An important thing to remember about any topic is that it's actually more accessible than you'd think.

Even quantum computing boils down to basic matrix math that you can learn in 5 minutes, the concept of superposition, and an understanding of logic gates. These are all intimidating concepts, but always, always, always complicated terminology is just simple concepts stacked onto each other.

That stuff about the inverse square law... all it is is being aware that it's an equation that measures how weak an omnidirectional signal gets the farther away from it you move. So, for example how much light a lightbulb would send into your eye based on how close you are to it.

Lasers use phased lightwaves that don't dim at a distance the way a lightbulb does because they are not omnidirectional. All their light is highly focused in one direction.

So when he mentioned the inverse square law it sounded wrong to me, so I asked the question. I didn't know. Maybe it's a modified version of that equation?

It never hurts to ask. And it turns out that he did misspeak. He corrected himself, and now I've learned just a tiny bit more than I knew before.