Quantum sort

Quantum sort is a theoretical sort algorithm taking advantage of the multiple-universe theory. Although it applies some of the theory and ideas of quantum algorithms, it is generally dismissed as a joke. Nevertheless, it can serve as a vague introduction as to what a quantum algorithm is about.

In essence, one takes a random permutation of a set of elements. According to the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics, there will then exist a parallel universe in which the set of elements is sorted. According to the theory, one simply destroys all the universes where the set is not sorted, using the principle of quantum immortality to perform useful calculations. Hence, the algorithm has O(n) complexity, which is rare amongst sort algorithms and normally not feasible with just a single pass through the data. In theory, this results in extremely fast performance. In practice this is not exactly possible.

See also

• Quantum algorithm
• Quantum computing

External Links

• bogo-sort in the Jargon File (with a discussion of Quantum sort)