Quantum Entangled Conversations

In an evocative setting—surrounded by the works on display and the light filtering through the Venetian arches—the event was sold out, with about fifty participants of diverse ages and backgrounds. The attentive, curious audience helped create a lively and interactive atmosphere, embodying the spirit of “entanglement” that the format aims to explore.

Richard Hall-Wilton, Director of the Center for Sensors & Devices at FBK, opened the morning with a presentation on the creative potential of materials: from “sculpting on silicon” to the challenges of miniaturization, concluding with a reflection on the “streetlight effect,” a metaphor for the importance of seeking knowledge beyond the boundaries illuminated by familiar disciplines.

 He was followed by Massimo Leone, semiologist and Director of the Center for Religious Studies at FBK, who offered a symbolic interpretation of entanglement, evoking literary figures such as twins and references to voodoo as forms of connection between beings and objects—cultural echoes of the invisible links between particles.

The conversation then continued with Nicolò Crescini, a physicist at FBK, who explained the principle of quantum superposition—whereby a particle can exist in multiple states at once until it is observed—and with Sara Hejazi, an anthropologist at FBK, who extended this concept to the cultural and linguistic realms, where two symbolic systems can coexist within the same person and shift depending on context.

The meeting concluded with a shared reflection on the infinite possibilities of reality and on human responsibility in shaping them: if everything that is possible can happen, then choosing to bring forth what is not destructive becomes a fundamental ethical act for Homo sapiens.

Quantum Entangled Conversations demonstrated how entanglement can manifest not only between particles, but also between ideas, disciplines, and worldviews—an invitation to continue weaving together languages, perspectives, and forms of knowledge.