Betting on the Future: From Cubism to QBism

Can avant-garde interpretations of reality inspire new ways of seeing and being in the world?

A Disorienting World

I’m struggling to make sense of the world these days. When I view it from one angle, I see beauty, goodness and potential, and when I view it from another, I see violence, destruction, and suffering. One perspective reveals a world of regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, community action, and caring about “distant others,” and another shows a world of degradation, exploitation, apathy, and extinction. The contrasts are confusing and disorienting, and I sometimes feels like I am living in a Cubist painting.

Cubism, an art style that was popular more than 100 years ago, uses multiple perspectives to simultaneously represent a subject from different viewpoints and angles. Through simplified forms, flattened space, and interlocking planes, Cubism introduced an alternative to existing norms by offering a new way of looking at the world. Does Cubism offer any lessons on how we can engage with social change in the fragmented world we live in today?

From Cubism to QBism

Cubism tells us that introducing new perspectives can lead to new ideas and actions. Cubism was at its height between 1907 and 1914, when artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were challenging traditional, representational art. This paved the way for abstract expressionism and many other art movements and styles. During the same time period, early quantum physicists were questioning our understanding of reality and the nature of the universe. The wave-particle duality, uncertainty, and non-local entanglement would eventually raise deep philosophical challenges to deterministic understandings of reality.  

The many interpretations of quantum mechanics are analogous to the multiple perspectives represented in a Cubist painting. The most popular perspectives on quantum physics include the Copenhagen Interpretation, the Many Worlds Interpretation, and the Bohmian Pilot Wave Interpretation. But there is another, more avant-garde approach that deserves further attention, especially at a time when many people feel that their actions do not matter. That interpretation is known as QBism.

QBism and Quantum Social Change

QBism is a subjective interpretation based on quantum information and Bayesian probability theory; specifically, approaches to Bayesian probabilities that measure the impact of an agent’s personal degree of belief that something is true or will occur. QBism considers that we, as agents, assign subjective probabilities (based on the total information available) to a ‘“quantum probability wave” of all possible outcomes in a particular situation. In quantum mechanics, a quantum probability wave is a mathematical description measuring the of chance of finding a particle in various positions and states. This wave function conveys the potential for different outcomes upon measurement.

How does this relate to quantum social change? Alexander Wendt considers social structures to be social wave functions, or “superpositions of shared mental states.” This means that every norm, rule, institution, and idea that we have used to organize and manage systems – such as those related to water access, air quality, health care, or education – represents one among many possibilities. In Wendt’s view, similar to quantum wave functions, social structures are not “real” in the classical sense. They are experienced as real when a wave of potential collapses into a particular outcome or condition. From the perspective of QBism, our subjective beliefs play a critical role in the outcomes and conditions that we experience.

In short, QBism emphasizes the role of the observer's beliefs and experiences in defining probabilities. It takes agents and their actions into account, including the consequences of those actions. The probability of a hypothesis being true or false is continuously updated based on new information or evidence. This interpretation recognizes that our subjective beliefs matter. This has implications for the actions we take, and consequently for our social world(s).

Betting on the Future

QBism promotes the philosophical stance of “participatory realism,” which recognizes that our actions and decisions, informed by our subjective beliefs and experiences, can actively shape and participate in the unfolding of the reality that we perceive and experience. From a QBist perspective, quantum mechanics is not a description of the world; rather, it is a technique for engaging with and comprehending the world. Our ideas and actions influence the future.

I first heard about QBism from Christopher Fuchs in 2016, at the Q Symposium on Peace and Security in a Quantum Age: Moment, Matter, Mind and Metaphysics. In his talk, Fuchs compared QBism to placing a bet on a future event based on the information we have, and on what we expect or hope to experience or see. QBism emphasizes that probabilistic assessments in quantum mechanics are personal and subjective, reflecting our individual knowledge and expectations.

Like many others, I am betting on a future of regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, community action, and caring about everyone, regardless of whether they feel distant or close, or similar or dissimilar. Placing our bets on a world of beauty, goodness, and potential, despite so much evidence to the contrary, feels at times risky and naïve. However, the risk of not contributing to such a world is even greater. Why not choose to believe that our beliefs and actions influence quantum probability waves and social wave functions?

Innovation and Inspiration

Just as Cubism was seen as avant-garde at the beginning of the 20^th century, QBism is considered a controversial way of interpreting quantum mechanics. Its philosophy of participatory realism challenges conventional interpretations of quantum mechanics by bringing the subject into science. QBism has been criticized and resisted by many, but so was Cubism.

Debates about the interpretations of quantum physics are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, but that is not the point. Rather than focusing on the right/wrong binary, perhaps we should look to QBism to raise new questions and open up new ways of thinking about our role in shaping the future. Simply reflecting on how different interpretations of reality influence the way that we engage (or disengage) with social change can be powerful. For example, I find QBism to be more empowering and inspiring than interpretations suggesting that we are merely observers of an external reality that is beyond our individual and collective influence.

Just as Cubism has influenced many artists and art movements, QBism may inspire people and social movements to take actions on behalf of both present and future generations. In a recent interview with the Essential Foundation, Chris Fuchs philosophically reflects on why he thinks QBism is meaningful: “I want to think that my real actions have real consequences and they make real differences… [From a QBist perspective] quantum theory is a property of the world that makes life worth living.” In this disorienting world, maybe we need to take QBism seriously.

For more on QBism, see Adam Frank’s series of short articles on The Big Think:

1. “QBism”: The most radical interpretation of quantum mechanics ever

2. QBism and the philosophical crisis of quantum mechanics

3. What reality does quantum theory describe? QBism has a radical answer

Developing an encompassing, consistent worldview is a formidable undertaking. The journey is long and hard, but QBism has shown us how to go about it.

(Von Baeyer 2016, p. 192)

Artwork: Martin Cambriglia - Shutterstock