Quantum Quack

Quantum Quack makes a random choice in a list of options you provide. The choice is made using quantum random numbers, which are truly random, unlike ordinary random numbers.


What's the point?

This needs some background: randomness is the inability to predict the output of a process. For example, a dice roll is random because its result cannot be predicted in advance. However, a dice follows the laws of mechanics, and we could in principle predict the output of a dice roll if we had a precise enough knowledge of its initial conditions. A dice roll is therefore not fundamentally random, the randomness only emerges from the fact that the output is highly sensitive to the initial conditions. In physics, such phenomena that are fully determined by their initial conditions, in however complicated way, are called “deterministic”. Determinism was famously formulated by Laplace in the following way: if one knew the precise state of the universe at a given instant, and had the knowledge of the laws of nature, one would automatically know all the future and past of the universe. In other words, all the choices we make in our human lives are already determined by the initial conditions of the universe, even you reading this text right now. 

Later on, however, physicists discovered a new type of phenomena that are fundamentally random: quantum phenomena. Those are processes that typically involve elementary particles, such as electrons or photons. The output of those processes cannot be predicted in advance, whatever the amount of knowledge we have on the initial conditions. For those, randomness is in the laws themselves. 

Unfortunately, quantum phenomena don't save us from determinism. Indeed, those are restricted to the microscopic world, they “average out” beyond the scale of a single molecule, which is itself about a million times smaller than a single neuron, the building block of thought. Therefore, the randomness of quantum phenomena can never influence human affairs.
This is where Quantum Quack comes in: by picking one of your options based on quantum random numbers, it allows you to escape determinism.


Examples of Quantum Quacking

Generally speaking, we recommend not putting your destiny in the hands of chance and making choices after rational considerations. However, if you're facing some unimportant choice, that is your chance to escape determinism.
For example, if you can't make up your mind between two restaurants, Quantum Quack it, and you'll enjoy an authentically non-deterministic experience.


How does it work?

Mobile phones contain an element that produce quantum random numbers, although it is not its primary purpose: the camera! The way in which light is detected by each pixel of a camera is a quantum process, involving the production of photoelectrons, which are produced in certain amounts that fluctuate randomly. When you tap "Quack it!", the app takes a picture and uses these fluctuations to pick one of your options with equal probabilities.