Scientists Used Quantum Computing to Simulate Artificial Life
A group of scientists just modeled life using quantum computing in order to answer questions about how our existence supposedly came about from inert subatomic particles and basic organic molecules.
Their success, which some compared to “playing Sims on a whole new level of physics,” leads one to question whether we’re getting closer to proving the simulation hypothesis – by creating our own artificial simulations of life, will we find we’re living in a complex simulation ourselves?
Their quantum model of artificial life proved successful at a basic level, encouraging the team to continue their study with more variables in the future.
Using an IBM QX4 quantum computer, the team coded units of artificial life with qubits – the quantum bits that can exist as both 1s and 0s simultaneously in an entangled state. One qubit represented a living organism’s genotype, the genetic code for a certain trait, and another qubit represented phenotype, the physical expression of a certain trait. They then added random changes in the rotation of the quantum state of these qubits to simulate genetic mutation.
Those particles were then automated to reproduce, mutate, evolve, and die, in order to simulate life and evolution.
“The goal of the proposed model is to reproduce the characteristic processes of Darwinian evolution, adapted to the language of quantum algorithms and quantum computing,” said the researchers’ paper published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
The results were interesting in that a quantum explanation for explaining the mechanism behind evolution matched many theoretical predictions, corroborating ideas proposed by quantum theory’s forefathers, i.e. Schrödinger, Pauli, and Von Neumann.
But while their goal was to artificially simulate life from the most basic particles first thought to exist in a “primordial soup,” the experiment remained far from answering the deeper existential questions about our existence, including what brought those particles and molecules into existence in the first place. Or how the interaction between these particles led us to become highly sentient life forms.
Quantum computing is advancing quickly, however the technology hasn’t quite developed to a practical level where it can be implemented effectively. Quantum computer processors are highly volatile requiring a sensitive atmosphere, high-powered lasers, and extreme temperatures to maintain stability. Variables as simple as loud noises can upset quantum states, causing particles to decohere.
So far, Google says it has achieved 72-bit processing with a quantum chip, though developing a processor to achieve “quantum supremacy” – a quantum computer able to outperform the world’s fastest binary computer – has yet to be achieved in a consistent manner.
For more on the nature of quantum physics and consciousness, watch this episode of Inspirations with New York Time Bestselling author Eben Alexander:
The Mandela Effect: CERN and Hidden, Parallel Universes
The concept of The Mandela Effect is simple. Over time, a few minor details surrounding significant events, and therefore our perception of these events, might somehow change and may continue to improve in the years ahead.
In other words, the tried and true spacetime continuum that appears to be the backbone of our collective, three-dimensional, physical reality might have a ripple in it. It also may have produced a sister, parallel universe, which has birthed different scenarios, events, identities, constructs, and relationships.
It might also be true that our tiny, insignificant brains are slowly evaporating and can no longer handle every detail that flashes across our eyes. As we forget events, out of fear, we attempt to reassemble them in our imperfect minds.
Given that we’re all probably of the same species, each of our brains might make mistakes that are akin to the next, especially when it comes to certain types of events and sets of details.
It’s important to consider that our brains are continually comparing, analyzing and constructing ideas and memories to justify their notions of reality, often from poorly assembled concepts and thin air. Given that, it might be fair to say that all brains build memories and memory-bridges with similar strategies and outcomes.
All this to say that because of our shared DNA, our brains will construct similar data sets and similar conclusions.
Maybe this is the question we’ve yet to ask: Have large groups of people moved backward or forwards in time, witnessed potential trajectories, returned to their primary spacetime paths, and then somehow integrated all collected information into new perspectives, refreshed with new sets of details?
“If (quantum theory) is correct, it signifies the end of physics as a science.”
— Albert Einstein
Whether you believe The Mandela Effect to be fact or fiction, the growing number of shared perspectives across a variety of ideas and events, and inclusive of a broad spectrum of socioeconomic backgrounds, is compelling.