The problem is one of deadlock. If each philosopher grabs the fork to the left, and the waits for the fork on their right to become available, no resources are utilized, and everyone starves. The challenge is to detect the deadlock and then resolve it in a fair and efficient way.
The epiphany is to ask if abstract quantum systems (AQS) such as Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe can suggest new attacks on this problem. In such quantum systems, the state is an entangled superposition until a cyclic entanglement occurs, which then collapses to classical values. The tie in with self-reference is the point of the epiphany.
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So, it seems that the obvious parallel is that the selection of resources (dining utensils) is quantum. Assuming a binary model initially, this means that each philosopher, when reaching for a utensil, reaches for both utensil X and utensil Y. Then they reach for utensil Z and utensil W on the second step.
So, using the "blitzkrieg" of Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe, a philosopher wants to choose Z==X and W==Y.
The wonderful irony of this selection is that it appears to degenerate back into the original "classical" problem - a deadlock.
Brilliant! Good to see you blogging, Allan. Let's get the old AllanGoff.com site pointed to this site.
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