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Shiraz Robinson II Talks First Contact with Quantum
Humanity has explored its hopes and fears through media that envisions the possibilities of first contact with another species. Some examples are symbolic of connecting to something foreign within ourselves, and others are far more literal in their attempt to imagine coming face-to-face with beings from another world. University of Virginia M.S. in Data Science student Shiraz Robinson II is fascinated by quantum computing and the idea of quantum computers as being almost other worldly. Quantum computers use the rules of quantum physics to solve incredibly complex problems much faster than regular computers.
In this Q&A, Robinson speaks with us about both symbolic and literal examples of first contact and explores the beauty of human-machine interaction through detailing the limitless possibilities of quantum computing.
Humanity has envisioned first contact as a concept belonging to the distant dreams of science fiction. Quantum computers feel like these behemoths of modern technology, aliens in their own way. How do you make sense of their enormity?
At first glance, quantum computers can seem like alien technology, since most people do not understand their evolution and development.
I first discovered quantum computing while an undergraduate in plant biology at the University of Maryland. During my senior year, I took a required plant development and physiology class that discussed quantum photosynthesis. It was my first time seeing photosynthesis as an explicit quantum-mechanical process harnessed by a living biological system. This was when I started looking at plants as biological quantum computers, harnessing the power of quantum computation and quantum information for billions of years to sustain life on Earth.
Plants, quantum computers, and humans could be considered different types of aliens. Quantum computers can pose a threat to classical modes of thought. These machines can also be an ally in solving problems that modern supercomputers find intractable. It is our responsibility to see how quantum computing will co-evolve with human civilization.
How will quantum computers observe and process our reality?
Current quantum computers rely on noisy quantum hardware, including qubits, gates, and measurements; these factors contribute to quantum decoherence. Today’s superconducting quantum computers are not universally fault-tolerant. Fault-tolerant quantum computers do not yet exist.
The main ambition of quantum computers is to simulate nature in its purest form; nature itself is inherently quantum mechanical. You want to simulate quantum objects like atoms, photons, electrons, and molecules on a quantum computer, especially when your quantum computer is fault-tolerant. Photosynthesis is a biological process that is inherently quantum mechanical. This is a real example of how a quantum system can observe and process our reality.
I imagine that someday, when society has access to universal fault-tolerant quantum computers, we will be able to simulate quantum photosynthesis effortlessly. Photosynthesis is how plants make their food and cellular functional products to grow and develop. The energy we receive from eating food is a direct result of photosynthesis, which is a significant factor when you consider the energetic trophic levels that connect all organisms together.
Harnessing the true power of quantum computation and quantum information will radically change how we think about the life sciences, from botany and mycology to cellular biology, pharmacology, and biomedicine, and ultimately reshape the data science methods and mental models we use to understand reality itself.
How do you think quantum computers will shift our relationship with reality, even the ways in which we understand one another?
We typically experience reality at a macroscopic scale, heavily governed by classical physics. When you observe and interact with quantum technology, such as superconducting quantum computers, you begin to adopt a probabilistic approach to life.
You start to embrace the beauty of uncertainty (divergent thinking) and the power of measurement (the law of action). Thoughts are a form of energy. They exist as a probability space in your mind. When you obsess over an idea or a dream, you take a subset of action steps that increase the probability amplitude of a specific outcome. That outcome exists in your mind before it materializes into observable reality. You develop an idea (a theory or conjecture) and experiment with it, seeking to implement it in the physical world. You want to prove that your idea or dream is grounded in truth. In a way, you have a quantum wavefunction in your mind. You perform a quantum measurement on that wavefunction by actively co-creating your life with the mathematical universe.
Quantum computers can change the way we see people. You start to see who is operating from a classical or a quantum paradigm. In some ways, we measure a person’s energy level through voice inflection, enthusiasm, body language, word choice, and actions. Quantum superposition is a linear combination of quantum state vectors with complex probability amplitudes. What if the psychology and emotional range of a human is a linear combination of different energetic parameters that make us unique? Quantum is a philosophy for life.
In what fields will quantum computing be utilized?
Quantum computing has promising applications in cryptography, data science, optimization, and healthcare. Quantum cryptography is a rapidly growing field. Shor’s algorithm is a foundational quantum algorithm that factors the product of two large prime integers, which lies at the heart of RSA encryption. Shor’s algorithm will only pose a threat to RSA encryption when running on a universal fault-tolerant quantum computer. Because of Shor’s algorithm, intelligence agencies like the NSA and CIA are developing post-quantum cryptography protocols to keep our nation’s secrets safe from adversarial countries like Russia and China.
When thinking about quantum applications in health care, my mind immediately jumps to quantum simulation of molecules, molecular candidates for drug discovery, and drug development. This healthcare application can also be viewed as an optimization problem, as you seek a potent, safe, and thermodynamically stable new drug. I am most excited about the healthcare application because I am passionate about medicine, despite pivoting away from my long-term goal of becoming a physician-scientist to pursue data science and quantum computing.
Quantum will be used in the cybersecurity field to break encrypted data. For reference, could you compare the speed and efficiency of the Enigma machine (the cipher machine that Germany used to send secret messages during World War II) to a quantum computer?
The Enigma machine had approximately 158 quintillion (1.58 x 1020) possible configurations. Breaking it required human ingenuity, including Alan Turing and his team at Bletchley Park, and the Bombe, an electromechanical classical computing device. It was a monumental cryptanalytic achievement, but it ultimately amounted to a brute-force search solved by classical means.
Modern RSA-2048 encryption has approximately 22048 possible keys, a number so astronomically larger than Enigma’s settings that the comparison is almost meaningless in classical terms. A classical supercomputer factoring a 2048-bit RSA key would take longer than the age of the universe. Shor’s algorithm on a universal fault-tolerant quantum computer could accomplish the same task in polynomial time, in hours or days rather than billions of years.
The Enigma comparison illustrates that every era of encryption eventually meets a more powerful adversary. Bletchley Park broke Enigma by building a machine that could search its possibility space faster than humans could. Quantum computers represent the same paradigm shift against modern encryption, except the gap in scale is incomparably larger. This is precisely why post-quantum cryptography is one of the most urgent problems in national security today.
What would you say to anyone who is fearful about the future of computing?
For anyone afraid of the future of computing, I recommend watching top-tier, well-documented computing documentaries that include historical overviews. I also recommend building your mathematical foundation step-by-step to develop the curiosity, confidence, and competence to dive deeply into computing paradigms such as quantum computing, AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing.
Find and follow researchers and practitioners in computing fields across various platforms. Communicate with them, express your natural curiosity, and they will open up to you. By taking college coursework and doing research in mathematics, computer science, and data science, you will learn valuable information and scientific principles that help distinguish media hype from academic facts. The best way to eliminate fear is to study what you fear in depth. Once you find understanding and clarity about that subject, the fear will melt away.
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Shiraz Robinson II is an M.S. in Data Science student at the University of Virginia's School of Data Science, where he also serves as a Student Ambassador. During his undergraduate studies, his research encompassed industrial hemp biotechnology and plant tissue culture for citrus regeneration. The study of quantum coherence in photosynthesis proved transformative, inspiring him to investigate how quantum processes, refined by nature over billions of years, could be applied computationally. His background in multivariable calculus and linear algebra provided the necessary foundation for this transition.
At the University of Virginia, Robinson serves as a Graduate Research Assistant with the National Security Data & Policy Institute (NSDPI), where he examines how China has adapted its large language models following the 2022 U.S. GPU embargo. This research resulted in his first graduate proposal submission to the Intelligence Studies Consortium Spring 2026 Symposium. In spring 2026, he will present a research poster at both the NSDPI Annual Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the ISC Symposium in Washington, D.C., which brings together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers at the intersection of data, security, and public policy.
Robinson is also engaged in a doctoral-level independent study in quantum computing under the supervision of Gianluca Guadagni and Stefan Bekiranov, utilizing Nielsen and Chuang's foundational text Quantum Computation and Quantum Information. His involvement in IBM Qiskit events through IBM Quantum has enhanced his technical expertise and earned him recognition as an IBM Qiskit Advocate. His recent appearance in a CBS19 news segment on quantum computing demonstrates his commitment to communicating the field's significance beyond academic circles.
With an interdisciplinary background encompassing botany, quantum computing, and data science, Robinson offers a distinctive perspective on challenges at the forefront of computational innovation and societal impact. His long-term objective is to become a quantum data scientist and researcher, a goal he is making significant progress toward.
