Superposition — Quantum, off the Panels

Dr. Manhattan is a god above gods.

This summer I plummeted down the Watchmen rabbit hole. The 1986 graphic novel by Alan Moore is filled with intriguing characters and even more intriguing moral dilemmas. Watchmen is the original “gritty superhero” story, and is hailed by many as a masterpiece because of it. The most visually recognizable member of the Watchmen is the only real superpowered member: Dr. Manhattan, named after the project that gave him his powers. The guy was literally torn apart by a laboratory accident and had to rebuild his body atom-by-atom.

Dr. Manhattan isn’t the most popular character among our local power-scaling goblins. He’s omnipotent, omniscient, and whatever other “omni-” word you can think of. “In my opinion the existence of life is a highly overrated phenomenon.” Let’s add to the cartoonish list of powers by talking about how Manhattan experiences all of the past, present, and future simultaneously. He literally knows everything that has and will happen.

At some point the convention-disregarding whiplash of a literal god (no weaknesses by the way) wore off when I realized that what makes the character compelling is that he manages to have the most debilitating weakness of all. Despite his godlike powers, the most compelling thing about Manhattan is his worldly, nihilistic outlook on the world around him. The man who has the most leverage over reality happens to care the least about it; No one in the world of the Watchmen can ever come close to the bald, blue man, but thankfully no one will ever have to.

So beyond all the complex moral questions and the nuanced character dynamics that Jon Osterman brings to the literary table, what the hell does he have to do with quantum physics? Well,

Superposition in its simplest form can be described as a particle in two places at once.

That’s how I first came to understand the principle, anyway. I initially learned it as a particle moving so fast that it’s virtually in two places, two states at the same time. But that explanation is honestly a little misleading. A more accurate description of the superposition principle is as the linear combination of states (or the addition of probability functions). In an equation, that would look like the following:

∣ ψ ⟩ = α ∣0 ⟩ + β ∣1 ⟩

With psi describing the “wavefunction”, and alpha and beta being the probability coefficients that describe whether our particle is in the 1 state or the 0. This is a great time to check out this week’s interactive simulation!

PREDICT/before you run it

Turn the phase dial — only the phase, leaving the first dial alone. What happens to the two probability bars?

Superposition has a bit more nuance and a bit less flashiness than the “two places at once” argument presents. More accurately, superposition tries to describe uncertainty with certainty; even if we don’t know what the particle’s state looks like, we do our best to describe what its possibilities might be.

Superposition of course opens the door for all of quantum physics and quantum computing. For example, the ability to more complexly describe a state beyond the binary 0 & 1 is the basis of qubits and quantum computing. That will be delved into at great length in a few weeks but for now,

What does Doctor Manhattan have to do with any of this?

I explained it a bit earlier but Manhattan experiences all moments at once. Furthermore, he can be in multiple places at once. Does that not seem like he’s capable of both temporal and spatial superposition?!

That’s where the nuance of linear combination comes in. Doctor Manhattan is capable of travelling along the timestream, and his ability to synthesize that information accordingly is the closest it really comes to a “linear combination of states”, but at the end of the day, be it in time or space, his power is more likened to self-duplication within a hivemind. Even though he’s splitting his consciousness to experience these various moments at once, there is certainty in Manhattan’s state; that certainty is what causes the analogy to fail. If Manhattan were shifting between his consciousnesses, it would be a different story, but for now, Manhattan’s “superposition” is debunked.

I find Doctor Manhattan fascinating…

Because at the end of the day, his powers are so ubiquitous that they’re no longer his selling point. By all stretches of the definition this man is a god. But unlike most other gods, he’s not benevolent. Unlike other divinities, he’s not malevolent. Manhattan is compelling because he just is. In the world of the Watchmen our so called “saviors” toe that line between vigilantism and heroism. The question is always asked: “Who watches the Watchmen”. Surrounded by a flawed prescription of heroism, Manhattan is the most important facet of the story because amidst all these flaws in our heroes, the god in the room has the capacity to change everything in an instant. But he won’t. What truly would bring a god to care about us?

That’s just this week’s food for thought. I really hope you enjoyed this first issue! Be sure to check back in to see next week’s concept and character. Until then,

Happy Reading,

Mihir Koduri