re: 3 Body Problem - Netflix

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And how the San-Ti can affect stuff in real time despite being light years (100's of years physically) away.

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Quantum entanglement - Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance.” It’s a phenomenon where the quantum states of two particles become entangled, meaning their states are correlated even at large distances. Research has shown that state measurements of entangled particles at the same time will yield the same results even if those particles are so far apart that they “communication” between them would have to happen faster than the speed of light. This has led to some speculation that FTL communication may be possible using quantum computers that are entangled with one another.

I’m not a theoretical physicist, but my understanding is that current consensus says transmission of actual information at faster-than-light speeds is still impossible, regardless of entanglement. The issue is that you can’t force a particle into a specific state (which you would have to do in order to actually communicate any information) without breaking the entanglement.

Interestingly, I’m not sure that FTL communication is actually necessary for the plot to work. A sufficiently-advanced quantum computer/AI would presumably be capable of “taking the wheel,” so to speak, and reporting its findings/actions back to the San-Ti with normal transmission delay. Not that it really matters.. it’s science fiction after all.