Quantum Robots: Scientific Fiction and Reality

Patricia S. Warrick

Alexander Bannikov, Simon J. Egerton, Callaghan Vic +2 more

This paper describes work that seeks to take the first steps towards demonstrating the application of Sci-Fi prototyping methodology to developing futuristic products. Science-Fiction Prototyping is based on an iterative interaction between science fiction and fact. We begin the paper by explaining the science-fiction prototyping process. We then identify a futuristic product to act as an exemplar of this process (free willed domestic robots) before describing virtual-reality systems and how they can provide a suitable visualisation environment for conceptualizing products. Next we identify a paper that provides a promising approach to emulating intelligent control and free-will, quantum computing. We then provide an introduction to quantum computing and argue the need for a special quantum development environment before presenting an architecture for the quantum development tools and the robot. Finally we present an evaluation methodology before summarising our work. We are in the process of implementing this system and we hope that by the time the workshop occurs, we will be able to report some initial results.

Marek A. Perkowski

Lee Clarissa Ai Ling

: The short story is a condensed and modified version of a novel of ideas that will be part of my dissertation. The protagonist, an experimental particle physicist, is sent on a mission to recover a hidden notebook supposedly belonging to Schrödinger (a ‘what-if’ fictive element) that will reveal how the latter had discovered the way for quantum behaviour to be inserted into the macroscopic world of lived-reality, therefore making probable conditions that are impossible under classical laws. Concepts and ideas within quantum physics are used to explore ethical and philosophical questions situated within a macro-human social rubric to instigate an investigation into the hermeneutics of realism. I hope to demonstrate, via the story, that knowledge production in scientific practices is about the exploration of different permutations of reality, and that play, a form of ludic methodology, is ritually performed in scientific work, such as in thought-experiments and ‘fictional’ modeling to reconstruct multiple worlds (extending beyond straightforward simulation).

Prateek Tandon, Stanley Lam, Ben Shih +3 more

D.O. Walter

Fictions are well established in the theory and practice of civil law; similar importance is here claimed for fictions in the theory and application of scientific law. A puzzle from quantum mechanics, previously referred to in this Journal [Am. J. Physiol. 238 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 7(: R277-R290, 1980], is reinterpreted by suggesting quantum logic as a source of relevant fictions, which indicate a solution to that puzzle. Another physiological application of quantum theory suggests that the concept of "the state of the brain" may, in its usual classical sense, not be useful for an individual brain--but may well be suggestively modeled by a quantum state. The notion of "myths," usually only pejoratively applied in positivistic writings, is suggested for rehabilitation, in view of their helpful function (often unnoticed) even in positivistic thinking. Finally, an example of a biological simulation (of a tumor by a cell culture) is presented, to show that its multilayered fictionalizations illustrate the surprising fact that a simulation that is insulated from the system being simulated can be logically more powerful than any uninsulated simulation.