On the Computational Power of Physical Systems, Undecidability, the Consistency of Phenomena, and the Practical Uses of Paradoxes

Abstract

The classical methods used by recursion theory and formal logic to block paradoxes do not work in quantum information theory. Since quantum information can exist as a coherent superposition of the classical ``yes'' and ``no'' states, certain tasks which are not conceivable in the classical setting can be performed in the quantum setting. Classical logical inconsistencies do not arise, since there exist fixed point states of the diagonalization operator. In particular, closed timelike curves need not be eliminated in the quantum setting, since they would not lead to any paradoxical outcome controllability. Quantum information theory can also be subjected to the treatment of inconsistent information in databases and expert systems. It is suggested that any two pieces of contradicting information are stored and processed as coherent superposition. In order to be tractable, this strategy requires quantum computation.