How ‘Devs’ became the new Quantum Trend
“Science contains not just philosophy but also poetry”, says Alex Garland the producer of ‘Devs’, the new FX limited web series. It is not just another web series based on modern-day science but it indeed encapsulates, the trending quantum computing technology and brings it to the fore. Even the previous works of Alex Garland, have science at the heart of them. When his original work “Ex Machina” came out in 2014, he started reading about quantum mechanics in online journals and watching video lectures by physicists like David Deutsch and David Wallace.
According to him, the world around us is all quantum mechanical in nature. So it is really hard to determine whether your existence is deterministic or everything around you is all indeterministic. A deterministic universe means that everything, everywhere is a result of a prior cause, i.e, you performed an action and thus you find yourself with a deterministic situation. You can read more about determinism here. If we look at it philosophically, it removes the power of having a free will. If that’s true it boils down to become a big a thing as it will make you rethink your behavior.
The protagonist is a coder Lily Chan working for a powerful Silicon Valley company called Amaya that is working on cutting edge technology in the field of quantum computing. After a series of events, her boyfriend Sergei Pavlov is murdered and she detects something dubious about the lab called ‘Devs’ on the Amaya Campus. She then begins to investigate the part of this lab in her boyfriend’s death. Devs houses a powerful quantum computer that has the potential to change our understanding of the universe.
Lily Chan is played by Mizuno who wanted to study quantum physics since her school days got an opportunity to dig deeper into the subject and satisfy her thirst for studying the subject. She along with the producer Alex visited the Google Quantum Computer Lab in California, ahead of the shooting and did extensive research while writing the script for the movie. Garland spoke to the various people working at the lab including the coders to gain a deeper understanding of the kind of work that was done there. This ensured that the series was close to describing the current day quantum computing scenario and build a story around it. There are many things and experiments which are there in the web series and have been made possible but certainly, that level of abstraction cannot be achieved in real-world quantum experiments. Nick Offerman, has a career-best role as Forest, the company’s obsessed founder who would not let anybody undermine this project at Devs. And Alison Pill plays Katie, a quantum physicist who is second in command and supports Forest in all his endeavors.
Devs is all about building a prediction algorithm. This prediction algorithm not only recreates the past but is also able to predict the future. This is all done with the help of a quantum computer which is really powerful. There is a team of scientists who work on improving the various components of the multiverse such as the sound, the picture quality and also the correct outcome. Amaya actually happens to be the name of Forest’s daughter who he had lost to some unknown cause and he wants to recreate the past and get to see his own daughter. Sergei finds out something dubious with the lab when he is in the AI department is promoted to work at Devs. He reads code there that has the potential to change everything. Forest explains to him that the universe is deterministic in nature. There is a predefined tramline that you need to follow. Sergei is an industrial spy working for Russian Intelligence. Forest tells him that his current situation is a result of a prior cause — the way he was brought up and all his past experience was shaped have resulted in him to betray Amaya.
There are several experiments run to test the prediction algorithm. As a result, they are able to project the past from 2000 years and see blurred projections of some Jesus from some history or multiverse. The reason I say “some Jesus” is the fact that he might not be the same Jesus from our history, because the quantum computer can produce probabilistic outcomes and the best outcome out of all these is taken into account. Jesus may differ in a single hair or 3 hair or thousands of hair. Now, according to the Hindu text Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, “there are innumerable universes besides this one.”
Originally published by me and edited by the QuantumHermit: http://quantumhermit.com/devs-and-our-quantum-reality/
