I was reading an article this morning about decoherence and I’m how countless uncontrollable environmental factors are the key reason why we don’t yet have effective quantum computers. The short version is that there are so many outside influences that the absurdly delicate and complicated machinery goes wonky halfway through trying to calculate anything that’s worth being calculated. It got me thinking about our own communication with each other.

In his book “On Writing” Stephen King describes the process of writing as an act of telepathy that transcends time and space. I love this idea. I also see that it’s not entirely accurate because even though you are reading the thoughts that I have put here directly from my brain, there are countless environmental factors that will influence your perception of this writing, to say nothing of your own internal translation process. My thoughts are not your thoughts and decoding them for your mind to process will doubtless create a degree of translational dissonance.

In essence, it’s small wonder that we’re able to effectively communicate at all when you consider just how easy it is to misunderstand one another.

Decoherence