Quantum theory describes quantum waves that expand at the speed of light until they are observed and collapse to a physical event. Quantum realism interprets these waves as processing waves, as follows.
Processing is the creation information by choosing one physical state over others, so our information is static, based on a fixed state while processing is dynamic, based on a choice event. Information derives from a known physical state while processing involves an unknown event by the definition of choice. And processing on our networks doesn’t spread, so it is in this sense static, as if your computer runs a program, it doesn’t spread to the Internet by itself. Now imagine a dynamic process that once it starts on any network node immediately spreads to its neighbors, and this repeats in the next cycle. It follows that quantum processing is the creation of processing, just as processing is the creation of information. Quantum processing is then processing creating processing.
Quantum processing on a network then creates a processing wave that behaves like a quantum wave. Starting in one node, it not only runs a process in that node but also immediately passes it to all its neighbors. The next network cycle, those nodes also begin the process and again pass it on to their neighbors, and so on. Just as a water wave spreads the activity of water, a quantum processing wave spreads a quantum process.
Processing waves are events not things and the only way to “save” an event is to run it again. As in process philosophy, the premise is that existence is dynamic and that dynamic nature is fundamental to reality. One can save and reload static states but not events, as the act of storing an event is another event. The next chapter explains in detail how quantum waves match the properties of light waves, but for now note that it accounts for two key properties of light. First, that light waves always spread, and second that light as a quantum wave can collapse. Unlike physical waves, a processing wave can restart from any one of its many locations if a node point reboots. That light is a quantum processing wave offers a possible explanation for quantum collapse.
Quantum processing as the creation of processing is what makes quantum computing, based on qubits, more powerful than physical computing. A bit is a choice between two states but a qubit also allows their superposition, as a one-bit computer only has the values 0 or 1 but a one-qubit computer can also be 0/1 and 1/0, so it can be zero and one at the same time, as in Schrödinger’s alive/dead cat. A bit is one process making one choice in one place but a qubit is two choice processes and that allows superposed options. Superposition lets quantum processing choose all possible options at once rather than just try one at a time.
The result is that quantum processing isn’t just better than physical processing, it is exponentially better, so doubling my computer’s processing needs double the bits but adding just one qubit to a quantum computer doubles its power. If physical processing is like going to the moon, quantum processing is like going to the nearest star in the same time. As expected, what generates physical reality is far beyond anything we can physically achieve.
Quantum waves are all around us all the time and they never stop. We don’t “make” quantum computers as we do physical ones but just use what naturally occurs. We tap into quantum processing rather than make it work, just as we tap into the sun’s warmth but make a fire to warm us. We don’t create quantum processing, it creates us.
The revelation of quantum theory, that quantum waves cause physical events, was the greatest discovery of last century, on a par with evolution the century before and finding that the earth goes round the sun centuries earlier. But while orthodox religion denied the earlier advances, orthodox science denied Heisenberg’s conclusion that:
“The atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.” (Rosenblum & Kuttner, 2006) p104
Bohr denied the world of possibilities that quantum theory describes by calling it unreal. That orthodoxy denies innovation is no surprise but who expected scientific orthodoxy to be the denier? Imagine if astronomers believed the sun went around the earth but still used heliocentric equations. That would be preposterous but physics today uses equations based on quantum waves that they deny exist! It’s time to explore the dangerous idea of quantum reality.