History Main / QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything

* Creator/GregBear's short story "Schrödinger's Plague" {{egregious}}ly abuses this. A variation of the UsefulNotes/SchrodingersCat experiment is performed with five scientists substituted for the cat and, instead of cyanide, a SyntheticPlague with a long latency period. The physicist who planned the experiment explains that it's been "established experimentally" that conscious observation can collapse quantum states. The author's note in ''The Collected Stories of Greg Bear'' hints that the physics in the story is not legitimate, but he leaves the proof as an exercise to the reader.

* This is the HandWave explanation for all psychic powers in ''Manga/ToAruMajutsuNoIndex''.

** During the sequel Portal2, they explain that it only works on surfaces covered in [[spoiler:moon dust or made from moon rock]], and the player never gets an explanation as to why that matters.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Don't Fear The Roofer" when StephenHawking explains that Bart didn't see Ray the roofer because of a change in space-time continuum causing a mini black hole that absorbed the light from Ray. ItMakesSenseInContext. [[labelnote:No, it doesn't.]]Lisa says this sounds plausible, [[DontExplainTheJoke but it's not:]] Ray would be blocking the light from behind anyway, so Bart should've seen a black shadow where his stood.[[/labelnote]]

Don't worry. Remember, guys, a well-known {{Narrative Device|s}} is that Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything. Time-travel? Check. God-mode superpowers? Check. {{Death ray}}s? Check. Expect [[EEqualsMCHammer complex equations]], a lot of TechnoBabble and explanations of the SchrodingersCat experiment and the observer effect that make every conscious being a potential RealityWarper.

* Oh boy, ''{{Anime/Noein}}''. Listing every bit of techno-magic they call "quantum" something-or-other would take too long. Even the story itself can largely be explained using SchrodingersCat as an allegory (which one of the characters actually does partway through). The characters from the "future"? They can time-travel/dimension hop because they are "quantum existences". They constantly talk about making sure their "existence is established", because an "uncertain existence" leads to possibly being erased from reality. The future and the past are also not on the same timeline (of which there are infinite), but can still influence each other, and... [[MindScrew um]]... [[TimeyWimeyBall wibbly-wobbly quantumey-wantumey]]...

* Creator/GregBear's short story "Schrödinger's Plague" {{egregious}}ly abuses this. A variation of the SchrodingersCat experiment is performed with five scientists substituted for the cat and, instead of cyanide, a SyntheticPlague with a long latency period. The physicist who planned the experiment explains that it's been "established experimentally" that conscious observation can collapse quantum states. The author's note in ''The Collected Stories of Greg Bear'' hints that the physics in the story is not legitimate, but he leaves the proof as an exercise to the reader.

* Mostly averted in ''TheQuantumThief''-trilogy, but the final book features the discovery on how to use the universe itself as a giant quantum gravity computer and [[spoiler:use it to create a new, custom-made universe at will.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Anathem}}'', quantum effects are used to build a "Saunt Grod's machine," a nondeterministic Turing machine; at least as theorized uses go, this would suggest that QBP contains NP, a mathematical open question generally thought to be false.

* {{Discussed}} by Blog/WorstMuse: "Yes. That is EXACTLY how quantum physics works. Well done."

* GN Particles in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00''.

Don't worry. Remember, guys, a well-known {{Narrative Device|s}} is that Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything. Time-travel? Check. God-mode superpowers? Check. Death rays? Check. Expect [[EEqualsMCHammer complex equations]], a lot of TechnoBabble and explanations of the SchrodingersCat experiment and the observer effect that make every conscious being a potential RealityWarper.

* ''ComicBook/SteamWars'' uses this to explain Quantum Dragoon powers specifically how they're able to "teleport" when really they're using Quantum Physics to project themselves in different places at once.

* In SergeyLukyanenko's ''[[Literature/RoughDraft Final Draft]]'', the superhuman abilities of the [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual functionals]] are explained away using quantum mechanics. In one case, the protagonist has to take a test to enter a functional building, which involves drinking acid. He ends up realizing that, in some alternate reality, there is a version of him that drinks acid for breakfast (literally) and incorporates that into himself. The only ones besides the original functionals who understand this stuff are the people from a "faraway" parallel world who have used the same knowledge to seal their reality away from all others.

* This trope is why ComicBook/CaptainAtom is considered the [[{{Badass}} Biggest Billy-Badass]] in Franchise/TheDCU, even more powerful than {{Superman}} and literally capable of doing... well... [[SuperPowerLottery just about anything he wants]].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''TheSimpsons'' episode ''Don't Fear The Roofer'' when StephenHawking explains that Bart didn't see Ray the roofer because of a change in space-time continuum causing a mini black hole that absorbed the light from Ray. ItMakesSenseInContext. [[labelnote:No, it doesn't.]]Lisa says this sounds plausible, [[DontExplainTheJoke but it's not:]] Ray would be blocking the light from behind anyway, so Bart should've seen a black shadow where his stood.[[/labelnote]]

* From TheOnion: [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/scifi-writer-attributes-everything-mysterious-to-q,2781/ Sci-Fi Writer Attributes Everything Mysterious to 'Quantum Flux.']]

* This trope is why ComicBook/CaptainAtom is considered the [[{{Badass}} Biggest Billy-Badass]] in {{The DCU}}, even more powerful than {{Superman}} and literally capable of doing... well... [[SuperPowerLottery just about anything he wants]].

* The TimeMachine in SteinsGate employs the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Large Hadron Collider]] to access the past. Explained by [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist Makise Kurisu]] through a series of [[TechnoBabble complicated quantum physical theories]].

* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'': Word for word, each one of them is carrying an ''unlicensed nuclear accelerator on their back''. Looks like Quantum Mechanics can bust ghosts!

* Hyperdrives, lightsabers, even standard starfighters in ''StarWars''. The last is to justify why [[SpaceIsAnOcean space is often considered an ocean]].

* ''Film/WhatTheBleepDoWeKnow'', a movie based on the idea that we all create our own realities, and that this has somehow mysteriously to do with quantum mechanics. (It could belong to RealLife too because the main financier of this movie, a certain J.Z. Knight aka Ramtha, has built quite a following on those ideas and sells it as an actual belief/self-help system.) See also DocumentaryOfLies.