When Invoking Quantum Mechanics and Crystal Growth Metaphors, AI's Anagram Generation Ability Leaped Forward: Western Reductionism and Aesthetic Sensibility (Educational Transformation 001)

Overview By deliberately combining quantum-mechanical and crystal-growth metaphors in prompt design, large language models unexpectedly demonstrated both high precision and aesthetic coherence in strict anagram generation. This report documents an educationally motivated prompt-engineering experiment that emerged from liberal arts teaching practice rather than from AI research. I am not an expert in AI or linguistics. I am a faculty member specialising in molecular biology (RNA) in the Educational Transformation (EX) division at the University of Tokyo, where I develop liberal arts curriculum and materials for first- and second-year undergraduates. In the course of developing teaching materials, I encountered an intriguing behaviour in Large Language Models (LLMs). When instructing commonly used generative AI via prompts that simultaneously invoke quantum-mechanical metaphors (superposition and interference) and crystal-growth-theory metaphors (nucleation), I forced a pseudo-quantum analogical processing mode. Under these conditions, the models demonstrated remarkable accuracy and poetic beauty in the typically challenging task of strict anagram generation. This article is a practical report on prompt engineering born from a workshop based on physicist Torahiko Terada’s 1922 essay “Chawan no Yu” (ちゃわんのゆ/茶碗の湯/Lesson from a Tea Cup)—an attempt to draw out AI’s logical performance through humanistic aesthetic sensibility. 概要(Japanese Abstract) 私はAIや言語学の専門家ではありません。東京大学で「教養教育(リベラルアーツ)」の教材開発に携わる分子生物学(RNA)を専門とする教員で、Educational Transformation(EX)部門に所属しています。授業開発の過程で、LLMにおける興味深い挙動に遭遇しました。 一般的なユーザーが利用する生成AIへの指示(プロンプト)において、「量子力学的メタファー(重ね合わせ・干渉)」と「結晶成長論的メタファー(核形成)」を同時に強制し、擬似的量子アナロジー処理を実行すると、通常は苦手とされる厳密なアナグラム生成において、驚くべき精度と「詩的な美しさ」の両立を確認しました。 本稿は、物理学者・寺田寅彦の随筆「茶わんの湯」を題材にした授業ワークから生まれた、「文系的な美意識で理系的なAIの論理性能を引き出す試み」としてのプロンプトエンジニアリング実践経過報告です。 Disclosure of AI Use This document was prepared and edited with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools, including Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude. The "Quantum-Crystallisation Protocol" described in this work, together with the application of crystal growth process metaphors, constitutes an experimental approach that explores the relationship between generative AI and cognitive metaphors. It also represents an attempt to harmonise Western reductionism with aesthetic sensibility.