Ask Ethan: Can we use quantum entanglement to communicate faster-than-light?
Einstein called it spooky, but if we figure it out right, can we learn about distant star systems instantaneously?
“Trying to understand the way nature works involves a most terrible test of human reasoning ability. It involves subtle trickery, beautiful tightropes of logic on which one has to walk in order not to make a mistake in predicting what will happen.” -Richard Feynman
Earlier this month, billionaire Yuri Milner and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking teamed up to announce the Breakthrough Starshot, an incredibly ambitious plan to send the first human-created spacecraft to other star systems within our galaxy. While a giant laser array could, feasibly, launch a low mass, microchip-sized spaceship towards another star at some ~20% the speed of light, it’s unclear how such an underpowered, small device like that would ever communicate across the vastness of interstellar space. But Olivier Manuel had an idea that he submitted for Ask Ethan:
It’s a long shot, but could quantum entanglement be used for communication?
It’s certainly worth considering. Let’s take a look at the idea.
