Quantum Gravity Backfire

 Quantum Gravity Backfire

 

This essay extends my theory of the Backfire Effect to the quantum gravity regime. Since both are speculative, this is speculation squared. Take this with a 1-mm-sized cube of sodium chloride.

First the Backfire Effect. It is my explanation for the nonobservation of nuclear warfare. Usually this is credited to elite benevolence, or the wisdom of deterrence, or the power of the brotherhood of mankind; but we all know how absurd those theories are in other contexts. My theory is that we have never observed nuclear warfare because it is unobservable; for nuclear war would destroy all observers before they could observe the war.

Nuclear weapons are based upon quantum mechanics, which is observer-based, inherently unpredictable, and nonlocal. Since nuclear warfare is unobservable, it follows that in quantum terms it is nonexistent; and what's more, so would be any phenomena that would cause nuclear war. Such phenomena are pre-emptively disrupted by unpredictable events. I call that the Backfire Effect.

In quantum terms, nuclear warfare is a virtual phenomenon. It is never directly observed, but its indirect effects are. Because of nonlocality, the Backfire Effect reaches into the past and beyond the light cone; because of unpredictability, it manifests as disruptive chaos; an intensification of Murphy’s Law. Nuclear weapons aren't just radioactive; they're retroactive. They destroy before they detonate, to prevent the detonation. This war is false!

I think that the 2016 election absolutely stank of Backfire. The Kennedy assassination also seems Backfired.  I think that we lost worldlines there. That’s the trouble with nukes; they keep the elites on apparently polite terms with each other, but they thin out the world tree.

I also optimistically theorize a Breakthrough Effect, in which improbable events combine to create and nurture war-preventing phenomena.

That’s my crackpot quantum woo-woo theory. I presented it to John Michael Greer, an online Druid, who said that he appreciated it as "a fine example of quantum handwavionics, and this one’s more quantum than most.😉" I recall that Rudy Rucker said that my theory is correct.

I admit that my theory is hard to confirm or refute. I also admit that similar predictions are made by the theory that humans possess foresight, the instinct for self-preservation, unpredictability when provoked, and the capacity for sloth, sabotage, insubordination, and larceny. But I see that as a complementary interpretation. Either by quantum weirdness or by human deviousness, there will be a Backfire Effect. Merely owning nuclear bombs courts trouble for their owners.

Now on to quantum gravity. I wrote to the Druid in response to an article of his, that mentioned the lack of fundamentally new physics since the mid-1900s. Where's antigravity? Where's the unified field? Or in present-day terms; where is quantum gravity? 

Quantum gravity implies control of all four forces; hence, I suspect, antigravity; and therefore hoverboards, jetpacks, flying cars, quick cheap spaceflight, tractor beams, pressor beams, force fields, warp drives, limitless energy... all your favorite skiffy marvels. But quantum gravity, as a quantum theory, would also have a Backfire Effect, if it is abused; and who doubts that the elites we have would abuse it?

For instance, how about a black hole bomb? That too would destroy retroactively. Consider the effects of an intensified Murphy's Law upon a skiffy technomarvel utopia.

I predict that a working theory of quantum gravity will continue to elude the imaginations of even the brightest scientists until the human race installs a political elite who refuses to use it for warfare. Such a political change will seem daunting, but it will be supported and hastened by the Breakthrough Effect.

I also predict that if AI requires quantum computation, then it too has a Backfire Effect, and weaponizing AI is counterproductive for national security.