What is your Q.I.Q?

What is your Quantum Intelligence Quotient?

I am not here refering to the largely bogus field of quantum AI, I am referring to the metaphor of quantum superposition as applied to ourselves.

Usual thinking is either/or and this picture is MASSIVELY encouraged by the success of digital programming or digital machines. The metaphor of either/or burns deep and long in the culture's psyche. Edward de Bono- still alive I hear thank goodness! made a good career by suggesting either/ or thinking was a bit limited. He took to carving out the middle ground. He even invented a word Po- which meant neither Yes or No. Sadly it looked a bit too much like Poo and so the idea died a quiet death (imagine if Black Holes had been called Brown Holes instead- goodbye NASA funding...). (Rule one of ideas- do not suggest shit in any way shape or form otherwise people will subconciously assume your idea is tainted by the brown stuff...)

A quantum state can be YES or NO at the same time- up until we poke around and demand to know which. Like I said, this is a useful metaphor for the way our own minds work, freeing us from the digital either/or metaphor.

Your whole school curriculum is pretty much either/or. The world of business presentations and law is too. And government. Anywhere where practical wisdom is over ridden by rule based literalism.

Real world engineering, practical wisdom, craft and art infused with lived experience of a useful, kind all shows that intelligence is best expressed by the ability to hold contradictory positions in your mind at the same time. Until context and necessary deployment nudge one way or the other.

The famous Mulla Nasrudin joke (sometimes retold as a rabbi joke or a goha joke) sees the Mulla presiding over a law court. After hearing the defendent speak he says, "You're right!". After hearing the prosecution he says, "You're right." Both legal teams turn on him and demand, "We can't both be right!" The Mulla responds, "You're right!".

Like much Nasrudin stuff it's a variation on the Cretan paradox- that constant warning that contradiction is built into any presentation in language and that to be functional we must be able to live with this, use it when we can, in other words: be comfortable with contradiction...be quantum intelligent and hold as many different position as you can at the same time until the REAL WORLD CONTEXT favours or demands one that fits in that time and place.

I will be offering Quantum Intelligence training courses in the near future. Feel free to apply.