poem, poetry, Sonnet

Not Quite a Review – Writing 101 #12

Reading (c) in medias res by Melinda Kucsera

Not Quite a Review:

Quantum Computing the Ultimate Question

It uses qubits not bits to encode
information; quantum entanglement
done the right way makes it work; error codes
keep it from crashing but any movement
could disrupt entanglement, damage code,
’cause your qubits lose communication
and data, thus killing calculations.

No answer to the ultimate question:
life, the universe, everything–that question,
which its makers fed into that machine,
that quantum computer called earth. A part
we all play, our qubits entangled; glean
we that question whose answer, 42,
will make sense of life and this review too.

~ ~ ~

But this occurred to me while reading Quantumbit’s post about “The Quantum Source of Space-Time” and I had to write it.

The ultimate question of life, the universe and everything as well as 42, refers to Douglas Adam’s book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I just reread it; this time as an audio book and it was just as fantastic as it was the first time I read it.

32 thoughts on “Not Quite a Review – Writing 101 #12”

  1. Wow. I read this and it’s like reading one of my son’s physics or pre-calculus questions. Flies right over my head. I’m glad he understands 🙂

  2. Fascinating stuff these quantum computers… And quantum entanglement being proven, I cannot start to imagine the implications for our future. Sometimes I wish I studied physics instead… however… I’m terribly scatter-minded making me equally terrible at math 🙁 Are we actually living in a quantum computer? How could we test it? Did you see the movie Pi? http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pi-1998?

    1. No I haven’t but the review is intriguing. According to Douglas Adams, we are living in a super computer called earth. If he had written it today, he’d have called it a quantum computer. We’re part of the computation of the ultimate question. Isn’t that grand?

    2. Yay, the question is the answer is the question. I didn’t know Douglas Adams yet, time to get familiar with his work… Reminds me about what Hawking said about the beginning of time: “if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be”

    1. I mashed together an article that spoke about quantum computers which in theory encode information not in bits like our computers of today but in qubits– quantum state off matter itself. In the second stanza, I’m referring to a fictitious quantum commuter in a humorous work of fiction called earth which was built to find the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything. Sorry if I lost you.

    2. I know…most have us have heard that “what is the meaning of life?” is the ultimate question, but it is such a vague one…I believe the most important questions are ones relative to the person asking them…:)

    3. that’s true though I don’t think the meaning of life is the ultimate question. I don’t know what that question is, but the meaning of life is, as you say, too vague. The ultimate question is likely something we all deeply want to know. A question so intrinsic to our humanity that we grapple without without fully articulating it every day. A question so profound we shy away from its contemplation because pondering it means pondering us.

    4. I think maybe one of the ultimate questions is: is there something beyond this life? All cultures have beliefs regarding what happens after death but no one knows (outside the guise of faith) what lies ahead, if anything. I think another question might reflect our curiosity about life in other parts of the universe.

Comments are closed.