Extraterrestrial

Could aliens be using black holes as quantum computers?

By T.K. Randall
February 14, 2023 ·  3 comments

Image Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA et el. The question of whether we are alone in the universe remains one of the biggest philosophical conundrums of our time. While it seems almost inconceivable that our civilization is alone in the cosmos, the fact still remains that we have yet to see any evidence to the contrary.

The Fermi paradox, which highlights the contradiction between the likely existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the fact that we have still never encountered any, seems to suggest that either there are no aliens out there, or they are so rare that it is unlikely we would ever come across them.

But what if the simple truth is that we've been looking in the wrong place or for the wrong thing ?

The modern search for evidence of intelligent alien life has often focused on alien 'technosignatures', which are essentially signs of alien technology - such as huge space stations or Dyson spheres - detectable using telescopes from Earth.

Now a new study by researchers from Germany and Georgia has put forward the idea that advanced aliens may be using black holes as enormous quantum computers, thus perhaps explaining why we have yet to see any evidence of other large technological platforms in space.Quantum computing is likely to become increasingly prevalent over the coming years, meaning that it is certainly reasonable that an advanced alien civilization could be using a similar technology.

"No matter how advanced is a civilization or how different is their particle composition and chemistry from ours, we are unified by laws of quantum physics and gravity," the researchers wrote.

"These laws tell us that the most efficient storers of quantum information are black holes."

"Although our recent studies show that theoretically, there may exist devices created by non-gravitational interactions that also saturate the capacity of information storage (so-called "saturons"), the black holes are the clear champions."

Actually finding evidence of black holes being used in this way, however, could prove challenging.

Source: Science Alert | Comments (3)

Tags: Black Hole, Alien