One school of thought says that the strangeness of quantum theory can be put down to a lack of information; if we could find the “hidden variables” the mysteries would all go away.
A girl searches through many worlds for a perfect reality in “A World in Threads”. In our reality, the story has won First Prize in the Quantum Shorts flash fiction competition.
“The Observer”, where the emergence of observers within an observed universe causes problems, is Runner Up.
The two stories were selected for the competition’s top honours by Quantum Shorts judges Chad Orzel, George Musser, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, José Ignacio Latorre, Ken Liu, Leonardo Benini and Tania De Rozario from a shortlist of ten quantum-inspired stories.
“The finalists represented a wide range of styles, approaches, and subject matter. It was so inspiring to see how creatively the writers interpreted the premise and spun expected tropes in unexpected directions,” said speculative fiction author Ken Liu. “Congrats to the winners, and I hope everyone continues to tell the stories they want to tell.”
A public poll on the shortlist chose “Root Consciousness” for the People’s Choice Prize. In addition to the shortlist award, certificate and digital subscription to Scientific American that is awarded to all the finalists, the three winners will receive cash awards and an engraved trophy.
In writing “A World in Threads”, high schooler Acadia Reynolds from the United States started with the image of a shrimp exploding into pink glitter, a moment that appears early in her story. She said, “The idea for my story comes from the horror inherent in being lost in the minutia of a strange world.”
The fantastical story struck a chord with the judges. Science writer George Musser called it “surreal but affecting” while Leonardo Benini, Senior Editor at Nature Physics, praised the “surreal, oneiric, evocative writing”. For winning First Prize, Acadia Reynolds receives USD 1500.
“I’m thrilled about winning first place,” she said. “I’m pursuing a career in science writing, so it feels great for my writing to be validated like this. I plan on continuing to write and improve.”
Aspiring writer Dan Goodman is Runner Up, winning USD 1000. Thinking about the nuances related to the mysterious role of observation in quantum phenomena, he wrote about a fallible creator tinkering with a world. He said, “I thought even if there is a creator or being doing the observing, maybe there could be something left for the people observed too.”
The story was a favourite of writer Ingrid Jendrzejewski. “This is a wonderfully creative piece with an ambitious concept,” she said. “I love how it leans into the science and weaves it into the story’s world.”
On being the Runner Up, Dan Goodman said, “To be honest, I had been so thrilled just to make the shortlist that I had no expectations whatsoever. This news came as a complete surprise. All the shortlisted entries were wonderful, some truly outstanding, so I am honoured and humbled for my story to be chosen as the runner up.”
The People’s Choice Prize of USD 500 went to Tony Tsoi of “Root Consciousness”. He was inspired by research on the quantum characteristics of biophotons, expanding the idea to include quantum communication between humans and plants in his story.
He said, “This story is my second submission ever to a writing contest. I am thrilled to be awarded the People’s Choice Prize. I would like to thank my two writing buddies who have accompanied me on my writing journey since Day 1. Special thanks go to my wife, Wing-Yee, who lets me interrupt her whenever I need to brainstorm ideas.”
“I would like to thank everyone who has taken part in Quantum Shorts since the Centre for Quantum Technologies started this series in 2012,” said José Ignacio Latorre, who is also Director of the Centre for Quantum Technologies. “Our lives are richer for your creative work. I particularly appreciate the films and fiction that explore science in subtle ways. This year’s winner did that beautifully.”
Congratulations to our final batch of Quantum Shorts winners! Find all the shortlisted stories, and interviews with the shortlisted authors on their inspiration on the Quantum Shorts website.
This marks the end of the Quantum Shorts competitions as we know them, having alternated between film and fiction since 2012. We would love to know what you’ve thought of Quantum Shorts. Please participate in our survey to give feedback – you can even share ideas about what we should do next! Survey participants also have a chance to enter our giveaway of the Quantum Shorts book. We’ll be sending 20 lucky recipients selected at random a free print copy of the original Quantum Shorts book, collecting stories from our first three fiction competitions.
We are also planning a second volume of quantum short stories, collecting the honourably mentioned, shortlisted and winning stories of our last three flash fiction competitions. The e-book will be available for free download. Watch this space!
For their support throughout the competition, we thank our media partners Scientific American and Nature, and our scientific partners, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems; the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies; the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, Canada; the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech; QuTech; and the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme.