Quantum computing and artificial intelligence are forcing technologists and businesses to fundamentally reimagine the role of computers in business. At IBM Research, one scientist wants them to think even bigger than that. In a series of lectures this summer, IBM Fellow Kush Varshney urged his fellow scientists to use this inflection point to rethink the very technical foundations of computing, incorporating mythology, symbolic mathematics, media studies and much more. To Varshney, these disciplines are inspiration for completely new, as-yet-unimagined forms of computer logic. Touching on everything from the works of information theorist Claude Shannon to the sacred Vedic texts of India to Joan Baez playing at Sing Sing, Varshney’s talks have already inspired his fellow IBM researchers to undertake a number of experiments, such as building an interactive illustration of a sign language for quantum computing and applying category theory to the construction of quantum circuits. Varshney spoke with IBM Think about what a computer can be, and how unexpected influences can power new innovations. An edited and condensed version of the conversation follows. I’m trying to look from different angles at what it means to think, what it means to create meaning with language and how there are many different languages and ways of communicating that lead to different constraints. Even though we have this new technology with LLMs, it’s similar to many things that humanity has dealt with in the past. We shouldn’t forget to stand on the shoulders of giants. Get curated insights on the most important—and intriguing—AI news. Subscribe to our weekly Think newsletter. See the IBM Privacy Statement. Researchers have been bringing up new things in our Slack channel or via email and saying it could be relevant for our work. At IBM, we need to do differentiated work. We can’t be doing AI or