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Routledge eBooks

Quantum Imaging

Paul Thomas

Published Oct 20, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Art has the remarkable capacity to reveal things previously unrecognisable until they emerge visually, allowing us to accept new images and expand our ability to interpret the world. Such images become additions to the mental archive we use to recognise and understand our surroundings. Imagining something entirely new is, perhaps, altogether impossible insofar as our understanding is rooted in mental models we compare with external images. When it comes to quantum theory, for instance, we struggle to find any existing schema in our reliquary of mental images to draw from—with attempts to visualise quantum phenomena frequently creating only greater confusion as we try to make sense of its novel qualities within more traditional frameworks. An artwork expressing something unfamiliar about the world can challenge viewers to expand their canvas of consciousness, welcoming new possibilities. By attentively examining a work of art, we can sidestep preconceptions that might otherwise cast the unknown as alien. Art invites us to ask, “What sensations does this image offer me? What gift is it extending?”

DOI
10.4324/9781003683285-5

Related papers

Introduction

Hans Halvorson

No scientific theory has caused more puzzlement and confusion than quantum theory. Beginning in 1900, the theory developed in fits and starts and found a consistent mathematical framing only when John von Neumann published his Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik in 1932 [12]. But even today, we struggle to understand the world as pictured by quantum theory. Physics is supposed to help us to understand the world, and yet quantum theory makes it seem a very strange place. One might be tempted to push aside our puzzlement as the result of our clinging to a primitive worldview. But our puzzlement is not merely a psychological obstacle; it is also an obstacle to the development of physics itself. This obstacle is encountered primarily in our attempts to unify quantum theory and the general theory of relativity. As argued persuasively by Chris Isham (who is represented in this volume), Lee Smolin [10], and others, the primary obstacle between us and future physics is our own failure to understand the conceptual foundations of current physical theories. How, then, are we to make conceptual progress? What is the process by which we find a new perspective, a perspective in which previously puzzling phenomena find a place in an intelligible—and perhaps beautiful—structure? I do not wish to make prescriptions or to claim that conceptual progress can be achieved in only one way. But this book begins with the Ansatz that conceptual progress might be achieved through free creations of the human intellect.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Apr 18, 2011•0 citations

QUANTUM ASPECTS OF PERCEIVED REALITY: A NEW ENGAGEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART

Robert de Beaugrande

Journal of Literary Semantics•Jan 1, 1989•2 citations

Art makes quantum intuitive

Grégoire Cattan, Karolina Duś, Sławomir Kuśmia +1 more

Not so long ago, humans were a group of primates living on the savannah. We are reasonably proficient at estimating the trajectory of medium-sized objects, such as falling rocks and arrows, moving at moderate speeds. However, one must acknowledge that our intuition falters when it comes to understanding the behaviour of micro objects moving at very high speeds.Consider, for instance, the famous double-slit experiment. If you throw a ball towards two slits, the ball will pass through one slit, according to a common-sense prediction. However, when small particles, such as photons or electrons, are projected through two closely spaced apertures, the result is as if the particles simultaneously pass through the two apertures. In quantum physics, this unintuitive observation is explained by the wave-particle duality. It means that, physical entities can possess wavelike as well as particle-like characteristics. The duality is analogous to the two sides of a coin; the same reality can be described from different perspectives. Unfortunately, this knowledge does not cause that quantum mechanisms are entirely understandable and intuitional. Therefore, the following question remains open, how can we define quantum art when we are unable to fully grasp quantum mechanics? On a similar note, art itself is challenging to understand, albeit for different reasons. It is widely accepted that art is, to a significant extent, a subjective experience. An artist creates a piece of art that evokes diverse emotions and interpretations when presented to different people. Consequently, how can we bridge the gap between quantum mechanics, which is primarily comprehended through mathematics, and art, which is intuitively understood without the need for conscious reasoning? In other words, how can quantum art make the enigmatic world of quantum more intuitive and accessible?To address these questions, we created a challenge for the HackYeah! hackathon, one of the most prominent stationary events in Europe. We invited people to find an artistic way to illustrate the principles of quantum mechanics, including quantum superposition, entanglement, and decoherence. Approximately 700 individuals attended the event. Multiple challenges were submitted by different companies, and the Quantum Art challenge was chosen by 15 teams that ranged in size from two to seven people. After a short description of the challenge in Section 2, we explore some of these contributions in Section 3. Lastly, Section 4 concludes the paper. In our opinion, the artwork presented, especially the visual ones, helped to makes quantum principles more understandable, intuitive.The purpose of the challenge was to find an artistic way to illustrate quantum mechanics, specifically quantum superposition, entanglement, and decoherence.Quantum superposition refers to a phenomenon where a single particle can exist in two states simultaneously. In contrast to a 'normal' bit, which can be either 0 or 1, a quantum bit is a superposition of both 0 and 1.The measurement operation is the process through which a quantum state is collapsed to either the state 0 or 1. Let us consider two quantum bits; the possible measurement outcomes can be one of the following four combinations: 00, 01, 10, or 11. When only two of these combinations are possible, such as 00 and 11 or 10 and 01, one can state that the quantum bits are entangled because the state of one qubit affects the state of the second qubit and vice-versa.Decoherence of the quantum state is an effect that results from microscopic interactions between the quantum bits and the environment. This environmental noise impacts the state of the quantum bits and can lead to errors in computation. In other words, multiple measurements of the same quantum computation may yield different results. Different quantum computer architectures exhibit varying levels of noise.Here, the following question arises: How can people represent the principles of quantum mechanics in a way that it is tangible, visible, or even audible?In this section, we present a selected panel of examples that were implemented during the HackYeah! hackathon.This project effectively demonstrates the concept of quantum decoherence. It showcases a mosaic in which the arrangement of image elements is determined by the outcomes of quantum measurements (Figure 1). Various mosaics are generated following these measurements and are subsequently combined into an animated GIF. Notably, the greater the instability of the quantum computer, the more pronounced the glitches become within the mosaic. As a testament to its excellence, this project emerged as the winner of the challenge. The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/lukilesny/quantmosaic.This code is based on the previous quantum art of Wiktor Mazin, 1 which exploits the Julia fractal set for image generation. Julia fractals are fractals based on a recursive suite of a complex number.The code performs a straightforward computation that involves the measurement of two qubits. The probabilities of these qubits being in either state 0 or 1 are employed to initialise the real and imaginary part of the complex numbers in the Julia set. The resulting Julia fractal is presented as an image, which is then further customised through user input. This customised image is subsequently passed to the text-to-image artificial intelligence model Stable Diffusion to create both personalised and quantum artwork. This project also illustrates the concept of quantum decoherence. The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/Havystar/QUANTIUM.This work is also inspired by the contributions of Wiktor Mazin; however, it diverges by focusing on the creation of music rather than images. It resonates with the European project on Quantum Music2 (e.g., (1)), with the distinction being that instead of encoding notes into quantum states, it employs fractals to generate eight distinct musical notes.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/kmazrolina/Quanterpoint.This project is also an application of quantum music. It breaks down musical compositions into 4/4 tempo measures. Each measure is encoded using a set of four qubit quantum circuits, with each quantum bit symbolising a distinct musical element, encompassing notes, rhythm, and pauses. Diverse variations of a melody are generated, each of which is closely tied to a specific quantum architecture. It is akin to experiencing music through a quantum lens that unveils the distinctive quantum voice of each architecture.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/git-stashic/quantum-art.This project serves as an in-depth exploration of variational quantum circuits (VQCs) applied to the classification of the IRIS dataset. The classification results are then presented through Seaborn graphs (a library for scientific visualisation). This project is classified as scientific visualisation rather than art, but the effort merits our attention. A similar approach with VQCs can be observed in the pyRiemann-qiskit library (2), as showcased in the library documentation. 3 In this example, the learning parameters of the VQC are ingeniously illustrated as a spiral, with each branch signifying the variation in weight of a specific parameter.Additionally, the project delves into Bubble Art, drawing inspiration from the work of Radha Pyari Sandhir. 4 The core concept involves encoding a string into qubits and subsequently measuring the outcomes of computations performed on them. The resulting measurements are then transformed into bubbles. The size and number of bubbles convey information, with smaller, numerous bubbles indicating more noise, while larger bubbles represent measurements that yield the same results.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/dr3du4/Quantium.Autoencoders are a class of neural networks that are commonly employed to extract an efficient representation of specific data, akin to dimension reduction techniques. In this particular scenario, the team proposed the use of a variational autoencoder, with its parameters initialised with the measurement of a quantum circuit. The autoencoder's purpose is to learn a concise representation of a cat by using the Kaggle CAT dataset. Dimensionality reduction essentially serves as a means of compressing the data, resulting in a deliberately artistic blurring or fuzziness effect on the original image.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/polish-mountain/quantum-vae.Here, the concept revolves around the initialisation of a quantum circuit with brain wave frequencies, such as alpha and beta waves. Quantum operations are run on these states, and the outputs are measured in classical bits. Then, the resulting measurements are translated into values of saturation and luminance, ultimately contributing to the customisation of a piece of artwork.Essentially, it can be described as an electroencephalography (EEG) state personalised through quantum randomness. What makes this idea particularly intriguing is its potential for expansion. By introducing different qubits that represent the mental states of other users, brain synchronisation could be further represented by entangled states. When two users are competing or cooperating to solve a task, the synchronization between their mental states only allow for certain measurement probabilities, which is akin to a form of entanglement. This notion also resonates with the concept of the quantum brain hypothesis (3), according to which the brain coexists in multiple states simultaneously, which subsequently collapse. In this idea, EEG measurements become a measurement of these quantum brain states, and the task executed by the user while recording the electroencephalogram could be further represented by specific quantum operations. Just to be clear, we do not pretend that this is actually the case, but this project could lead to interesting metaphors between brain states and quantum representation.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/kinga-marszalkowska/QuantumBrainArt.Various artistic viewpoints were submitted as part of the Quantum Art challenge at the HackYeah! hackathon, including images, animations, and music. By far, quantum decoherence -that is, quantum noise -was the most exploited quantum concept. While quantum superposition was used internally, it was not -in our opinion -sufficiently highlighted by the presented artworks. As for quantum entanglement, it was explored under the concept of quantum music. Apparently, it is not always intuitive for people to understand quantum entanglement simply by hearing music. Saying that, you need a certain level of knowledge to build appreciation. For example, children need to learn different tastes to appreciate food. Among the aforementioned works, we noticed the use of quantum principles for creating artistic visualisations of mental states through EEG, as well as the use of art to enhance the visualisation of machine learning techniques. Here, we see art's potential to enhance the comprehensibility and natural intuition of quantum phenomena. This is an interesting approach to make quantum more accessible, intuitive, especially for neophytes.The question that lingers is whether visualisation truly qualifies as art. The answer is nuanced and may rely on the intent itself. A good visualisation can be a piece of art if the machine learning model was created with the sole purpose of producing art rather than for merely explaining a machine learning algorithm.Another perspective is that of Japanese contemporary artist Matsuzawa Yutaka (1922-2006), although we admit that we have not had the opportunity to read the original Japanese text. Our understanding is based on the writings of Alan Longino from the Department of Art at the University of Chicago (4):"Trough Quantum Art, Matsuzawa invited future readers, viewers, and participants to conceive of a world where objects, bodies, images, and matter become less defined, more permeable, and bound together in limitless intimacy".In essence, the artist's manifesto is a call for renewal, a break from artistic conventions, similar to the role of quantum physics in the physical sciences.

Frontiers in Quantum Science and Technology•May 17, 2024•2 citations

"SUBJECTIVE" AND "OBJECTIVE" AS A METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEM

Тетяна Малкова

Today, many concepts from the dictionaries of academic psychology have entered the language of everyday communication. Perhaps the most common are the concepts of «subjective» and «objective». In many textbooks of psychology, «objective» is understood as something that belongs to the object itself, something that does not depend on the subject. The objective is opposed to the subjective-personal. Experimental research in the field of quantum physics questioned the division of the world into an impartial «objective reality» and its «subjective» (not impartial, biased) reflection, which provoked a crisis in this field of knowledge and the methodology of science as a whole. The main methodological problems of psychology are the question of the place of the mental in nature; on the relationship of mental and material phenomena, on the possibilities of human cognition - questions that also arose in the depths of quantum physics and were predetermined by the internal logic of their development. An excursion into quantum physics was necessary, firstly, for a deep understanding that reality is given to us in our sensations, perceptions, ideas and mental constructs (this was evidenced by the so-called «double slit experiment» and its interpretations) and we cannot say anything about reality as it is «in itself»; secondly, the realization that the foundations on which our knowledge is built differ from those in quantum physics. Currently, there is a dichotomy between material (physical) and conceptual reality. Thus, the principle of locality, which professes ordinary consciousness and according to which specific objects occupy a specific place in time and space, contradicts the principle of non-locality, according to which isolated systems do not exist at all and every particle of the universe is in «instantaneous» communication with all other particles. The world is created from the same quantum substance and it is impossible to say that one is the cause of the other. (This statement implies, in particular, a rethinking of the «principle of determinism» which requires the establishment of unambiguous causal relationships). The reality in which we live is not quantum, our language and stereotypes of thinking do not correspond to the nature of the phenomena described by quantum physics. It is about the deep properties of matter. Personally, I got the impression that the deeper you plunge into the world of atomic and subatomic, the more the outlines of the specific, material world familiar to us become blurred and the thinner the line between the physical and conceptual world, between the material and the spiritual becomes. The purpose of this article is to define the concepts of "objective" and "subjective" based on the analysis of achievements in quantum physics in the context of psychology.

Scientific notes of the UniversityKROK•Sep 30, 2023•0 citations

Art of the Quantum Moment

Robert P. Crease and Alfred S. Goldhaber

For half a dozen years, the two of us have taught “The Quantum Moment,” a course on the impact of quantum mechanics on culture and thought. The impact on art is one key topic of this course, and we discuss several different ways in which art of the quantum moment is intertwined with mathematics. Much of this has to do with various mathematical consequences of the fundamental quantum equation E = hν, which by various paths is responsible for complementarity, randomness, uncertainty, and alternate worlds, among other features that have shown up in art. Sometimes the connection to mathematics involves reimaginations, sometimes transformations and reconstructions, sometimes metaphors, and sometimes mere evocations. On the one hand there are incredibly precise and reproducible patterns, of which the earliest may have been spectrum of a hydrogen atom treated as a non-relativistic system. On the other hand, there are the random results of particle observations, such as the locations of strikes of individual photons in a diffraction pattern, which nevertheless in the limit of large numbers of photons becomes extremely precise and regular. Thus quantum mechanics, as well as the art it inspires, has a richness that invites us to expect a substantial future for artistic expressions of The Quantum Moment.

Proceedings of Bridges 2012: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture•Jan 1, 2012•1 citation

Problems of Quantum Mechanics (UET7B)

H. J. Spencer

This paper re-opens the debate on the failure of quantum mechanics to provide an understandable view of micro-reality. A critique is offered of the commonly accepted ‘Copenhagen Interpretation’ of a theory that is only a mathematical approach to the level of reality characterized by atoms and electrons. This critique is based on the oldest approach to thinking about nature for over 2500 years, known as Natural Philosophy. Quantum mechanics (QM) was developed over the first quarter of the 20th Century, when scientists were enthralled by a new philosophy known as Positivism, whose foundations were based on the assumption that material objects exist only when measured by humans – this central assumption conflates epistemology (knowledge) with ontology (existence). The present critique rejects this human-centered view of reality by assuming material reality has existed long before (and will persist long after) human beings (“Realism”). The defensive view that the micro-world is too different to understand using regular thinking (and only a mathematical approach is possible) is rejected totally. At least 12 earlier QM interpretations are critically analyzed, indicating the broad interest in “what does QM mean?” The standard theory of quantum mechanics is thus constructed on only how the micro-world appears to macro measurements - as such, it cannot offer any view of how the foundations of the world are acting when humans are not observing it - this has generated almost 100 years of confusion and contradiction at the very heart of physics. Significantly, we live in a world that is not being measured by scientists but is interacting with itself and with us. QM has failed to provide explanations: only recipes (meaningless equations), not insights. Physics has returned to the pre-Newtonian world of Ptolemaic phenomenology: only verifiable numbers without real understanding. The focus needs to be on an explicit linkage between the micro-world, when left to itself, and our mental models of this sphere of material reality, via the mechanism of measurement. This limits the role of measurement to confirming our mental models of reality but never confusing these with a direct image of ‘the thing in itself’. This implies a deep divide between reality and appearances, as Kant suggested. This paper includes an original analysis of several major assumptions that have been implicit in Classical Mechanics (CM) that were acceptable in the macroscopic domain of reality, demonstrated by its proven successes. Unfortunately, only a few of these assumptions were challenged by the developers of QM. We now show that these other assumptions are still generating confusions in the interpretation of QM and blocking further progress in the understanding of the microscopic domain. Several of these flawed assumptions were introduced by Newton to support the use of continuum mathematics as a model of nature. This paper proposes that it is the attempt to preserve continuum mathematics (especially calculus), which drives much of the mystery and confusion behind all attempts at understanding quantum mechanics. The introduction of discrete mathematics is proposed to help analyze the discrete interactions between the quintessential quantum objects: the electrons and their novel properties. A related paper demonstrates that it is possible to create a point-particle theory of electrons that explains all their peculiar (and ‘paradoxical’) behavior using only physical hypotheses and discrete mathematics without introducing the continuum mathematical ideas of fields or waves. Another (related) paper proves that all the known results for the hydrogen atom can also be exactly calculated from this new perspective with the discrete mathematics. * Surrey, B.C. Canada (604) 542-2299 spsi99@telus.net Version 2.015 08-05-2017 Begun 23-06-2008 {pp. 82, 70.2 Kw; 800 KB}

•May 1, 2017•0 citations
Art has the remarkable capacity to reveal things previously unrecognisable until they emerge visually, allowing us to accept new images and expand our ability to interpret the world. Such images become additions to the mental archive we use to recognise and understand our surroundings. Imagining something entirely new is, perhaps, altogether impossible insofar as our understanding is rooted in mental models we compare with external images. When it comes to quantum theory, for instance, we struggle to find any existing schema in our reliquary of mental images to draw from—with attempts to visualise quantum phenomena frequently creating only greater confusion as we try to make sense of its novel qualities within more traditional frameworks. An artwork expressing something unfamiliar about the world can challenge viewers to expand their canvas of consciousness, welcoming new possibilities. By attentively examining a work of art, we can sidestep preconceptions that might otherwise cast the unknown as alien. Art invites us to ask, “What sensations does this image offer me? What gift is it extending?”
No scientific theory has caused more puzzlement and confusion than quantum theory. Beginning in 1900, the theory developed in fits and starts and found a consistent mathematical framing only when John von Neumann published his Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik in 1932 [12]. But even today, we struggle to understand the world as pictured by quantum theory. Physics is supposed to help us to understand the world, and yet quantum theory makes it seem a very strange place. One might be tempted to push aside our puzzlement as the result of our clinging to a primitive worldview. But our puzzlement is not merely a psychological obstacle; it is also an obstacle to the development of physics itself. This obstacle is encountered primarily in our attempts to unify quantum theory and the general theory of relativity. As argued persuasively by Chris Isham (who is represented in this volume), Lee Smolin [10], and others, the primary obstacle between us and future physics is our own failure to understand the conceptual foundations of current physical theories. How, then, are we to make conceptual progress? What is the process by which we find a new perspective, a perspective in which previously puzzling phenomena find a place in an intelligible—and perhaps beautiful—structure? I do not wish to make prescriptions or to claim that conceptual progress can be achieved in only one way. But this book begins with the Ansatz that conceptual progress might be achieved through free creations of the human intellect.
Not so long ago, humans were a group of primates living on the savannah. We are reasonably proficient at estimating the trajectory of medium-sized objects, such as falling rocks and arrows, moving at moderate speeds. However, one must acknowledge that our intuition falters when it comes to understanding the behaviour of micro objects moving at very high speeds.Consider, for instance, the famous double-slit experiment. If you throw a ball towards two slits, the ball will pass through one slit, according to a common-sense prediction. However, when small particles, such as photons or electrons, are projected through two closely spaced apertures, the result is as if the particles simultaneously pass through the two apertures. In quantum physics, this unintuitive observation is explained by the wave-particle duality. It means that, physical entities can possess wavelike as well as particle-like characteristics. The duality is analogous to the two sides of a coin; the same reality can be described from different perspectives. Unfortunately, this knowledge does not cause that quantum mechanisms are entirely understandable and intuitional. Therefore, the following question remains open, how can we define quantum art when we are unable to fully grasp quantum mechanics? On a similar note, art itself is challenging to understand, albeit for different reasons. It is widely accepted that art is, to a significant extent, a subjective experience. An artist creates a piece of art that evokes diverse emotions and interpretations when presented to different people. Consequently, how can we bridge the gap between quantum mechanics, which is primarily comprehended through mathematics, and art, which is intuitively understood without the need for conscious reasoning? In other words, how can quantum art make the enigmatic world of quantum more intuitive and accessible?To address these questions, we created a challenge for the HackYeah! hackathon, one of the most prominent stationary events in Europe. We invited people to find an artistic way to illustrate the principles of quantum mechanics, including quantum superposition, entanglement, and decoherence. Approximately 700 individuals attended the event. Multiple challenges were submitted by different companies, and the Quantum Art challenge was chosen by 15 teams that ranged in size from two to seven people. After a short description of the challenge in Section 2, we explore some of these contributions in Section 3. Lastly, Section 4 concludes the paper. In our opinion, the artwork presented, especially the visual ones, helped to makes quantum principles more understandable, intuitive.The purpose of the challenge was to find an artistic way to illustrate quantum mechanics, specifically quantum superposition, entanglement, and decoherence.Quantum superposition refers to a phenomenon where a single particle can exist in two states simultaneously. In contrast to a 'normal' bit, which can be either 0 or 1, a quantum bit is a superposition of both 0 and 1.The measurement operation is the process through which a quantum state is collapsed to either the state 0 or 1. Let us consider two quantum bits; the possible measurement outcomes can be one of the following four combinations: 00, 01, 10, or 11. When only two of these combinations are possible, such as 00 and 11 or 10 and 01, one can state that the quantum bits are entangled because the state of one qubit affects the state of the second qubit and vice-versa.Decoherence of the quantum state is an effect that results from microscopic interactions between the quantum bits and the environment. This environmental noise impacts the state of the quantum bits and can lead to errors in computation. In other words, multiple measurements of the same quantum computation may yield different results. Different quantum computer architectures exhibit varying levels of noise.Here, the following question arises: How can people represent the principles of quantum mechanics in a way that it is tangible, visible, or even audible?In this section, we present a selected panel of examples that were implemented during the HackYeah! hackathon.This project effectively demonstrates the concept of quantum decoherence. It showcases a mosaic in which the arrangement of image elements is determined by the outcomes of quantum measurements (Figure 1). Various mosaics are generated following these measurements and are subsequently combined into an animated GIF. Notably, the greater the instability of the quantum computer, the more pronounced the glitches become within the mosaic. As a testament to its excellence, this project emerged as the winner of the challenge. The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/lukilesny/quantmosaic.This code is based on the previous quantum art of Wiktor Mazin, 1 which exploits the Julia fractal set for image generation. Julia fractals are fractals based on a recursive suite of a complex number.The code performs a straightforward computation that involves the measurement of two qubits. The probabilities of these qubits being in either state 0 or 1 are employed to initialise the real and imaginary part of the complex numbers in the Julia set. The resulting Julia fractal is presented as an image, which is then further customised through user input. This customised image is subsequently passed to the text-to-image artificial intelligence model Stable Diffusion to create both personalised and quantum artwork. This project also illustrates the concept of quantum decoherence. The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/Havystar/QUANTIUM.This work is also inspired by the contributions of Wiktor Mazin; however, it diverges by focusing on the creation of music rather than images. It resonates with the European project on Quantum Music2 (e.g., (1)), with the distinction being that instead of encoding notes into quantum states, it employs fractals to generate eight distinct musical notes.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/kmazrolina/Quanterpoint.This project is also an application of quantum music. It breaks down musical compositions into 4/4 tempo measures. Each measure is encoded using a set of four qubit quantum circuits, with each quantum bit symbolising a distinct musical element, encompassing notes, rhythm, and pauses. Diverse variations of a melody are generated, each of which is closely tied to a specific quantum architecture. It is akin to experiencing music through a quantum lens that unveils the distinctive quantum voice of each architecture.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/git-stashic/quantum-art.This project serves as an in-depth exploration of variational quantum circuits (VQCs) applied to the classification of the IRIS dataset. The classification results are then presented through Seaborn graphs (a library for scientific visualisation). This project is classified as scientific visualisation rather than art, but the effort merits our attention. A similar approach with VQCs can be observed in the pyRiemann-qiskit library (2), as showcased in the library documentation. 3 In this example, the learning parameters of the VQC are ingeniously illustrated as a spiral, with each branch signifying the variation in weight of a specific parameter.Additionally, the project delves into Bubble Art, drawing inspiration from the work of Radha Pyari Sandhir. 4 The core concept involves encoding a string into qubits and subsequently measuring the outcomes of computations performed on them. The resulting measurements are then transformed into bubbles. The size and number of bubbles convey information, with smaller, numerous bubbles indicating more noise, while larger bubbles represent measurements that yield the same results.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/dr3du4/Quantium.Autoencoders are a class of neural networks that are commonly employed to extract an efficient representation of specific data, akin to dimension reduction techniques. In this particular scenario, the team proposed the use of a variational autoencoder, with its parameters initialised with the measurement of a quantum circuit. The autoencoder's purpose is to learn a concise representation of a cat by using the Kaggle CAT dataset. Dimensionality reduction essentially serves as a means of compressing the data, resulting in a deliberately artistic blurring or fuzziness effect on the original image.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/polish-mountain/quantum-vae.Here, the concept revolves around the initialisation of a quantum circuit with brain wave frequencies, such as alpha and beta waves. Quantum operations are run on these states, and the outputs are measured in classical bits. Then, the resulting measurements are translated into values of saturation and luminance, ultimately contributing to the customisation of a piece of artwork.Essentially, it can be described as an electroencephalography (EEG) state personalised through quantum randomness. What makes this idea particularly intriguing is its potential for expansion. By introducing different qubits that represent the mental states of other users, brain synchronisation could be further represented by entangled states. When two users are competing or cooperating to solve a task, the synchronization between their mental states only allow for certain measurement probabilities, which is akin to a form of entanglement. This notion also resonates with the concept of the quantum brain hypothesis (3), according to which the brain coexists in multiple states simultaneously, which subsequently collapse. In this idea, EEG measurements become a measurement of these quantum brain states, and the task executed by the user while recording the electroencephalogram could be further represented by specific quantum operations. Just to be clear, we do not pretend that this is actually the case, but this project could lead to interesting metaphors between brain states and quantum representation.The project is available on GitHub at https://github.com/kinga-marszalkowska/QuantumBrainArt.Various artistic viewpoints were submitted as part of the Quantum Art challenge at the HackYeah! hackathon, including images, animations, and music. By far, quantum decoherence -that is, quantum noise -was the most exploited quantum concept. While quantum superposition was used internally, it was not -in our opinion -sufficiently highlighted by the presented artworks. As for quantum entanglement, it was explored under the concept of quantum music. Apparently, it is not always intuitive for people to understand quantum entanglement simply by hearing music. Saying that, you need a certain level of knowledge to build appreciation. For example, children need to learn different tastes to appreciate food. Among the aforementioned works, we noticed the use of quantum principles for creating artistic visualisations of mental states through EEG, as well as the use of art to enhance the visualisation of machine learning techniques. Here, we see art's potential to enhance the comprehensibility and natural intuition of quantum phenomena. This is an interesting approach to make quantum more accessible, intuitive, especially for neophytes.The question that lingers is whether visualisation truly qualifies as art. The answer is nuanced and may rely on the intent itself. A good visualisation can be a piece of art if the machine learning model was created with the sole purpose of producing art rather than for merely explaining a machine learning algorithm.Another perspective is that of Japanese contemporary artist Matsuzawa Yutaka (1922-2006), although we admit that we have not had the opportunity to read the original Japanese text. Our understanding is based on the writings of Alan Longino from the Department of Art at the University of Chicago (4):"Trough Quantum Art, Matsuzawa invited future readers, viewers, and participants to conceive of a world where objects, bodies, images, and matter become less defined, more permeable, and bound together in limitless intimacy".In essence, the artist's manifesto is a call for renewal, a break from artistic conventions, similar to the role of quantum physics in the physical sciences.
Today, many concepts from the dictionaries of academic psychology have entered the language of everyday communication. Perhaps the most common are the concepts of «subjective» and «objective». In many textbooks of psychology, «objective» is understood as something that belongs to the object itself, something that does not depend on the subject. The objective is opposed to the subjective-personal. Experimental research in the field of quantum physics questioned the division of the world into an impartial «objective reality» and its «subjective» (not impartial, biased) reflection, which provoked a crisis in this field of knowledge and the methodology of science as a whole. The main methodological problems of psychology are the question of the place of the mental in nature; on the relationship of mental and material phenomena, on the possibilities of human cognition - questions that also arose in the depths of quantum physics and were predetermined by the internal logic of their development. An excursion into quantum physics was necessary, firstly, for a deep understanding that reality is given to us in our sensations, perceptions, ideas and mental constructs (this was evidenced by the so-called «double slit experiment» and its interpretations) and we cannot say anything about reality as it is «in itself»; secondly, the realization that the foundations on which our knowledge is built differ from those in quantum physics. Currently, there is a dichotomy between material (physical) and conceptual reality. Thus, the principle of locality, which professes ordinary consciousness and according to which specific objects occupy a specific place in time and space, contradicts the principle of non-locality, according to which isolated systems do not exist at all and every particle of the universe is in «instantaneous» communication with all other particles. The world is created from the same quantum substance and it is impossible to say that one is the cause of the other. (This statement implies, in particular, a rethinking of the «principle of determinism» which requires the establishment of unambiguous causal relationships). The reality in which we live is not quantum, our language and stereotypes of thinking do not correspond to the nature of the phenomena described by quantum physics. It is about the deep properties of matter. Personally, I got the impression that the deeper you plunge into the world of atomic and subatomic, the more the outlines of the specific, material world familiar to us become blurred and the thinner the line between the physical and conceptual world, between the material and the spiritual becomes. The purpose of this article is to define the concepts of "objective" and "subjective" based on the analysis of achievements in quantum physics in the context of psychology.
For half a dozen years, the two of us have taught “The Quantum Moment,” a course on the impact of quantum mechanics on culture and thought. The impact on art is one key topic of this course, and we discuss several different ways in which art of the quantum moment is intertwined with mathematics. Much of this has to do with various mathematical consequences of the fundamental quantum equation E = hν, which by various paths is responsible for complementarity, randomness, uncertainty, and alternate worlds, among other features that have shown up in art. Sometimes the connection to mathematics involves reimaginations, sometimes transformations and reconstructions, sometimes metaphors, and sometimes mere evocations. On the one hand there are incredibly precise and reproducible patterns, of which the earliest may have been spectrum of a hydrogen atom treated as a non-relativistic system. On the other hand, there are the random results of particle observations, such as the locations of strikes of individual photons in a diffraction pattern, which nevertheless in the limit of large numbers of photons becomes extremely precise and regular. Thus quantum mechanics, as well as the art it inspires, has a richness that invites us to expect a substantial future for artistic expressions of The Quantum Moment.
This paper re-opens the debate on the failure of quantum mechanics to provide an understandable view of micro-reality. A critique is offered of the commonly accepted ‘Copenhagen Interpretation’ of a theory that is only a mathematical approach to the level of reality characterized by atoms and electrons. This critique is based on the oldest approach to thinking about nature for over 2500 years, known as Natural Philosophy. Quantum mechanics (QM) was developed over the first quarter of the 20th Century, when scientists were enthralled by a new philosophy known as Positivism, whose foundations were based on the assumption that material objects exist only when measured by humans – this central assumption conflates epistemology (knowledge) with ontology (existence). The present critique rejects this human-centered view of reality by assuming material reality has existed long before (and will persist long after) human beings (“Realism”). The defensive view that the micro-world is too different to understand using regular thinking (and only a mathematical approach is possible) is rejected totally. At least 12 earlier QM interpretations are critically analyzed, indicating the broad interest in “what does QM mean?” The standard theory of quantum mechanics is thus constructed on only how the micro-world appears to macro measurements - as such, it cannot offer any view of how the foundations of the world are acting when humans are not observing it - this has generated almost 100 years of confusion and contradiction at the very heart of physics. Significantly, we live in a world that is not being measured by scientists but is interacting with itself and with us. QM has failed to provide explanations: only recipes (meaningless equations), not insights. Physics has returned to the pre-Newtonian world of Ptolemaic phenomenology: only verifiable numbers without real understanding. The focus needs to be on an explicit linkage between the micro-world, when left to itself, and our mental models of this sphere of material reality, via the mechanism of measurement. This limits the role of measurement to confirming our mental models of reality but never confusing these with a direct image of ‘the thing in itself’. This implies a deep divide between reality and appearances, as Kant suggested. This paper includes an original analysis of several major assumptions that have been implicit in Classical Mechanics (CM) that were acceptable in the macroscopic domain of reality, demonstrated by its proven successes. Unfortunately, only a few of these assumptions were challenged by the developers of QM. We now show that these other assumptions are still generating confusions in the interpretation of QM and blocking further progress in the understanding of the microscopic domain. Several of these flawed assumptions were introduced by Newton to support the use of continuum mathematics as a model of nature. This paper proposes that it is the attempt to preserve continuum mathematics (especially calculus), which drives much of the mystery and confusion behind all attempts at understanding quantum mechanics. The introduction of discrete mathematics is proposed to help analyze the discrete interactions between the quintessential quantum objects: the electrons and their novel properties. A related paper demonstrates that it is possible to create a point-particle theory of electrons that explains all their peculiar (and ‘paradoxical’) behavior using only physical hypotheses and discrete mathematics without introducing the continuum mathematical ideas of fields or waves. Another (related) paper proves that all the known results for the hydrogen atom can also be exactly calculated from this new perspective with the discrete mathematics. * Surrey, B.C. Canada (604) 542-2299 spsi99@telus.net Version 2.015 08-05-2017 Begun 23-06-2008 {pp. 82, 70.2 Kw; 800 KB}