Walk the SymbiQ map
A small 3D city where every building is a part of this site. Walk it as an avatar: borrow a book in the Library and read it at a table, ask the librarian for a topic, stand at the Research Lab's wall of new papers, search the Records Hall, find twelve glowing qubits and earn a badge. It is optional: the site you know is the default, and everything in the city is also in the plain lists below.
W A S D or the arrow keys walk, Shift runs, drag or Q R turns the view, E uses what you are standing at, H opens the hello phrases, Esc closes a panel. On a touch screen, the stick walks and the buttons do the rest. The city loads its 3D engine only when you enter. Your avatar, badge and the books you have returned are saved in this browser only; nothing is sent anywhere. Other avatars are your own other windows of this browser until the site is hosted with accounts: nobody else is shown, and nothing pretends otherwise.
Every building, as a list
The same map in words, with the same links, for anyone who would rather not walk.
The Observatory
Where the lessons live: start at two minutes, go as deep as you like.
The Fridge
A real quantum computer, taken apart in 3D from the plates down to one qubit.
The Arcade
Games where the maths is the referee. Every par is proven or labelled best known.
The Courthouse
Big claims, scored in public against criteria fixed before the deadline.
The Vault
Is your encryption ready for a quantum computer? Live tools, not opinions.
The Stadium
Who is actually ahead, and the number that decides it.
The Volcano
Can a classical machine out-optimise a quantum one? Often, yes.
The Library
Shelves by topic. Take a book, sit, read it, return it. Ask the librarian for anything.
The Research Lab
A wall of new research, each paper explained with its figure.
The Records Hall
The storeroom: the ledger, the corrections, the archive and the change log.
The Library catalogue
All 77 books on six shelves. Each one is a real lesson.
Quantum foundations (11 books)
Start here: what a qubit is, what is inside the machine, error correction, and where quantum might earn its keep.
- What is quantum computing?
- What is inside the machine?
- What is a qubit made of?
- Is quantum computing just quantum mechanics?
- What is quantum error correction?
- What is a logical qubit?
- Why do the algorithms work?
- Will quantum boost AI?
- How do the companies compare?
- Where might quantum earn its keep?
- Do quantum sensors and networks matter sooner?
The machinery I (10 books)
The postulates, mixed states, measurement, no-cloning, teleportation and the first algorithms.
The machinery II (10 books)
The Fourier transform, phase estimation, Shor, variational methods, entropy and complexity.
Optimisation: methods (13 books)
Linear and integer programming, duality, flows, paths, queues and metaheuristics.
- Can a classical machine out-optimise a quantum one?
- The feasible region
- Linear programming and the vertex theorem
- Duality and shadow prices
- Integer programming
- Branch and bound
- Network flow and min-cut
- Matching and assignment
- Shortest paths and dynamic programming
- Queueing theory
- Metaheuristics
- Nash equilibrium
- Zero-sum games and minimax
Optimisation: games and systems (21 books)
Equilibria, auctions, constraints, decision processes, robustness and supply chains.
- Cooperative games and the Shapley value
- Mechanism design and auctions
- Evolutionary game theory
- The simplex algorithm
- Quadratic & semidefinite programming
- The transportation problem
- Constraint satisfaction
- Markov decision processes & reinforcement learning
- Greedy algorithms & approximation guarantees
- Stochastic & robust optimization
- Multi-objective optimization
- Inventory & supply chain
- Games over time: threats and backward induction
- Private information: auctions and Bayesian games
- Repeated games: cooperation that lasts
- Learning to play: regret and the minimax value
- Correlated equilibrium: a traffic light
- What selfishness costs: the price of anarchy
- How hard is an equilibrium?
- A game where physics changes the answer: CHSH
- Design a small market and break it
Post-quantum security (12 books)
What a secret needs, what Shor takes, why lattices resist, and how to migrate.
- Can quantum break Bitcoin?
- What a secret needs to survive
- Hashes, the fingerprints inside everything
- Does a quantum computer break AES?
- How two strangers agree on a secret
- RSA, and its one weak point
- What a signature or a certificate proves
- What Shor takes, and what it leaves
- Why lattices resist, and what they cost
- Signatures made from hashes alone
- Migrating without breaking everything
- Post-quantum cryptography, on the wire
The Research Lab wall
- Watching a single phonon jump: the first quantum jumps of sound Stanford University, 2026-10-04
- Sound waves keep a diamond qubit coherent three times longer Harvard SEAS, 2026-10-04
- Braiding and fusing anyons gives a full gate set on 54 qubits UChicago, Harvard, Stony Brook and Quantinuum, 2026-10-04
- Bosonic-code gates in one driving period instead of thousands Chalmers University of Technology, 2026-10-04
- A flip at the right moment can stop entanglement from dying Raman Research Institute, 2026-10-04
- Entanglement over 10 km of fibre that lasts longer than it takes to make University of Science and Technology of China, 2026-10-04
- Splitting one error-corrected qubit into two entangled ones ETH Zurich, 2026-10-04
The Records Hall
- The claim ledger Every big claim, with the criteria fixed before its deadline.
- Where we were wrong Every error that was ever live, logged with the fix.
- The question archive Every daily question that was asked, with its answer.
- Desk notes The Signal: what happened, why it matters, what it does not mean.
- Your predictions, scored Your own calls against the record.
- How we check The method, in the open.
The Observatory, Courthouse and Vault
- What is quantum computing? observatory · Two minutes, zero equations.
- The course map observatory · Every lesson, in order.
- The glossary observatory · Every term, plainly.
- The Descent observatory · The site as a fridge, down to one qubit.
- Track: Quantum x AI observatory · Thirty-one lessons and the games that test them.
- Track: Optimisation observatory · Twenty-five lessons on deciding well.
- Track: Post-quantum security observatory · Twelve lessons on keeping secrets.
- Inside the machine observatory · Rotate a real quantum computer in 3D.
- Was that real physics? courthouse · Movie claims, checked against physics.
- The claim ledger courthouse · Every big claim, scored in public.
- Your predictions, scored courthouse · Your calls against the record.
- Where we were wrong courthouse · Every error, louder than the original.
- Did the advantage last? courthouse · Quantum advantage claims and the classical responses.
- Open problems courthouse · What nobody has settled.
- How we check courthouse · The method, in the open.
- Secure vault · Is your encryption ready?
- Quick Check vault · A live check, not an opinion.
- Can quantum break Bitcoin? vault · The numbers behind the headline.
- Post-quantum cryptography vault · What replaces RSA, on the wire.
- What a secret needs to survive vault · The first lesson of the security course.
- Migrating without breaking everything vault · The last lesson: a plan.
The Arcade cabinets
- The Solver's Path The story mode: solve your way up the ladder.
- The Arcade Every game, with the maths as the referee.
- Surface Code Survival Keep a logical qubit alive against rising noise.
- Q-Day Command Migrate before the deadline.
- The Annealing Volcano Cool a landscape into its lowest valley.
- Grover Race Search faster than a classical guess.
- Max-Cut Cut the graph, prove the best cut.
- Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe Two players, superposed moves.
- The Arena Solvers head to head.
The Descent shaft
In the city it stands beside the Fridge: six plates, colder is deeper. The Descent as a page.
- For the curious 300 K · Room temperature. No maths, and you can start anywhere.
- Explainers 50 K · One idea to a page, each taught at three depths.
- Tools and games 4 K · Things you run and play, with answers the mathematics checks.
- The still 0.8 K · Every claim proved, or marked as not.
- Your own record 100 mK · What you have proved and predicted, scored honestly. It stays in this browser.
- The mixing chamber 10 mK · The coldest, quietest place on the site: claims scored in public, and our own mistakes beside them.
The Solver's Path trail
In the city six lit posts run along the road to the Arcade, one for each act you have cleared. The Path as a page.
- Act I: The Door You Turn The Quantum Realm · with Ada
- Act II: Grover's Escape The Locked Corridor · with Rue
- Act III: The Border He Cannot Draw Fairly Graph City · with Cordon
- Act IV: The Rule That Stops Working The Volcano · with Vesh
- Act V: The Word They Cannot Send The Shore of Twins · with Kai & Lyra
- Act VI: The Price of Knowing The Knot · with Halden
Your plot
In the city a small garden beside the Research Lab shows what you have earned in this browser, counted from your own saves. Your whole record as a page.