Decoding quantum reality - with Vlatko Vedral

Explore the deepest quantum questions about the Universe.

This lecture was recorded at the Ri on 5 October 2024.

For a physicist, all the world is information, with the Universe and its workings reflecting the ebb and flow of data. We ourselves are transient patterns of information, passing on the recipe for our basic forms to future generations via a four-letter digital code called DNA. In this talk, quantum physicist Vlatko Vedral delves into some of the deepest questions about the Universe, interpreting it in terms of information. He explains the nature of information, the concept of entropy, and how these ideas are rooted in thermodynamics. Discover the bizarre effects of quantum behaviour, such as 'entanglement'—what Einstein famously referred to as 'spooky action at a distance'. Vlatko also explores the leading-edge work on harnessing quantum effects in hyperfast quantum computers and discusses recent evidence suggesting that the weirdness of the quantum world, once thought to be limited to the tiniest scales, may extend into the macro world.

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Vlatko Vedral is best known for his contributions to quantum information theory, quantum mechanics, and quantum entanglement. As an active researcher, Vlatko has over 500 published, regularly cited papers to his name. This output covers a broad range of topics within quantum physics, including quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and quantum thermodynamics. In recognition of his scholarly achievements, he was honoured with the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2007. Since 2009, Vlatko has served as Professor of Quantum Information Science in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. Additionally, he is a Governing Body Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford.

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[AbhishekJohn-gy]

This institution is what I need. Thinker from different field comes and give Ideas. Excellent 👍

[motherlesschild]

Fascinating. This has/will have, so many ramifications. Thank you.

[GavinM]

Really good talk. Certainly helped with me understanding QM a little bit better.

[byleew]

A quantum professor got so lost in his equations that he ended up teaching in multiple universes at once. When his students asked where his lecture was, he replied, "I'm in a state of superposition—simultaneously everywhere and nowhere!

[Bill..N]

Vlatko was a pleasure to hear from.. Great stuff.. My humble opinion is that the entire cosmos is intimately entangled in ways we dont yet understand... Q- information PROBABLY exists in the universal wave function, AND expressions of what we would call classical systems are fundamentally just perturbations/excitations within the wave function just as Vlatko suggests..Excellent. thanks..

[JeffRicksDude]

Professor Vedral emphasized that for a physicist, all the world is information. This aligns perfectly with the core principle of HQR, which posits that reality is fundamentally encoded as hyperdimensional information. Holonomic Quantum Reality views the universe as a vast information processing system, where our 4D reality emerges as a projection from this higher-dimensional informational structure. Vedral highlighted how quantum mechanics introduces inescapable probabilities, unlike classical physics where probabilities arise from a lack of information. This inherent uncertainty is central to HQR's concept of observer-dependent projections. The wave-particle duality discussed by Vedral finds a natural explanation in HQR's concept of a hyperhologram. In my framework, observed wave or particle behavior is simply how the underlying hyperdimensional information expresses itself through the lens of a particular experiment or observation. Vedral's discussion of quantum numbers and non-commutativity resonates with HQR's view of reality as fundamentally higher-dimensional. In HQR, the non-commutativity of quantum observables reflects the interconnectedness and non-locality of the higher-dimensional information space. Importantly, as Vedral emphasized, quantum mechanics doesn't negate reality – it redefines it. Similarly, HQR doesn't dismiss reality but reinterprets its underpinnings as a projection from a higher-dimensional, information-based structure. While not explicitly covered in Vedral's lecture, recent work on quantum holonomies provides further support for HQR. Holonomic quantum computation, as described in recent research, exploits the geometric evolution of eigenspaces to implement unitary transformations6.This aligns with HQR's view of reality as a geometric projection from higher dimensions. I've written a couple of books on this subject and am currently finishing up the third, if you want to know more, look for the "Holonomic Quantum Reality" series on Amazon. The first book is a textbook and is dense with equations, but the second book is more accessable, with less math in the text, although the appendix still has plenty of equations. I'm trying to keep the third book math-free, but it's a difficult concept to convey without tensor calculus.

[marktunnicliffe]

Fantastic lecture, fascinating and easily understandable to the interested layman such as myself.

[amphimrca]

Quantum Information is Representation of our Inner Experiance and Colapse of Wave Function is Representation of Free Will
Federico Faggin

[emarsk]

If when the speaker points their laser to the board you show us just the projected image, we can't see what they're pointing at.

[PhilipGamingLand]

Really interested in this subject, thanks for the education value that would used to be on the BBC who have lost there way in recent years

[TheMadcowwww]

What if spacetime isn’t a separate thing, but a unified quantum field in 'superposition'? It’s like “white light” combining all forces (electromagnetic, Higgs, etc.). This field causes all quantum effects superposition, entanglement, duality even gravity/curvature and time emerges from it. So no separate spacetime fabric, just quantum field unification.

[Dyslexic-Artist-Theory-on-Time]

This is an invitation to see a theory that explains the mathematics of Quantum Mechanics as the physics of ‘time’ with Classical physics representing processes over a ‘period of time’ as in Newton’s differential equations. The atoms of the periodic table are standing waves in time within the absorption and emission of light forming the passage of time. Light and matter in the form of electrons are waves over a ‘period of time’ with particle characteristics as a probabilistic ∆×∆pᵪ≥h/4π future unfolds. We have a photon ∆E=hf electron interaction between each cause and effect, between each action and reaction with the Planck Constant h/2π being a minimum constant of action at the base of this process. This idea is supported by the fact that photon ∆E=hf energy is continuously transforming potential energy into the kinetic Eₖ=½mv² energy of matter in the form of electrons.

[FrancisHarkins-rr]

The pixels are rendered on the vector paths- gradients, colors, etc- but not until you open the file

[aofenix]

Gotta try Vipassana ya'll. Great way to work into the 'quantum realm'

[EmanuelEriksson-cdqd]

If the Many-Worlds Interpretation is correct, the observer in our branch still perceives unpredictability before measurement, despite reality branching. Does MWI provide any deeper insight beyond merely reinterpreting quantum mechanics?
Explaining one mystery by introducing another that doesn’t solve the original problem is not progress—it’s just shifting the question.

[richardgalea]

My ‘Galea photons conjecture ‘ suggests that the entire universe is entangled!

[KetanSingh]

Looks like it came out on the same day as the Veritasiun video

[nocancelcultureaccepted]

Human is the String (String Theory) with a mind of its own.

[SpotterVideo]

Quantum Vortex Theory:

Is there a geometric explanation of Planck's constant? Does this explanation require at least one extra spatial dimension? Are vortices in superfluids macroscopic simulations of this geometry?

Dr. Roger Penrose has suggested instead of trying to create a particle called the "graviton" to explain gravity, why not try to describe subatomic particles in terms of spatial curvature, as in the twist in a piece of real thread.

What if we add one extra spatial dimension to the "Twistor Theory" of Dr. Roger Penrose? It can be "chiral" by having either Right-hand or Left-hand twist. It can be "Quantized", based on the number of twist cycles.

If Physicists describe electrons as point particles with no volume, where is the mass of the particle?

Can one extra spatial dimension produce a geometric explanation of the 1/2 spin of electrons? The following is an extension of the old Kaluza-Klein theory. Can a twisted 3D <---> 4D soliton containing one extra spatial dimension help solve some of the current problems in Particle Physics?

What do the Twistors of Roger Penrose and the Geometric Unity of Eric Weinstein and the exploration of one extra spatial dimension by Lisa Randall and the "Belt Trick" of Paul Dirac have in common? Is the following idea a “Quantized” model related to the “Vortex Theory” proposed by Maxwell and others during the 19th century? Is the best explanation of the current data a form of “Twistor Theory” first proposed by Dr. Roger Penrose during 1967? During recent years Dr. Peter Woit has explored Twistor Theory as a possible solution to help explain the current Standard Model.

Has the concept of the “Aether” been resurrected from the dead and relabeled as the “Higgs Field”?

In Spinors it takes two complete turns to get down the "rabbit hole" (Alpha Funnel 3D--->4D) to produce one twist cycle (1 Quantum unit).
Can both Matter and Energy be described as "Quanta" of Spatial Curvature? (A string is revealed to be a twisted cord when viewed up close.) Mass= 1/Length, with each twist cycle of the 4D Hypertube proportional to Planck’s Constant.

In this model Alpha equals the compactification ratio within the twistor cone, which is approximately 1/137.

1= Hypertubule diameter at 4D interface

137= Cone’s larger end diameter at 3D interface where the photons are absorbed or emitted.

The 4D twisted Hypertubule gets longer or shorter as twisting or untwisting occurs. (720 degrees per twist cycle.)

If quarks have not been isolated and gluons have not been isolated, how do we know they are not parts of the same thing? The tentacles of an octopus and the body of an octopus are parts of the same creature.

Is there an alternative interpretation of "Asymptotic Freedom"? What if Quarks are actually made up of twisted tubes which become physically entangled with two other twisted tubes to produce a proton? Instead of the Strong Force being mediated by the constant exchange of gluons, it would be mediated by the physical entanglement of these twisted tubes. Are these the “Flux Tubes” being described by many Physicists today? When only two twisted tubules are entangled, a meson is produced which is unstable and rapidly unwinds (decays) into something else. A proton would be analogous to three twisted rubber bands becoming entangled and the "Quarks" would be the places where the tubes are tangled together. The behavior would be the same as rubber balls (representing the Quarks) connected with twisted rubber bands being separated from each other or placed closer together producing the exact same phenomenon as "Asymptotic Freedom" in protons and neutrons. The force would become greater as the balls are separated, but the force would become less if the balls were placed closer together. Therefore, the gluon is a synthetic particle (zero mass, zero charge) invented to explain the Strong Force. The "Color Force" is a consequence of the XYZ orientation entanglement of the twisted tubules. The two twisted tubule entanglement of Mesons is not stable and unwinds. It takes the entanglement of three twisted tubules to produce the stable proton. The term “entanglement” in this case is analogous to three twisted ropes being wrapped around each other in a way which causes all of the ropes to move if someone pulls one of the ropes. Does the phenomenon of “Asymptotic Freedom” provide evidence that this concept is the correct interpretation of the experimental data now available? Can the phenomenon of "Supercoiling" help explain the "Multiple Generations" of particles in the Standard Model? The conversion of twist to writhe cycles is well understood in the structure of DNA molecules. Can the conversion of twist to writhe cycles and vice-versa help explain "neutrino oscillations"? Within this model neutrinos are a small, twisted torus produced when a tube becomes overtwisted and breaks producing the small, closed loop of twisted tube (neutrino), and a twisted tube open on each end, which is shorter than the original. (Beta Decay)

Within this subatomic model gravity is produced by a very small higher dimensional curvature imbalance within atoms, which causes all atoms to be attracted to all other atoms. This extremely weak attraction reveals the very small scale of the curvature imbalance. This produces the curvature of spacetime on a larger scale like the solar system which is required to counterbalance this small imbalance in the individual atoms.

[markwrede]

The consistent expectation for life should infer that it would be a permanent resonance chamber, accessed through variable metabolisms, among the quantum potentials.