Topic
quantum
5 essays follow this thread across the codex.
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The Node We Call Now
Suppose only one universe exists at a time, and every future is drawn from a probabilistic tree growing out of the present, the way a learning agent’s next state follows from its last. Quantum physics has a surprising amount to say about that picture—where it holds, where it breaks, and whether thinking in branches can change which branch comes.
Physics · September 2026 · 18 min -
Four States and a Short Vector
Quantum mechanics takes secrecy away with one hand and gives it back with the other. A Fourier transform dissolves the arithmetic under the padlock; a theorem about copying lets a single photon carry a key nobody can overhear; and a little deliberate noise turns a schoolroom equation into a wall. The actual mathematics of all three, made readable, and where the migration stands in September 2026.
Mathematics · September 2026 · 18 min -
The Sun Does Not Send Us Energy
Earth radiates back almost exactly what it receives. Nothing accumulates. So whatever the sun is supplying that makes life, weather and civilisation possible, it is not energy—and once you see what it actually is, the questions about data, computation and where all this is heading acquire real numbers and stop being metaphors.
Physics · August 2026 · 21 min -
Stop Drawing Me as a Little Ball
A complaint from an electron. On being misdrawn in every textbook since 1913, being accused of caring whether you are looking, and the persistent rumour that I am in two places at once—which is not what I said, and is somehow less impressive than the truth.
Physics · August 2026 · 10 min- quantum
- humour
- first-person
- misconceptions
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Nobody Understands It, and It Has Never Been Wrong
Quantum theory was not chosen. It was forced on physics by experiments that would not go away, by men who mostly disliked what they had found. A century later it is the most precisely verified description of nature we possess—and it still cannot tell you what happens when you look.
Physics · August 2026 · 18 min- quantum
- measurement
- entanglement
- history of science
- foundations