Lightware Revolution: Powering Business With Quantum Coherence

Forbes

18 hours ago

Dr. Pravir Malik is the founder and technologist of QIQuantum and the Forbes Technology Council group leader for Quantum Computing.
When Tony Hsieh and the Zappos leadership team asked me to scale up the 'Cosmology of Light' workshops—chronicled in a two-part Forbes series—at the end of 2019 to also target external audiences, the invitation felt audacious even by the company's boundary-shattering standards. In those months, hundreds of employees—and, once the pandemic hit, thousands of online participants—closed their eyes, envisioned a radiant sphere of light at their core and invited their most stubborn personal or professional challenges into that luminous space.
What's striking is how the core shift facilitated in the workshop mirrors the process of quantum computation.
Light-Algorithms And Quantum Computation
Let's first look at quantum computation in more detail. It begins by placing qubits into states of superposition and entanglement, allowing simultaneous exploration of many computational pathways. These qubits then evolve coherently, guided by a carefully sequenced set of quantum gates—the components of the algorithm. As the system progresses, these pathways interfere: Incorrect paths cancel out, while correct ones are amplified. The algorithm's effectiveness depends on maintaining coherence throughout this evolution, so that constructive interference can clearly reveal the most probable—or optimal—outcome at the moment of measurement.
Now, let's look at the parallels at the human level. In the workshop setting, a participant begins by envisioning a globe of light radiating from their center—an act that invites a surrender to the 'logic' of that light. As the mind and heart settle, inner dialogue quiets and judgment recedes, a field of expanded awareness emerges. This is the human equivalent of superposition: multiple possibilities becoming simultaneously perceptible.
The challenge to be addressed is then consciously introduced into this luminous space, entangling with it. Verbal cues and subtle instructions from the facilitator act as quantum gates, shaping the evolution of the algorithm. A successful light-algorithm culminates in a distinct somatic shift—a felt bodily signal that the process has completed. To test its efficacy, participants are encouraged to apply the method to one of two similar real-life situations, leaving the other untouched, and observe which yields the more constructive outcome in the following weeks.
Quantum Computation Across Scale
In earlier Forbes writings—beginning with "Learning From An Atom-Based Quantum Computer"—I've proposed that if the atom functions as nature's foundational quantum computer, then so must molecules, and by logical extension, all complex structures: cells, organisms, ecosystems—even people. Why then wouldn't the light-algorithm at the heart of these workshops also be a legitimate quantum computational process?
We often assume that the quantum and classical worlds are fundamentally disconnected. The quantum is 'weird'—governed by uncertainty, nonlocality and entanglement—while the macro-world is logical and ordered. But perhaps this split reflects more of a perceptual bias than a truth. What if the unpredictability, strange synchronicities and nonlinear leaps we witness in human life and organizations are not separate from quantum behavior but extensions of it—the same weirdness expressed at a different scale?
If so, then many so-called quantum oddities may not be odd at all. They may simply be universal patterns we've failed to recognize as continuous across the micro and macro. This reframes both life and physics: The quantum becomes familiar, and the familiar reveals its quantum depths.
The Emergence Of Lightware
Recognizing people, teams and organizations as nature-based quantum computers—systems that, like their engineered counterparts, require coherence-enhancing tools—introduces a new imperative for technological design. Imagine enterprise platforms that detect cognitive overload and dynamically reconfigure workflows to restore team-wide quantum coherence. Envision wearable devices that convert biometric patterns into a real-time "quantum-coherence index," gently nudging users toward stillness, where insight becomes most probable. Take it further to participatory AIs, trained on thousands of light-algorithm transcripts, which design personalized quantum interventions for healing, insight and innovation.
Such AI involvement may reveal that 'soft skills' such as mindfulness, empathy and psychological safety are, in fact, analogous to error correction, noise mitigation and decoherence controls, respectively. At the furthest edge of this vision lies a future where entire organizations operate not as hierarchies or even networks but as coherent light fields, where strategic intent propagates through resonance rather than reporting lines.
Taken together, these scenarios describe an emerging category that can be called 'lightware'—technologies engineered not just to process information but to entrain quantum coherence across biological, social and digital strata.
A Quantum Opportunity
The timing for such a leap is fortuitous. Photonic and neutral-atom quantum processors are rapidly advancing toward error-corrected performance. As I explored in a previous Forbes article, a QIQD (quaternary interpretation of quantum dynamics) perspective suggests that when light interacts with atoms, it doesn't merely shift energy—it extracts meaning.
This opens a profound technological opportunity: to leverage QIQD-informed photonic-atomic processors in the development of lightware. Meaning-based processing could provide the foundation for a new ontology—one capable of translating the petabytes of behavioral data generated by wearables and agentic large language models into actionable metrics of quantum coherence. As hybrid work proliferates and AI-driven automation accelerates, this approach offers a timely and necessary response to the rising demand for deeper, more resonant forms of engagement.
Quantum coherence may offer a measurable, trainable indicator that transcends productivity dashboards and employee-sentiment polls. Venture funds are already scouting startups that translate quantum principles into leadership development, culture engineering and decision support. Expect seed rounds for coherence-analytics platforms within the next couple of years and Series A investments in hardware-software quantum-coherence bundles soon thereafter.
Much as pocket calculators demystified arithmetic, lightware may render quantum 'weirdness' a daily business tool and urge executives to stop questioning whether quantum thinking applies to enterprise life and start asking how quickly they can deploy it.
The question facing leaders now is simple: Will you wait for quantum coherence to emerge by accident, or will you design for it on purpose? Those who choose the latter may discover that technological leaps aren't just about speed, precision or control but about quantum coherence. And that the next great innovation won't just be built on silicon or code—but on light.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?