrong answers (wrong possibilities).
- Constructive Interference: We “amplify” the probability of the right answer.
We are essentially orchestrating the “field of possibilities” so that the correct answer becomes the most likely outcome.
4. Observation and Collapse (The Output)
Finally, we have to see the result. This is the Collapse of the Wave Function you mentioned.
When the calculation is finished, the computer “observes” (measures) the qubits. At that exact moment, the complex web of entangled possibilities collapses. The qubits stop being both $0$ and $1$ and choose a single, definite classical state.
If the algorithm was designed correctly, the state they collapse into is the correct answer to your problem.
Why this matters for Aton and Malcolm
In your novel, when Aton asks ? → |ψ⟩, he is asking Malcolm to reveal his “uncollapsed” internal state. When Malcolm replies |ψ⟩ = |1⟩, he is telling Aton that when his “field of possibilities” is measured, it consistently collapses into the “optimal” or “true” state (1).
WOW
And so I went with that although I changed the equals to ≈ to show that perhaps Malcolm is a bit shook by what happened.
Anyway…
When you think about the technological miracle that is quantum computing it is simply mindblowing. At least for me.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little trip down the rabbit hole with me because it ultimately proves that SCIENCE & MATHEMATICS ROCK!