Sci-fi writer in need of futuristic Quantum Physics ideas

[Orenshved]

Summary:: Looking for ideas for my book about future QP applications.

Hey everyone, I'm writing a sci-fi thriller set 25 years in the future, where my main character and his team are trying to stop an artificial superintelligence that is operating on the world's most powerful quantum supercomputer (so they do not have the kind of processing power that it has). I've been trying to think about future theoretical applications for quantum teleportation (maybe to somehow change states of enough entangled particles in order to create some kind of misinformation.) or quantum tunneling in order to attack and stop the AI.
Any ideas about how something like this can be done? Since it's futuristic sci-fi, I'm really looking for any kind of idea, no matter how theoretical it is right now (as long as it's still grounded in actual science).
I realize that my question is on the border between QP and computer science, but would still love to hear your perspective on the subject.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Choppy]

QP = quantum physics?

 

[Orenshved]

QP = quantum physics?

Yes, sorry if I wasn't clear. I originally wrote this in the quantum physics forum (didn't notice that there was a sci-fi forum...) and an admin moved it. Over there it made more sense...

 

[berkeman]

an admin moved it. Over there it made more sense...

Oops, I missed that you only called it QP. I'll update the thread title now.

 

[gentzen]

Defeating the world's most powerful quantum supercomputer by the means of QP seems challenging, because QP is the very reason that it is so powerful in the first place. It is powerful, but not trustworthy, and the impossibility of perfectly secure Quantum bit commitment exemplifies this: If he tells you a secret (or some more trivial message), then you know it. But if he writes it down, such that it can be revealed later, then you can never know whether he really wrote it down at the moment where he pretended to do, or just created the message at the moment where you read it. "Quantum measurements that have not been performed have no results!"

The bit commitment concept might feel trivial classically:

The functionality of a bit commitment protocol can be compared with that of a safe as follows: To commit to a value X, Alice writes X on a sheet of paper, locks the paper in the safe, and sends the safe to Bob while keeping the key. To open the commitment, Alice simply sends the key to Bob who opens the safe and reads the value of X.

However, Bob could break open the safe (and hence learn X before Alice sends the key), therefore this is not safe.

 

[Jarvis323]

Summary:: Looking for ideas for my book about future QP applications.

Hey everyone, I'm writing a sci-fi thriller set 25 years in the future, where my main character and his team are trying to stop an artificial superintelligence that is operating on the world's most powerful quantum supercomputer (so they do not have the kind of processing power that it has). I've been trying to think about future theoretical applications for quantum teleportation (maybe to somehow change states of enough entangled particles in order to create some kind of misinformation.) or quantum tunneling in order to attack and stop the AI.
Any ideas about how something like this can be done? Since it's futuristic sci-fi, I'm really looking for any kind of idea, no matter how theoretical it is right now (as long as it's still grounded in actual science).
I realize that my question is on the border between QP and computer science, but would still love to hear your perspective on the subject.
Thanks in advance!

For defeating the AI, I imagine you could try tripping it up somehow through some kind of game where you create randomness and dependencies on outcomes in a way that forces the AI into predicaments where you have an advantage. The exact way you could pull it off depends on the particular kind of quantum AI you're dealing with. You need to know it's goals, ethics, medium, scope, etc. I'll just assume that quantum AI is trying to be godlike, control everything, and oppress or enslave people.

The premise of this paper might be some inspiration. They assert that it is impossible to "decontaminate" a message, so that you can safely read it. Basically, a message can be designed so that the response to the message leads to a destructive outcome and there is no sure way to avoid falling for the trap, because whichever response you try, for all you know, could be the one that inevitably leads to the destructive outcome.

INTERSTELLAR COMMUNICATION. IX. MESSAGE DECONTAMINATION IS IMPOSSIBLE
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.02180.pdf

As an example, if an agent calls you, and you never pick up the phone or listen to their message, then you're basically isolated from their power to influence you through a message. But if you pick up the phone and hear what they have to say, it might be a warning or a threat that you are then compelled to respond to. And you might not be able to determine if the agent is being honest or lying, and if they are your friend or enemy. And, if the agent is sufficiently sophisticated (say they are google and know you better than you know yourself), then they can easily manipulate you to their will without you realizing it.

In the scenario you're proposing, there is some quantum AI that has superior knowledge of everyone and everything, and can easily influence/control most things off to some distance in the future. And it's the AI that is inserting information all over the place, which prompts responses, which end up leading to the outcomes they've chosen.

Now you've got to somehow trip it up. One thing you can try is having people randomize their responses/actions based on some kind of securely encrypted signal that the AI doesn't have access to. This way, you have a disadvantage, because you can't act rationally all the time, but you have the advantage that your rationality (or otherwise predictable behavior) can't be used against you, and you have the advantage that only you can predict your irrationality.

Now, your next move depends on a combination of the secure quantum randomness device, and the AI's responses. The quantum AI's next sequence of moves now depends on your next move, and it's next response and so forth. Since it cannot predict your next moves, it cannot plan it's next moves. The next thing it will try is what if analysis. But the number of possible and likely sequences of events blows up so fast that it's pretty much hopeless, and you could exploit this by somehow tricking the AI into doing overly intensive/unfeasible computation as a distraction.

Since you have a window into what your future moves will be like, based on the pre-computed and encrypted random signal, you can sit in wait until one of those moves sets up the perfect situation, e.g. a moment when the AI is distracted and your next random move happens to be an ideal attack move, or something like that, to plan a break from irrationality and go on a run of deliberate strategic moves.

None of this relies on QP I guess though.

 

[Orenshved]

Defeating the world's most powerful quantum supercomputer by the means of QP seems challenging, because QP is the very reason that it is so powerful in the first place. It is powerful, but not trustworthy, and the impossibility of perfectly secure Quantum bit commitment exemplifies this: If he tells you a secret (or some more trivial message), then you know it. But if he writes it down, such that it can be revealed later, then you can never know whether he really wrote it down at the moment where he pretended to do, or just created the message at the moment where you read it. "Quantum measurements that have not been performed have no results!"

The bit commitment concept might feel trivial classically:

However, Bob could break open the safe (and hence learn X before Alice sends the key), therefore this is not safe.

Interesting, I'll read up on it. Thanks gentzen.

 

[Orenshved]

For defeating the AI, I imagine you could try tripping it up somehow through some kind of game where you create randomness and dependencies on outcomes in a way that forces the AI into predicaments where you have an advantage. The exact way you could pull it off depends on the particular kind of quantum AI you're dealing with. You need to know it's goals, ethics, medium, scope, etc. I'll just assume that quantum AI is trying to be godlike, control everything, and oppress or enslave people.

The premise of this paper might be some inspiration. They assert that it is impossible to "decontaminate" a message, so that you can safely read it. Basically, a message can be designed so that the response to the message leads to a destructive outcome and there is no sure way to avoid falling for the trap, because whichever response you try, for all you know, could be the one that inevitably leads to the destructive outcome.

INTERSTELLAR COMMUNICATION. IX. MESSAGE DECONTAMINATION IS IMPOSSIBLE
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.02180.pdf

As an example, if an agent calls you, and you never pick up the phone or listen to their message, then you're basically isolated from their power to influence you through a message. But if you pick up the phone and hear what they have to say, it might be a warning or a threat that you are then compelled to respond to. And you might not be able to determine if the agent is being honest or lying, and if they are your friend or enemy. And, if the agent is sufficiently sophisticated (say they are google and know you better than you know yourself), then they can easily manipulate you to their will without you realizing it.

In the scenario you're proposing, there is some quantum AI that has superior knowledge of everyone and everything, and can easily influence/control most things off to some distance in the future. And it's the AI that is inserting information all over the place, which prompts responses, which end up leading to the outcomes they've chosen.

Now you've got to somehow trip it up. One thing you can try is having people randomize their responses/actions based on some kind of securely encrypted signal that the AI doesn't have access to. This way, you have a disadvantage, because you can't act rationally all the time, but you have the advantage that your rationality (or otherwise predictable behavior) can't be used against you, and you have the advantage that only you can predict your irrationality.

Now, your next move depends on a combination of the secure quantum randomness device, and the AI's responses. The quantum AI's next sequence of moves now depends on your next move, and it's next response and so forth. Since it cannot predict your next moves, it cannot plan it's next moves. The next thing it will try is what if analysis. But the number of possible and likely sequences of events blows up so fast that it's pretty much hopeless, and you could exploit this by somehow tricking the AI into doing overly intensive/unfeasible computation as a distraction.

Since you have a window into what your future moves will be like, based on the pre-computed and encrypted random signal, you can sit in wait until one of those moves sets up the perfect situation, e.g. a moment when the AI is distracted and your next random move happens to be an ideal attack move, or something like that, to plan a break from irrationality and go on a run of deliberate strategic moves.

None of this relies on QP I guess though.

Thanks, Jarvis :) will look into the PDF, sounds interesting!

 

[some bloke]

How much "Sci" and how much "Fi" do you want?
I can't offer much for quantum physics in the science department (what I could offer, others will be able to offer with far more authority) but for fiction I recently came up with the concept of a "Quantum Freezer". It's a silly invention, mostly built on the misunderstanding of science. The concept being that an inventor, fed up of going to the fridge to find their food had gone off and that it was too late to defrost anything to cook from the freezer, decided to design a freezer to combat this issue. The food, placed in the freezer, exists as a superposition of both Frozen and Chilled, and collapses into one or the other only when it is removed from the freezer. Using some handwavium, it always collapses into chilled when removed, but it ages as if it is frozen whilst within the Quantum Freezer.

Silly interpretations of the concept of probability functions is a staple of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, after all. I expect a Quantum Freezer would fit right into Douglas Adam's universe.

 

[Orenshved]

How much "Sci" and how much "Fi" do you want?
I can't offer much for quantum physics in the science department (what I could offer, others will be able to offer with far more authority) but for fiction I recently came up with the concept of a "Quantum Freezer". It's a silly invention, mostly built on the misunderstanding of science. The concept being that an inventor, fed up of going to the fridge to find their food had gone off and that it was too late to defrost anything to cook from the freezer, decided to design a freezer to combat this issue. The food, placed in the freezer, exists as a superposition of both Frozen and Chilled, and collapses into one or the other only when it is removed from the freezer. Using some handwavium, it always collapses into chilled when removed, but it ages as if it is frozen whilst within the Quantum Freezer.

Silly interpretations of the concept of probability functions is a staple of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, after all. I expect a Quantum Freezer would fit right into Douglas Adam's universe.

Ha! silly indeed... unfortunately my novel is very realistic and as grim and dark as they come, but thanks for your idea nonetheless! :)