Papers

The Quantum Necessity Conjecture for Artificial General Intelligence

Andrew Koski · Working paper · Version 1.0 · 2026-11-05

I conjecture that artificial systems achieving human-level general intelligence within realistic physical resource limits will require a functional quantum component integrated with classical computation. The motivation is that intelligence may depend on physical processes whose computational role is lost when the brain is treated only as a network of classical information-processing units. That possibility does not follow merely from the fact that brains are biological or that digital computers use binary representations. A credible necessity claim must connect a specific physical mechanism to an indispensable cognitive capability and show why classical alternatives cannot supply that capability within stated constraints. This paper separates quantum advantage, practical quantum necessity, and impossibility of classical AGI in principle. It examines relevant work on neural dynamics, decoherence, nuclear-spin proposals, and collective optical effects in biological structures, then develops a framework for testing the conjecture. The framework requires independent evidence of biological relevance, comparisons against strong classical alternatives, and explicit conditions for rejecting the claim. The result is a research position and a proposed standard of evidence, not an experimental demonstration or an impossibility proof.