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quantum bogosort

quantum bogosort noun: a hypothetical sorting algorithm which generates a random permutation of its input (like in bogosort) using a quantum source of entropy, checks if the list is sorted, and, if it is not, destroys the universe. Assuming that the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is true, this algorithm will result in at least one surviving universe where the input was successfully sorted in O(n) time (thus making it faster than quicksort).

Noun

quantum bogosort (uncountable)

  1. (humorous) A hypothetical sorting algorithm which generates a random permutation of its input (like in bogosort) using a quantum source of entropy, checks if the list is sorted, and, if it is not, destroys the universe. Assuming that the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is true, this algorithm will result in at least one surviving universe where the input was successfully sorted in O(n) time (thus making it faster than quicksort).
    • Implementing quantum bogosort increased my script's performance by 50%, but I still feel a little bit guilty about my computer killing quadrillions of sentient beings a second.
    • And from that we can conclude that in some parallel worlds, a machine to implement the Quantum Bogosort (theoretically the fastest possible sorting algorithm) has been invented.2007 January 22, Logan Kearsley, “How the mind plays tricks.”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet)

Questions about quantum bogosort

What does quantum bogosort mean?
Quantum bogosort means a hypothetical sorting algorithm which generates a random permutation of its input (like in bogosort) using a quantum source of entropy, checks if the list is sorted, and, if it is not, destroys the universe. Assuming that the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is true, this algorithm will result in at least one surviving universe where the input was successfully sorted in O(n) time (thus making it faster than quicksort).
What part of speech is quantum bogosort?
Quantum bogosort is a noun.

Words near quantum bogosort in the dictionary

  1. quantum anomalies
  2. quantum anomaly
  3. quantum biophysics
  4. quantum bit
  5. quantum bits
  6. quantum bogosort
  7. quantum cascade laser
  8. quantum cascade lasers
  9. quantum chemistry
  10. quantum chromodynamics
  11. quantum coherence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quantum bogosort (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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