Constructive realization of self-referential prediction limits in quantum control: Resource bounds and Gödel-safe architectures

Abstract

Programmable quantum control systems increasingly rely on predictive modules for certification, real-time feedback, and autonomous decision-making. This development raises a fundamental question: can self-analyzing quantum platforms universally predict their own experimental outcomes? Wolpert formalized a general impossibility of universal self-prediction. Here we translate that limitation into an explicit laboratory obstruction that can be realized with finite resources. We consider settings with programmable quantum control in which predictors can be embedded as subroutines within the experiments they analyze. Our diagonal construction uses Kleene's recursion theorem to transform any deterministic bounded-time predictor into a reversible protocol encoding its own specification. The resulting protocol invokes the predictor on that specification and deterministically produces a classical pointer record that contradicts the forecast. For efficient predictors, the compilation has polynomial overhead and admits concrete physical realizations as a fault-tolerant quantum circuit and as a minimal Mach-Zehnder interferometer. These realizations connect computability-theoretic self-reference to programmable quantum hardware. We also introduce and formally define Gödel-safe architectures. These architectures block the forbidden causal path from the protocol description to an actuator that can affect the pointer during the same run. We analyze their implications for real-time quantum error correction, including the resulting expressiveness trade-offs. As quantum control loops grow in computational expressiveness, the limits of self-reference cease to be mere mathematical abstractions and become explicit engineering constraints for the reliable operation of autonomous quantum technologies.