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A Quantum Wish, the picture book

Apr 15, 20221 min read

Originally published on LinkedIn

A Quantum Wish, the picture book

Apr 15, 2022 | Charles Tahan

This is an archived copy of a LinkedIn post. The original is at the link above.

With some help from the latest AI, I made an illustrated picture book for World Quantum Day. (Based on an earlier essay https://www.quantum.gov/a-quantum-wish/). Clearly anyone can art now; I look forward to a future when anyone can quantum.

The picture book

Page 1 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: A Quantum Wish

Page 2 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: A baby drops a spoon, and it falls.

Page 3 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Gravity may not be surprising to you, but it is to that one-year-old who giggles with delight.

Page 4 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: We are not born knowing that objects drop. Gravity is only obvious because we experience it every day of our lives.

Page 5 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: This accumulated intuition let humanity build houses and bridges long before the physics equations that predict how gravity works were discovered.

Page 6 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Quantum physics happened in the opposite order. We don’t experience quantum effects directly. The laws of quantum mechanics describe how particles and matter behave at the smallest length scales. When physicists discovered these laws, they were baffled.

Page 7 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: That a particle could exist in two places at once doesn’t match our common sense*. Yet, quantum mechanics is the most accurate theory of how the world—how the universe— works. Experiment after experiment has confirmed these predictions.

Page 8 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Despite our lack of first-hand experience, we have developed many applications that rely on our understanding of how the quantum world works.

Page 9 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: The transistor that runs your computer, the magnetic resonance imager that detects tumors, the Global Positioning System that gets you home: all these technologies rely on quantum properties of the simplest kind, the kind humans began to understand a hundred years ago.

Page 10 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Quantum information science applies the most surprising properties of quantum mechanics to how we process, store, and transfer information to create quantum information technology.

Page 11 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: A sufficiently capable quantum computer, for example, may solve some problems more efficiently than any classical computer ever could.

Page 12 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Quantum sensors may be able to detect earthquakes in time to save lives.

Page 13 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Amazing careers in quantum information science and technology await our children. I believe that thirty years from now we will look back and think that building a useful quantum computer was inevitable. But today, even after almost 25 years of sustained effort, there are still immense scientific and engineering challenges to

Page 14 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: In the United States, the National Q-12 Education Partnership is working to bring quantum to K-12 education and beyond. The goal is to team quantum companies and professional societies with educators and government to develop and then expand access to K-12 quantum learning tools, inspiring the next generation of quantum leade

Page 15 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Bridge builders (aka civil engineers) know their enemy from a young age: they fight gravity. Future quantum builders do not have that benefit. Right now, gaining the kind of deep, in-your-bones intuition needed to push quantum information technology forward means obtaining a graduate degree.

Page 16 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: A Ph.D. in physics is not necessary to become comfortable with the core concepts of quantum information science, but most of the challenges in building a quantum computer and figuring out what to do with it do require years of training.

Page 17 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: I hope that learning the basic concepts behind QIS will serve as a gateway, steering students to undertake the learning required to become a quantum chip designer, or a semiconductor physicist, or an expert in developing chemistry algorithms for quantum computers to tackle.

Page 18 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Games are one way to make quantum effects as familiar as gravity. But how do you visualize something as complex as a large quantum computer? Physicists take many different approaches; none are good enough to inspire the next generation.

Page 19 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: So, here’s my wish (and challenge) for 2022.

Page 20 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: You visit a new exhibit at a local or virtual museum on industries of the future. In the quantum corner, after learning some QUANTUM INFO 101, you can begin to meet some of the amazingly diverse people and technologies in the field.

Page 21 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: You then approach the capstone experience: “SEE A QUANTUM COMPUTER FROM THE INSIDE.” You and your daughter are each given a single-button device labeled QUBIT. Each visitor then represents a single qubit.

Page 22 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: You are told that the number of qubits present will affect what goes on inside the computer, and that getting closer to or farther from other qubits will cause them to interact and become entangled according to the laws of quantum mechanics. Pushing the button manipulates and “measures” your qubit. You enter the doorway.

Page 23 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Here’s the challenge for all my scientist, educator, artist, and communicator friends out there. What does that girl see? World Quantum Day is today: April 14, 2022.

Page 24 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Illustrations 1/ 100 spoons falling, van gogh painting 2/ a painting of a laughing baby holding a fork sitting in her high chair while her mom sits in a chair frazzled, with background being a kitchen 3/ a toddler walking up a staircase with photos of famous scientists on the wall, digital art 4/ a bunch of cavemen building a

![[blog/assets/linkedin-2022-04-15-a-quantum-wish-page-25.jpg|Page 25 of the picture book, an AI-generated illustration with the text: Dedicated to my daughter. Based on the essay “A Quantum Wish” (https://www.quantum.gov/a-quantum-wish/) Written by Charles Tahan Illustrated by DALL•E and Charles Tahan]]

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