Paradoxes behind the storyline of “Devs”: Science+philosophy+God.

As the lockdown loomed and doomed our spirits with COVID 19 pandemic reshaped our lives. I looked for intriguing TV shows to fill time outside of my girlfriend and writing my scientific publications from my Ph.D. thesis. The show “Devs” on FX came across my radar and the synopsis was already captivating. Cause versus effect, chaos versus determinism, time, quantum computing, ethics of surveillance capitalism and quantum mechanics were integrated into a TV thriller with echoing-droning synths and captivating graphics. There are very few TV shows and movies that tickle my insatiable predilections for science. “Devs” definitely surpasses my threshold.  A short description of Devs is as follows: 

Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno) is an encryption specialist. for Amaya, a sinister quantum computing company run by Forest (Nick Offerman). Lily soon becomes embroiled in the mysterious death of her boyfriend who also works for Amaya (artificial intelligence specialist) and it leads to the deeper mystery of the operations of Devs; an isolated and ultra-secret subdivision under Amaya. 

The programming and simulation lab within the “Devs” building (surrounded by Faraday shields) is housed in a three-dimensional fractal mathematical design called the “Menger sponge”  (lined with gold painted walls) which is suspended by an electromagnetic field. Menger sponge is constructed by starting with a cube, dividing every face of the cube into nine squares, like a Rubik’s Cube/tic-tac-toe grid (cube divides into 27 smaller cubes), removing the smaller cube in the middle of each face, removing the smaller cube in the very center of the larger cube (20 smaller cubes) and perform this iteration for the remaining smaller cubes till infinity. Within this technological marvel lies the mystery of “Deus” called a quantum computer. Quantum computing is a nascent operational system that aims to supersede traditional computing(quantum supremacy). It takes advantage of an atomic scaled (at and below Planck’s length; 10^-9m) phenomenon called quantum superposition.  It simply involves data in a quantum computer are stored and computed in “1” and “0” bits or qubits (2ⁿ) rather than “1” or “0” binary system in traditional computing. This allows for astronomical processing powers stored in a super-cooled and superconducting casing for the resultant heat.

In Devs, a quantum computer was deployed in resolving the ultimate unresolvable. To simulate time and space auditorily and visually based on the pilot wave theory (Bohmian mechanics of hidden variable theory). But  Devs accomplished it through another quantum decoherence view called Hugh Everett’s Many Worlds interpretation. Guess what? There is a difference. 

How microscopic properties translates into macroscopic properties as a function of time and space is the essence of quantum mechanics (field theory) transitioning into classic physics and relativistic mechanics. So moving from quarks and bosons to atoms, to molecules to humans to planets finally into galaxies. The properties in question irrespective of scale primarily includes energy, momentum (linear and angular), position and mass. Simply, quantum mechanics are the elemental structure like guitar strings, the guitar is physics, plucked and stroked into harmony expressed in chemistry and extrapolated into a musical piece/symphony known as biology.  

But how did Devs do it?

Are the expansive powers of today’s data surveillance capitalists leading to abridgment of human privacy and freedom or scientific necessity for human progress? Is such exploration, a challenge of God? These are the ethical and philosophical questions that percolate my head as I watched “Devs”

Tech billionaire Forest’s obsession to simulate time and space was driven by his desire to break space-time continuum and reunite with his dead daughter. This obsession leads him on the road of immorality and narcissism to “play God”. His interpretation of nature is deterministic therefore his evil ways are pre-ordained inexorability, therefore affords him exculpability from any unrighteousness. The proverbial necessary evil is needed for his abhorrent selfishness.  He plays indifferent to the torture and killings carried out by his psychopathic henchman because it serves his greater good. Free will is to be upended for determinism, to be omnipresent. The sacred and mysterious grounds of religiosity, free will and God should be scientifically explored for psychopathic emotional gains is his mantra. The Devs’ obsessions with the visuals of Jesus Christ crucifixion are of Arc biblical and religious significance. So religion was dragged into the Devs. The disheveled and humble appearance of Forest masks the ruthlessness and dissociative demeanor in pursuit of his goals. This juxtaposition is the current archetype that permeates Silicon Valley from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Jeff Bezos. Data collection and mining has become the central theme of Silicon Valley at the expense of democracy, privacy,  knowledge and egalitarianism. The utilitarian commoditization of a highly surveilled populace as products to be sold to commercial spaces and governments pushes us further into a dystopian technologic-totalitarian space defined by misinformation and human dependency. This human to technology dependency is sold facetiously to the general public as a tool of democracy, a democratized knowledge sphere, an exercise of citizen power and human interconnectivity for a utopian future. This envisages powers are vested in a new private government. Information is now power, not money not people not military might not intelligence. An asymmetrical technological access and control builds a new social hierarchy. It is essentially god-like power. It is the anthesis to the dogma of scientific inquiry which is scientific communal human progress within the realms of morality. The ethical conundrum of “playing God” should always be considered at every provocative scientific venture. The hubris to bend the human will, own human privacy and demystify the universes can be lead to madness and depression. Sometimes I wonder when Forest often stares blankly at empty space; the mind of a depressed and obsessive mind. Robert Oppenheimer of the Manhattan Project famously said after testing the first atomic bomb in 1945, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”; well-known line from the Bhagavad-Gita. In Forest, it evolves to “Now I become a new God, the manipulator of this world” is now suffice. Some questions in nature are left unanswered for a reason, no matter how tempting.

Did they resolve Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen’s criticism of quantum mechanics (EPR paradox)? Did they remove the probabilistic consequential uncertainty in Schrodinger’s time-dependent quantum mechanical equation? Did they nullify Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle? Did they prove reality is dependent on the observer/measurer of subatomic particles (Niels Bohr’s anti-realist subjectivity) in contrast to mutual non-dependency of the universe with observer/measurer of subatomic particles (Albert Einstein’s realist objectivity)?  These are the scientific trivia that percolate my head as I watched “Devs”

Lyndon, the young technological prodigy within the Devs team substituted Forest’s unitary adherence to Bohmian mechanics of hidden variable theory for Hugh Everett’s Many Worlds interpretation and he made a major crack into a quantum-mechanical system which allowed him to add an auditory and high resolution to the grainy visual projection of time and space. Therefore he reduced uncertainties in one prediction by normalizing it across different predictions. So the least plausible prediction of the future had the most uncertainty and the most plausible had the least uncertainty. He then inevitably creates new errors (deviations from a unitary reality) through this quantum decoherence model.

Newtonian, classical and relativistic physics are highly deterministic therefore prediction of the behavior of particles in space and time (above Planck’s length) involves knowing all the properties of matter. Quantum mechanics is limited in information, the behavior of particles is in a state of deterministic chaos because only some are known. So knowing more of the unknown reduces knowing the already known in quantum mechanics. Simultaneity in characterizing particle properties above Planck’s length is deterministic while uncertainties are consequential in characterizing properties at and below Planck’s length. More precisely, the probability of finding the particle in space at a point  is directly proportional to the square of the wave function (Born’s rule). 

The major schools of thought of understanding the quantum decoherence includes: 

1. Copenhagen interpretation (Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg): It simply is that quantum particles do not have properties until measurement by an observer. So Schrodinger’s equation’s probabilistic predictions of quantum particles’ temporal trajectory are not as important as wave function collapse ensuing after measurement in determining the particle properties. Therefore, the behavior of particles in grounded states is unimportant until a measurement is conducted as it transitions to an excited state by an induced frequency-energy machine and absorbs (excited) then releases photons (returning back to ground state).Particles are abstract manifestations but the measurements of particles are real, so measurements give particles its properties. Subjective anti-realism is the scientific philosophy that can encapsulate this interpretation. 
2. Many Worlds interpretation (Hugh Everett): With quantum particles jitters or fluctuations spread across the wave function as allowed under Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Therefore every possible outcome is actualized as quantum particles jump into existence across the probabilistic wave function.  There is no wave function collapse as a result, there are just parallel worlds of different configurations dependent on the probabilistic wave function (resulting in higher variance between different points on the wave function). Therefore measurements occurs in different parallel worlds. It spreads indeterminacies of the quantum mechanical system across different realities. It is a objective anti-realism.  

3. Pilot way theory (Louis de Broglie and David Bohm): It simply is the quantum world that is independent of the observer/measurer. Therefore, there is intrinsic mechanical order regardless of the observer.  The Schrodinger equation provides a mathematical template to show the temporal evolution of the wave function; therefore provides half of the information of the quantum mechanical system. The other half lies hidden in the unobserved or intrinsic configured world or guiding equation. Together they force the quantum mechanical system to be deterministic and non-local. Therefore individual particles are already predetermined to move along the specified folds  (concentrated energy-amplitude) of the wavefield across space-time at predetermined momentum to end up in a predetermined position. It mimics the predictive trajectories of deterministic classical and relativistic physics. The position of an individual particle is dependent on the intrinsic configuration, the intrinsic configuration is governed by the momentum of wave function and the wave function is dependent on the boundary conditions of the the universe.

It resolves the paradoxes associated with Many World’s interpretation and Copenhagen interpretation by introducing the hidden variables of the intrinsic configuration but opens a problematic door into faster than light communication through non-locality.  It breaks from the traditional duality of light properties; wave and particle. Therefore, an intrinsic unobservable system or equation predicts how the wave “guides” the particle. So measurements results of the symbiotic relationship of particle and wave with no wave function collapse. It is a nuanced form of realism. 

John Stewart Bell introduced the “Bell theorem” to evaluate the compatibility of the hidden variables theories (EPR and pilot way theory). He wrote, “If a hidden-variable theory is local, it will not agree with quantum mechanics, and if it agrees with quantum mechanics it will not be local”. Therefore quantum mechanics will always be probabilistic which makes it incompatible with the determinism arising from hidden variable theories. This was the underlying scientific reason why Lyndon in Devs got derided and fired by Forest after implementing the Many Worlds’ interpretation. Lyndon was a Many worlds fundamentalist (which unfortunately led to his destruction) while Forest was a Pilot-wave fundamentalist. As Forest said the Many Worlds’ interpretation was a cheat code aimed to get the answer but created amplified errors by introducing variances of outcomes. Therefore a Jesus in one word isn’t a Jesus in another world, his identity, consciousness and physical appearances will be variant across universes. Forest must have harvested a large amount of data across the universe (with and without the consent of governments or people) to parametrize hidden variables and fed into the quantum computer for processing in an aim to combine the two halves of the Pilot way theory. So free will is an illusion and history is pre-determined according to Forest as long as the hidden variables of the unobserved is known. Lyndon’s view of Many Worlds’ leads him to the bridge to ascertain its predictions by hanging on the bridge of which multiple worlds would have different outcomes about his death or return back to Devs. He inevitably opens the door to quantum immortality; death in one world doesn’t mean death in all worlds. 

Lily meet Forest in the last episode and watched the near future as both of them stepped inside an elevator before Lily shoots Forest dead, and bullet punctured the elevator’s glass walls and caused pressure imbalance in the vacuum and break of the electromagnetic field causing the elevator to fall resulting in death. Forest believed that this projection was already determined and inevitable. However, upon entering the elevator,  Lily throws away the gun which was a variant of the projection but Devs employee Stewart (Stephen McKinley Henderson) sabotages the elevator and both of them die. So the outcome was the same but the configuration of the outcome was variant from the projection. Therefore, Hugh Everett (Lyndon) was right; determinism is a fool’s errand. The irony was the only place of determinism existed in the Devs system of “constructed reality” where the consciousness of Forest and Lily was finally uploaded. 

Does free will truly exist?

This is a thought that ran into mind. I discussed this once months ago with my girlfriend’s sister who is an ardent Christian. In the Bible, God is seen as all-knowing, so in a way, he lives in the world of the Pilot wave theory but how can God square that with giving free will to humans which are in a state of probabilities. He knows the beginning and the end, so our paths are already predetermined; so why the final judgment. This is a paradox. Isn’t religious faith willfully dissonant to this conundrum or blind faith? Is God a consequence of uncertainty and complexity of life or is he independent of the observable universe?  This uncertainty is an open argument of the paradoxes underlying free will or determinism in this world.

I believe that God lives in a 99.9% deterministic world but leaves a 0.01% probability for human free will to take rein. It provides a pathway (highly tough) for humanity to find salvation. It is my spiritual and metaphysical bridge of  Bohr’s anti-realism with Einstein’s and/or Pilot wave theoretical realism.