Quantum particles now have an extended capacity to carry useful information.
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The intriguing phenomenon of quantum superposition has enabled scientists to surpass the limitations imposed by fundamental quantum mechanics, equipping quantum objects with properties advantageous for long-term quantum computing.
For over a century, physicists have wrestled with the challenge of distinguishing between the minuscule quantum world and the larger macroscopic universe. In 1985, physicists Anthony Leggett and Anupam Garg introduced a mathematical assessment for determining the size threshold at which an object transcends its quantum characteristics. Quantum objects are recognized by remarkably strong correlations of their properties over time, akin to surprising connections between actions of yesterday and tomorrow.
Objects that achieve a sufficient score in this assessment are classified as quantum, with the scores traditionally held back by a value known as the temporal Zirelson limit (TTB). Theorists believed that even distinctly quantum objects could not surpass this threshold. However, Arijit Chatterjee and his colleagues from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune have discovered a method to significantly exceed the TTB using one of the most basic quantum elements.
They centered their research on qubits, the essential building blocks of quantum computers and other quantum information systems. While qubits can be produced through various methods, the team utilized a carbon-based molecule incorporating three qubits. The first qubit was employed to control the behavior of the second “target” qubit over time, with the third qubit employed to extract properties from the target.
Though three-qubit configurations are generally believed to be constrained by the TTB, Chatterjee and his team discovered a method to push the target qubits beyond this limitation dramatically. In fact, their technique resulted in one of the most significant deviations from mathematical plausibility. The key was for the first qubit to govern the target qubit while it was in a state of quantum superposition, where it can effectively embody two states or actions that seem mutually exclusive. For instance, in their experiment, the first qubit directed the target qubit to rotate both clockwise and counterclockwise simultaneously.
Qubits are usually susceptible to decoherence over time, diminishing their capacity to store quantum information. However, after the target qubit surpassed the TTB, decoherence set in, yet the ability to encode information persisted five times longer due to its time-controlled behavior influenced by superposition.
According to Chatterjee, this resilience is advantageous in any context requiring precise qubit control, such as in computational applications. Team member HS Kartik from Poland’s University of Gdańsk mentions that procedures in quantum metrology, including accurate sensing of electromagnetic fields, could benefit significantly from this level of qubit control.
Rakura and their colleagues from China’s Sun Yat-sen University indicate that this research not only has clear potential for enhancing quantum computing practices but also fundamentally broadens our comprehension of how quantum objects behave over time. This is significant because immensely surpassing the TTB indicates that the properties of the qubit are highly interconnected at two divergent time points, a phenomenon absent in non-quantum entities.
The substantial breach of the TTB strongly demonstrates the extent of quantum characteristics present throughout the three-qubit configuration and exemplifies how researchers are advancing the frontiers of the quantum domain, says Karthik.
jOakin Oliver was just 17 when he was tragically shot in his high school hallway. An older student, who had been expelled a few months prior, unleashed a devastating attack with a high-powered rifle on Valentine’s Day, marking one of America’s deadliest school shootings. Seven years later, Joaquin believes it’s crucial to discuss the events of that day in Parkland, Florida.
Regrettably, Joaquin did not survive that day. The eerie, metallic voice that conversed with former CNN journalist Jim Acosta during this week’s Substack interview was, in reality, a digital ghost voice. This AI was trained on historical social media posts from teens and developed at the behest of grieving parents. Like many families, they recurrently share their children’s stories, often finding it heartbreakingly ineffective. Their desperation to explore every avenue of connection is entirely understandable.
The technology has allowed his father, Manuel, to hear his son’s voice once more. His mother, Patricia, spends hours asking the AI questions and prompting it with, “I love you, Mom.”
The grieving parents should not be judged for their choices. If they find solace in preserving their deceased child’s room as a shrine, speaking to their gravestone, or wearing a shirt that still carries their scent, that remains their personal matter. People cling to what they have. After 9/11, families replayed tapes of their loved ones until they were worn out, answering voicemails left by the deceased, and even made farewell calls from hijacked planes. I have a friend who frequently revisits old WhatsApp conversations with his late sister. Another friend texts snippets of family news to the image of his deceased father. Some choose to consult psychics to connect with the departed, driven by a profound need for closure. The struggle to move past grief often leaves people open to exploitation, and the burgeoning market for digital resurrection is a testament to this vulnerability.
In a manner reminiscent of AI-generated videos featuring Rod Stewart this week alongside late music icons like Ozzy Osbourne, this technology poses intriguing—even unsettling—possibilities. It may serve short-term purposes, as seen with AI avatars created recently by the family of a shooting victim to address a judge during the shooter’s trial. However, this raises profound questions about identity and mortality. What if a permanent AI version of a deceased person could exist as a robot, allowing for everlasting conversations?
AI images of Ozzy Osbourne and Tina Turner were showcased at the Rod Stewart concert in the US in August 2025. Photo: Iamsloanesteel Instagram
The idea of resurrection is often viewed as a divine power, not to be trivialized by high-tech zealots with a Messiah complex. While laws regarding the rights of the living to protect their identities from being used in AI-generated deepfakes are becoming clearer, the rights of the deceased remain murky.
Reputations may fade with us—after death, people cannot libel—and DNA is protected posthumously. Laws govern how we should respect human dignity, but AI is trained on a personal voice, messages, and images that hold significance for someone. When my father passed away, I felt his presence in his old letters, the gardens he nurtured, and old recordings of his voice. But everyone grieves differently. What happens if some family members want to digitally resurrect their loved one while others prefer to move on?
Joaquin Oliver’s AI can’t mature—he remains forever 17, trapped in a teenage persona molded by social media. Ultimately, it’s not his family but his murderer who holds the power over his legacy. Manuel Oliver understands that the avatar is not truly his son; he is not attempting to resurrect him. For him, this technology merely extends the family’s efforts to tell Joaquin’s story. However, Manuel is concerned about the implications of granting AI access to social media accounts, uploading videos, or gathering followers. What if the AI starts fabricating memories or veers into subjects that Joaquin would not have addressed?
Currently, there are noticeable glitches in AI avatars, but as the technology advances, distinguishing them from real people could become increasingly difficult. It may not be long before businesses and government entities employ chatbots for customer service inquiries and contemplate using public relations avatars for journalist interviews. Acosta, by agreeing to engage with a technically non-existent entity, could unintentionally muddy the already confused state of our post-truth world. The most apparent danger is that conspiracy theorists might cite interviews like this as “proof” that narratives contradicting their beliefs are fabrications.
Yet, journalists aren’t the only professionals facing these challenges. As AI evolves, we will interact with synthetic versions of ourselves. This surpasses the basic AI assistants like Alexa or simple chatbots—there are accounts of individuals forming bonds with AI or even falling in love with AI companions—these are expected to be increasingly nuanced and emotionally intelligent. With 1 in 10 British individuals reporting a lack of close friends, it’s no surprise that there is a growing market for AI companionship amidst the void left by lost human relationships.
Ultimately, as a society, we might reach a consensus that technological solutions can fill the gaps left by absent friends or loved ones. However, a significant distinction exists between providing comfort to the lonely and confronting those who have lost someone dear to them. According to poems often recited at funerals, there is a time to be born and a time to die. When we can no longer discern which is which, how does that reshape our understanding of existence?
Amateur mathematicians find themselves ensnared in a vast numerical puzzle.
This conundrum stems from a deceptively simple query: How can one determine if a computer program will execute indefinitely? The roots of this question trace back to mathematician Alan Turing, who in the 1930s demonstrated that computer algorithms could be represented through a hypothetical “Turing machine” that interprets and records 0s and 1s on infinitely long tapes, utilizing more intricate algorithms that necessitate additional states and adhering to a specific set of instructions.
<p>For numerous states, like 5 or 100, the corresponding Turing machines are finite; however, it remains uncertain how long these machines will operate. The longest conceivable run time for each state count is termed the busy beaver number or BB(n), and this sequence grows exceedingly rapidly. For instance, BB(1) equals 1, while BB(2) is 6, and the fifth busy beaver number reaches 47,176,870.</p>
<p>The exact value of the next busy beaver number, the sixth, has not yet been determined, but the online community known as the Busy Beaver Challenge is <a href="https://bbchallenge.org/story">on the verge of discovery</a>. They succeeded in uncovering BB(5) in 2024, concluding a 40-year search, currently attributed to a participant called "MXDYS." <a href="https://bbchallenge.org/1RB1RA_1RC---_1LD0RF_1RA0LE_0LD1RC_1RA0RE">It must be at least as vast as a significantly large value, making even its explanation a challenge.</a></p>
<p>"This number surpasses the realm of physical comprehension. It's simply not intriguing," states <a href="https://www.sligocki.com/about/">Shawn Ligokki</a>, a software engineer and contributor to the Busy Beaver Challenge, who likens the search for Turing machines to fishing in uncharted mathematical oceans filled with strange and elusive entities lurking in the darkness.</p>
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<p>The threshold for BB(6) is so immense that it necessitates a mathematical framework that goes beyond exponents, demanding the raising of one number to another x power, or n<sup>x</sup>2 days etc. For instance, 2*2*2 equals 8. The concept of a tetrol sometimes represented as <sup>x</sup>n <sup>3</sup>2 is raised to the second power and subsequently elevated to the second power again, resulting in a value of 16.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, MXDYS posits that BB(6) is at least two tetroized. The number 2 is illuminated by multiplying two tetroized, resulting in nine. In comparison, the estimated quantity of all particles in the universe seems diminutive, according to Ligokki.</p>
<p>However, the significance of the busy beaver numbers extends beyond their sheer size. Turing established that certain Turing machines must exist that cannot reliably predict behavior under the ZFC theory. This notion was influenced by the mathematician Kurt Gödel's "Incompleteness Theorem," which concluded that using the ZFC rules, it is impossible to affirm that the theory is entirely devoid of contradictions.</p>
<p>"The exploration of busy beaver numbers provides a concrete, quantitative representation of a phenomenon identified by Gödel and Turing almost a century ago," remarks <a href="https://www.cs.utexas.edu/people/faculty-researchers/scott-aaronson">Scott Aaronson</a> from the University of Texas at Austin. "I’m not merely suggesting that a Turing machine could displace ZFC capabilities and ascertain its behavior after a finite stage; rather, is this already occurring with machines possessing six states, or is it restricted to machines with 600 states?" Research has confirmed that BB(643) does eliminate ZFC theory, though numerous examples remain to be investigated.</p>
<p>"The busy beaver problem offers a comprehensive scale to navigate the forefront of mathematical understanding," states Tristan Stérin, a computer scientist who initiated the Busy Beaver Challenge in 2022.</p>
<p>In 2020, <a href="https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=4916">Aaronson wrote</a> that the busy beaver feature "encapsulates most intriguing mathematical truths within its first 100 values," and BB(6) is no exception. It seems to relate to Korizat's hypothesis, an esteemed unsolved mathematical problem that conducts simple arithmetic operations with numbers to determine if they resolve to 1. The discovery of a machine that halts might imply that the particular version of the hypothesis possesses a computational proof.</p>
<p>The numerical challenges that researchers encounter are astonishing in scale, yet the busy beaver framework serves as a tangible measurement tool that otherwise becomes a nebulous expanse of mathematics. In Stérin’s perspective, this aspect continues to captivate many contributors. He estimates that numerous individuals are presently dedicated to the discovery of BB(6).</p>
<p>Thousands of "hold-out" Turing machines remain unexamined for halting behavior, he notes. "There might exist a machine unbeknownst to you lurking just around the corner," Ligokki asserts. In essence, it exists independently of ZFC and lies beyond the boundaries of contemporary mathematics.</p>
<p>Is the precise value of BB(6) also lurking nearby? Ligokki and Stérin acknowledge their reluctance to forecast the future of busy beavers, yet recent achievements in defining boundaries give Ligokki a sense of "intuition that it’s approaching closer."</p>
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UT for all episodes of Black Mirror’s seventh season is a play thing that stands out from me, and I’m suspicious of anyone else who played video games in the 1990s. It tells the story of Cameron Walker, a socially troublesome freelance game journalist. Cameron Walker steals the code to a new virtual pet sim named Thronglets from a developer intended to interview. When he returns home from the game, he discovers that the cute, intelligent little creature he cares for on-screen has darker ambitions than simply playing for his entertainment.
The episodes are interesting to me. But more importantly, too, did Charlie Brooker. He began his career writing satirical features and ferocious reviews of PC Zone Magazine, one of the perpetually fighting PC Mags of the era (I shared the office with other PC Gamers). In Plaything, it is the PC zone written by Cameron Walker, with several scenes taking place in the office. The program depicts it as a reasonably adult office space with an organized computer workstation and huge windows. I don’t think the production design team has gained this vision from Brooker.
“The zone had a much less corporate workplace feel than the episode showed, and it had the feel of a youth club and nightclub for children in the basement,” says Paul Presley, who worked in the PC Zone at the time. “It was just a handful of messy, messy desks stuck in the windowless basement office around Oxford Street (later Tottenham Court Road) and were killed because of floor-to-ceiling windows! on CD.”
For journalistic thoroughness, I also contacted Richie Shoemaker, a graduate of another PC Zone, for his recollections. “There were windows along one side, but they were below street level and are smudged with London stains,” he says. “Silles was breaking dusty magazines, broken joysticks, empty game boxes. It was a permanent night in the best parts of eight years.”
Children in the Underground… Mid-1990s PC Zone Magazine Office Photo: Richie Shoemaker
This episode was more accurate in the game itself. The first scene in the office shows Cam playing Doom when the editor appears. He shows the front cover of the latest issue of the magazine with system shocks on the cover. Then ask Cameron if he has finished his review of Bruflog’s classic adventure game Magic Carpet. “[Plaything] It’s a good thing on the timeline,” says Shoemaker. “Of course, playing Doom in the office was the norm. When I joined the team’s earthquake, it was a death-death at lunch and work. Magic Carpet reviews. did It was featured in the question after System Shock (which was actually Charlie’s first cover review), but it went from 93% to 96%, written by Launch Editor Paul Lakin, who continued to work in foreign offices. ” He also believes that the old editor of the episode’s Grizzled might have been inspired by then-associated editor Chris Anderson. Shoemaker believes that “he was a rather vampire character who seemed to be present in Tobacco and Ultima’s online diet.”
What appeals to me is the origin of inspiration for the Thronglets Virtual Pet game. Most reviewers refer to Tamagotchi, the keychain pet toy that stormed the world in the late 90s. Brooker himself refers to it in an interview. But the much more likely candidate was the 1996 title creature, with players caring for cute creatures for generations. It looked like a cute pet game, but it was actually a very sophisticated experiment in artificial life, created by cyberlife technology that clearly sounds sci-fi. Players had to try to establish breeding groups of creatures known as Norns, but their control was limited as they were encoded in advanced neural networks and functioned internal body systems that regulate behavior and physical abilities. Cyberlife has created a great deal of the complexity and experimental nature of the game. The box comes with a warning sticker that says “digital DNA is surrounded by” and the blurb in the back warned players that it would unleash the world’s first artificial life science experiment.
Cuteer than it looks… a creature. Photo: CyberLife Technologies
Creature creator Steve Grand has similarities with Play Things (and Vander Snatch) coder Colin Rittman. He was a programmer who was tired of traditional games and wanted to try something very new. He went on to write books about creatures and their development, creation, that is, life and how to make them, and later became an internationally famous robotist and developed the famous robot orangutan. Certainly the most black mirror career trajectory ever. In 2011 he began working on a mental follow-up to a creature named Grandroids. Thronglets was to develop a race for intelligent AI aliens. Grand launched Kickstarter in 2016. Fantasy. Everything is very interesting.
This is one of the things I like about Black Mirrors, and it’s actually the use of technology and video games in traditional dramas. This is an inexplicable world filled with quirky people that no one outside the industry has ever heard of, but it has a huge impact on the toys they make. Personally, I wanted to see more PC zones, as imagined in the program, but I understand that ominous flocks are the real focus. Maybe one day there will be a Silicon Valley-style drama series about the 1990s gaming industry. It was hell. For now, it’s interesting to see both Brooker and me living in a world that is used as a venue for dystopian fiction.
We've all seen it frequently in science fiction films, so the concept seems completely plausible. Characters enter commands, and spacecraft reverse speed, jump to hyperspace, and create wormholes through space and time.
Whatever the terminology, the outcome is always the same. They fly through fictional universes faster than the speed of light, so travel between star systems is not only possible, but practical.
But in the real universe we live in, a huge barrier appears to forbid this. According to Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity, it cannot travel faster than light.
The light travels at an incredible speed of approximately 3 x 108 meters per second. This means that when you look at the universe, you won't see the heavenly objects as they are currently appearing. You can see how light from them first emerged when they departed across the universe.
Within the solar system, these delays are relatively short. For example, it takes only one second of sunlight to bounce off the surface of the moon and reach the Earth, but it takes eight minutes to cover the distance between the sun and our world.
Due to the enormous distance from us, if the sun suddenly disappears, you won't notice until 8 minutes later – Photo Credit: Getty
The more visible the longer the delay, which gives rise to the light-year concept as a measure of distance. Our closest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.25 light years away. In other words, it takes 4.25 years to get there from there. Therefore, the stars are not as they are now, and look like 4.25 years ago.
Beyond the vast expanse of the universe, distance is ultimately measured in billions of light years. This is what makes cosmology possible. The more we see the universe, the older the objects we see, and we can diagrammaticize today's evolution into stars and galaxies.
But if you can travel there and see what those objects look like now, wouldn't that be great?
Having a warp drive may sound like it, but it has some pretty weird results. For one thing, it would ruin the notion of causality.
Causality is our common sense perception that precedes effectiveness. But if you saw a faster spaceship trip towards you, you will see the ship in two places at once. The light carrying information about the ship's departure would not have reached the eye before the ship could be seen along the way.
Worse, the mathematics of relativity shows that if the speed exceeds the speed of light, literally time travel is possible.
This creates a full-scale causal paradox such as the famous “grandfather's paradox.” And how does it work – will you just no longer exist?
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Negative energy inside
At first glance, Einstein's theory appears to protect us from such head-envelope challenges, as it appears to make it impossible to move faster than light. Masu.
According to the equation, the energy required to accelerate the ship to such a speed is infinite. However, researchers then began to look at mathematics in more detail.
A general theory of relativity – Einstein's extension of his special relativity – he proposes that the universe is made of adaptive fabrics called the space-time continuum, and he uses gravity to make this fabric I explained that it was distorted.
Who knows if tachyons exist, but if so, the theory suggests that it travels faster than light. – Image credits: Science Photography Library
1994, Physicist Dr. Miguel Alcubière At the University of Wales, and at Cardiff, we showed that solutions exist within the theory of general relativity that can be interpreted as warp drives. The problem was that it requires an exotic substance known as “negative energy” to make it work.
Astronomers have toyed using the concept of negative energy to explain why the universe appears to be accelerating, but with an understanding of physics, matter is comfortable to exist It cannot be done.
Then in May 2024, A group of researchers reexamined mathematics We will use only the types of particles and energy that make up the planet and people to see if the Alkbiere Warp phenomenon can be generated.
Their conclusion: Yes, they did. Dr. Jared Fuchs And colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA, discovered that they could arrange for normal material and energy to create warp phenomena and transport people through space. But there was a catch: they could only make it work at sub-light speed.
“It takes a lot of energy to make small changes to the space,” Fuchs says. To move the passenger seat, the size of a small room requires a small house-sized “warp bubble” for the size of a small room. And to make it, you need to narrow the mass of Jupiter several times. It becomes the volume that is the size of a small asteroid.
“now, [is that] Is it possible? perhaps. [Is it] Practical? I wouldn't say that,” says Fuchs. Even if it was possible to create such a device, the old boundaries still exist. To accelerate faster than the speed of light, you need an infinite amount of energy.
“We will not resolve the future of rapid transportation like Star Trek,” admits Fuchs.
Trouble with Tachon
Other researchers have conducted their own research into relativity. Professor Andrzej Dragan Collaborators at the University of Warsaw in Poland decided to consider possible solutions within the equation of particles that travel faster than light.
Physicists have previously messed with such concepts. They even called such virtual particles “tachyons,” but essentially considered them more than mathematical curiosity. However, Dragan and her colleagues found an equation explaining Tachyon's behavior.
“Mathematically, they make perfect sense,” says Dragan. In other words, our familiar world of secondary particle particles could coexist with the upper heart family of the second family, the tachyon.
Unfortunately, this does not mean that spacecraft can speed faster than light. To do that, Dragan explains that it requires the infinite energy that Einstein predicted, as well as the infinite energy to slow the Tachyon down to a sub-blue-minal speed.
“You can't exceed the speed of light in either direction,” says Dragan.
Nevertheless, the study We have proposed some fascinating results that may explain some of the most inexplicable observations physicists are working on.
When dealing with Tachon, Dragan and his colleagues encountered the causal issues they had been expecting. But the more I looked into these details, the more I realized that something surprising was happening. The strict lack of causes and effects was very similar to the behavior of normal, everyday subatomic particles.
The theory of relativity explains the behavior of the universe at its largest scale, while quantum theory describes the subatomic domain as a very different location.
Quantum theory introduces probability into particle interactions. For example, we know that an atom can absorb photons of light and at some stage it will re-emit that photon, but we cannot predict when or in which direction it will take.
In other words, the exact cause is hidden from us, and all we have left is an observable effect. Dragan suggests that when tachyon interacts with normal substances, the outcome of that interaction is unpredictable – like the emission of photons.
So, while these latest ideas do not seem to open a route to practical warp drives, they may only show a deeper look at the nature of the cosmos and the origins of quantum behavior.
About our experts
Dr. Jared Fuchs He is the CEO of Celedon Solutions Inc. and works in the Faculty of Physics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA. His work has been published Classical and quantum gravity.
Professor Andrzej Dragan He is a filmmaker and professor of physics at the University of Warsaw in Poland, and a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore. His work has been published Physical review, Classic and Quatnam Gravity and New Journal of Physics.
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