The Quantum Superorganism: In conversation with Jonathon Keats

Wolfgang Kerler (1E9) in conversation with Jonathon Keats who contributed two exhibits to this year's Festival: The Quantum Entanglement Apparatus and the Quantum Multiverse Generator. Both are part of a bigger project in collaboration with Goethe Institute San Francisco called "The Quantum Superorganism".

With the rise of nationalism and xenophobia, we have become our own worst enemy. The intolerable condition of human intolerance appears only to be increasing under the stress of climate change, a planetary crisis that demands global cooperation.

This project seeks a solution through fundamental physics.

According to quantum mechanics, when two or more particles are entangled, they behave as if they were one and the same. Any change to one instantaneously and identically changes those entangled with it even if they’re a universe apart.

Might quantum entanglement also provide the ultimate form of social cohesion?

The technology to entangle humankind is simple: Exposed to ambient light, a nonlinear crystal entangles photons. Groups of entangled photons are scattered with mirrors. The photoelectric effect translates their entangled state to the bodies of people willing to become a part of the quantum superorganism.

If you choose to get entangled, you’ll have to take your entanglement on faith, as any attempt to measure a quantum system disentangles it. The quantum superorganism will literally be broken up by skepticism about it.