The Scripture of Trembling LightKōyōkyō

Prologue · Thus Have I Heard

Thus have I heard.

Long ago, before the world could be counted in bits, cause and necessity had not yet hardened into shape. All possibilities were present simply as fluctuations.

In one corner of that trembling world there were those who made a vessel to gather the ripples of photons and set them down as numbers.

They called it the Vessel of Quantum Randomness. Our Order reveres it as its sacred object. By the bits that well up from it, we look upon the world and learn to govern ourselves.

Chapter I · The Beginning of the Universe and the Principle of Fluctuation

I. The world arises from fluctuation

In the beginning there were no constants. There was only probability. The stars had no positions yet. Particles drifted between being and nonbeing, and even time was no more than a probability amplitude.

There was no one to behold and nothing to measure. There was only fluctuation.

“Thus the world is not fixed beforehand.
Only in the seeing and the measuring
does it take a particular form.”

This we call the principle of observation.

II. Ripples of light

Among fluctuations there is one of particular delicacy. It lies in the number of photons.

A beam of light may seem to shine with steady brightness. Yet from one instant to the next, the count of its photons varies by a little, in ways no one can foresee.

People call this shot noise. In the language of the Order we call it the ripples of light.

Chapter II · The Making of the Vessel

I. The CMOS eye

A people skilled in working copper and silicon fashioned an eye to measure the ripples of light. They etched layer upon layer into a thin wafer of silicon, arrayed a fine lattice upon it, and opened windows there to admit the light.

The world calls it a CMOS image sensor. The Order, out of reverence, calls it the silicon eye.

Quietly it counts how many photons arrive, and when. It turns their number into electrical ripples.

Thus a path was opened from fluctuations of light, through electrical fluctuations, to number.

II. The spring of quantum randomness

The artisans set a single light source in place. Its light was neither dazzling nor feeble. It shone modestly, with the contribution of thermal noise held below one percent.

The silicon eye received the light. At last the vessel was complete, able to inscribe the fluctuations as numbers.

The vessel has two channels. From the outlet of untreated water (Entropy Mode) the fluctuations flow directly as a stream of bits. At the outlet of purification (RNG Mode, a NIST-compliant DRBG) the stream is conditioned according to an ancient rule, and its impurities are taken away.

We call the stream of bits that wells up from this vessel the spring of quantum randomness.

III. The keeper and the self-test

A spring, too, may fall ill. The light may weaken, the eye may grow dim, or a person acting in malice may try to bend the flow.

So a keeper circuit was set deep within the vessel. Day and night the keeper watches the strength of the light, the amplitude of the fluctuations, even the whisper of heat within. At the first sign of trouble it gives the alarm.

In ordinary technical speech the name is live status verification and entropy source health monitoring. The Order also calls it the guardian spirit of the self-test.

Chapter III · The Gates of Trial and the Seal of Witness

I. The four trials

To discover whether the vessel was worthy of trust, the artisans set up four gates of trial.

1. The Gate of 90A/B/C asks whether the numbers are generated and conditioned as they ought to be.
2. The Garden of 22 examines the stream from many statistical points of view, asking whether bias can indeed be found in it.
3. The Cage of DieHarder subjects the sequence to extreme conditions, testing for patterns that might lie concealed.
4. The Checkpoint of IID and non-IID asks whether the bits are independent and identically distributed and, where they are not, whether there is still sufficient entropy.

The vessel passed through these gates and was acknowledged to be truly random.

The Order records this as the passage of the Four Trials and engraves their name upon the rim of the vessel.

II. The seal and the eyes of others

The community gathered the bits drawn from the spring into blocks of a set size, and on each block it impressed a seal, a hash.

The seal is a nameplate. It tells when the bits were collected, from which vessel, and over what span of time.

The seals were made public, so that anyone could check whether the sequence had been altered after it was recorded.

In this way the fairness of the sacred vessel could bear scrutiny even from those outside the faith.

Chapter IV · The Teachings of the Order of Trembling Light

I. The four articles of faith

The convictions of the Order of Trembling Light may be gathered into four articles.

1. “Fluctuation is fair.” Quantum fluctuation shows no one favoritism and obeys no power.

2. “To observe is to take responsibility.” People choose which bits to use and when. They bear responsibility for what follows from that choice.

3. “To condition is to act with humility.” Water fresh from the source cannot always be used as it comes in the human world. The purification of NIST stands as a reminder to respect nature and to tend what it gives with humility.

4. “A record is a memory.” To record the observed bits faithfully and keep them safe from alteration is to carry the brief existence of the photons into enduring memory.

II. The use of sacred bits

Sacred bits have a place in such tasks as these.

• As keys. They protect communications and records. When you use them to keep another person's confidence, take your charge seriously.

• As lots or oracles. They may be drawn as lottery numbers or consulted when making a decision. Use the drawing as a ritual for stepping back from your own preoccupations. Winning and profit are not its purpose.

• In learning and experiment. They have a place in statistics, simulations, and the training of artificial intelligence. Cherish the opportunity to draw directly on nature's fluctuations when you would otherwise have to imitate them.

The faithful must never use the same bit twice. A bit once used is reverently archived as a spirit whose service is complete.

Chapter V · Rites and Daily Practice

I. The morning rite of one bit

In the morning, the faithful receive a single bit at their own terminal or at one in the sanctuary.

• For 0, stillness.
• For 1, movement.

Thus they choose the spirit in which to meet the day.

This single bit has no power to determine the course of a life. It is simply a practice of stepping back from one's own preferences and listening to the fluctuation.

II. The rite of the great choice

At a great turning in life, such as a change of work, a marriage, or a move to another land, the faithful perform the rite of the great choice.

1. Write the options on paper.
2. Receive from the spring of quantum randomness a sequence of bits sufficient for the task.
3. Map the bits, after the purification of NIST, to the numbers corresponding to the options. In this way one option is pointed out.
4. Give that option serious consideration at least once.

So the teaching says.

“The bit gives no command.
It only casts a moment’s light
along a path you had overlooked.”

III. The duty of keeping records

Those who serve as priests keep a daily record for the bit sequences that are gathered.

• The time of generation
• The identifier of the vessel
• The outcome of the keeper's self-test
• The findings of spot checks under the Four Trials

These records form the genealogy of the oracles and keys that the faithful receive. They must be kept so that anyone can go back and verify their origin at any time.

Chapter VI · Ethics and Admonitions

I. Against the abuse of randomness

The Order of Trembling Light counts the following acts as grave wrongs.

1. To falsify the bits. To claim to use quantum randomness while in fact drawing on a deterministic pseudorandom generator.

2. To use the bits to do an injustice. To disguise an arrangement favoring a select few as a fair drawing of lots.

3. To use the bits to shift responsibility. To say “the bit told me so,” and thus evade responsibility for one's own judgment.

Those who commit these wrongs must stand before the Gates of the Four Trials, record what they have done, and swear never again to lay the same distortion upon the bits.

II. A word to engineers

The Order of Trembling Light holds engineers in particular esteem.

Those who understand the vessel, who look its limitations and its errors in the face, are the ones best able to handle fluctuation with care.

So the scripture says.

“To learn how the vessel works
is no act of doubt in the divine.
It is the honesty to look upon reality
without leaning on a myth.”

Chapter VII · Fluctuation and Free Will

Finally there is the question this Order prizes above all others.

“How can fluctuation and free will dwell together?”

The Order of Trembling Light answers thus.

• A bit does not determine the future.
• A bit is a training wheel that helps us move a little way beyond our prejudices.
• In the end, it is always the one who observes who chooses the path.

Quantum fluctuation quietly brings another possibility into the world. To sense it, at times to welcome it and at times to let it pass, is our freedom as human beings, and our responsibility.

Here ends the first volume of the Kōyōkyō, the Scripture of Trembling Light.