The Superflux Blog

Quick Overview:

As work is underway to harness the weird nature of our subatomic world to build a quantum computer, we, as designers, where given the unique opportunity to explore what the wider implications of living in a world with quantum computing might be.

Initially we investigated the many possibilities that this new form of computing might bring: from secure data encryption, to the development of complex molecular modeling for nanomedicine, to an information arms race between competing nations.

But after exploring these future applications of QC, we were intrigued by the relationship between quantum computing and what that said about the underlying nature of reality. Are we inhabiting just one of an infinite number of parallel worlds? And if so, what does that say about our place in existence?

The culmination of this enquiry was the “The 5th Dimensional Camera” presented at the IMPACT! exhibition, curated by Dunne&Raby, Design Interactions, RCA.  In this post we explain how we got there, and the ideas behind our design proposal.

Project background:

The 5th Dimensional Camera project began in October 2009, as a collaboration between EPSRC, Nesta, Royal College of Art, ourselves (Superflux) and scientists from the Quantum Information Processing Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (QIP IRC).

Whilst investigating the science, with the help of our scientist-collaborators, we came across Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and one expression of it which is at the core Quantum computation called ‘Superposition’. Simply put, Superposition is the ability for a thing, at the nanometer scale, to be in two or more states at the same time. Superposition is used inside a Quantum Computer to perform massively parallel processing.

Furthermore we became fascinated by one interpretation of quantum mechanics, ‘Everett’s many worlds theory’ that says: “one aspect of quantum mechanics is that certain observations cannot be predicted absolutely. Instead, there is a range of possible observations each with a different probability. And each of these possible observations correspond to a different universe.” It goes on to deduce that while we observe time as a linear line, there are diverging time lines occurring in parallel worlds.

While this may sound like a scene from Star Trek, it it is an idea that is arguably gaining much ground. David Deutsch, the ‘father of Quantum Computation’ in a WIRED interview said: “The fact that answers are obtained from a quantum computer that couldn’t be obtained any other way will make people take seriously that the process that obtained them was objectively real. Nothing more than that is needed to lead to the conclusion that there are parallel universes, because that is specifically how quantum computers work.”

This led us to two main questions:
1. What if we could ‘see’ these ‘many worlds’? Unlike how a Quantum computer accesses the many worlds of binary information ‘within itself’, could we visualise a machine that could access the many possible worlds that branch from our own timeline?
2. How might the popular adoption of devices that utilize, and in some way make tangible the ‘Many Worlds Interpretation’ affect our sense of place in the world, or worlds? Could this be a kind of second Copernican Revolution?

Our Design Proposal:

These questions helped us think about devices that allow us to ‘see’ and perhaps ‘reach out to other worlds’.  Seth Llyod’s conclusions strengthened our direction: “I think the greatest advance that we’re going to make is to construct a new way of thinking about how the world operates.” And from this came the idea for ‘The 5th Dimensional Camera’, a fictional device for photographing Everett’s, and our own, many worlds.

Here’s an introductory film that explains the project, as explained by Simon Benjamin, one of our scientist.

Just as the Quantum Computer will make tangible many of the abstract aspects of quantum physics in the shape of the algorithms, part of our thinking behind designing the 5th Dimensional Camera was to ground the open-ended nature of the questions we where addressing in a physical form that people could directly engage with.

By presenting images of parallel worlds as captured by this device, we hope to open up the strange processes at work within quantum computation to the wider public, and explore how they might impact our beliefs, our values and indeed fabric of our reality.

[For some more nice images check here. More blog posts about the project here and here. To find out more, or for high-resolution images, do get in touch.]

Acknowledgements:
- QIP IRC Scientists: Dr. Andrew Briggs, Dr John Rarity, Dr. Simon Benjamin
- Project mentors: Fiona Raby and Anthony Dunne
- EPSRC lead: Helen Bailey, David Reid from EPSRC
- Nesta: Rachel Brazil
- Vision and encouragement: Dr. David Deutsch