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Topic: Postcard from Utopia : wish you were here. (Read 527 times) |
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Blunderov
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Postcard from Utopia : wish you were here.
« on: 2007-07-01 04:41:54 » |
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[Blunderov] Fusion is possible. Quantum computing is possible. Exploiting quantum entanglement for teleportation is possible. The difficuties, while considerable, are only technical. Sounds like a recipe for Utopia right? Hmm. Somehow I doubt the human condition will allow for THAT possibility. Still, I suppose we should try anyway. Who knows, it may work to prevent us from killing each other off entirely. Or provide an even more efficient means of doing so.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/01/quantum_teleporting/
Boffins go dotty over quantum teleportation
No 'beaming up' was involved
By Lucy Sherriff
Published Sunday 1st July 2007 06:02 GMT
Researchers at the University of Singapore have demonstrated that it is possible to "teleport" information from one so-called quantum dot to another.
The team used a computer model to show that decoherence, the tendency of quantum information to leak into the environment, is not a problem when working on such a small scale, and that quantum information about one dot can be transferred to another without loss.
Quantum dots are large clusters of atoms that can be described by a single quantum state, in the same way that an atom is. This makes them ideal candidates for use as quantum bits, or qbits, in quantum computing.
They used a computer model to study the transfer or swapping of states between two dots, and determined that it can be done perfectly, under certain very specific conditions. The model revealed that the fidelity of the teleportation is proportional to the entanglement of the two dots, and that a two-dot system would still work under a moderate amount of decoherence.
(Entanglement means that the mathematical description of one dot must refer to the other dot, regardless of how far apart from one another they are. Decoherence is the fact of information being lost by a system through interaction with the environment.)
In theory the work paves the way for functioning large scale quantum computers, which depend on being able to move information around, just like normal computers do. But the reality may be a bit more complex.
Professor Ben Murdin, head of the Photonics group at the University of Surrey says he remains cautious.The real test of all these systems comes when you try to scale up.
"It is relatively easy to build one or two identical quantum dots. The problem comes when you want more than that."
Making identical dots is hard enough, he explained. Making more is even harder because you increase your chances of making an error. Even if you could replicate your original dot multiple times without errors, you run into serious problems with information loss caused by the decoherence which increases with the complexity of the system.
"The more dots you have, the more they tend to leak information into the environment, and the less equal they are. Which has a similar sort of effect," he told us. "Essentially, the bigger the system is, the noisier it becomes."
Despite his misgivings, Professor Murdin notes: "This research is a critical step to get quantum computers into real world applications. Right now, information is whizzing around all over the place on your computer. Quantum information will only really be useful once we can move it around, too.
"But as to when we will see a quantum computer for sale...that is a tough question."
The research is by K.W. Choo and L. C. Kwek, entitled Quantum dot as a resource for teleportation and state swapping and published in Phys. Rev. B 75 205321 (2007). ®
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Konetzin
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I'm a llama!
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Re:Postcard from Utopia : wish you were here.
« Reply #1 on: 2007-07-01 08:02:42 » |
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"They used a computer model": Von Neumann computers building quantum computers - imagine what quantum computers will be used to build...
But anyhow, I doubt this will work for fusion, as it transfers states of atoms and not atoms themselves, so you can't get atoms really close together with this (which is what you need for fusion).
Sorry, it's not a utopia. The power can, as with any power, fall into the hands of a greedy minority which wants to have power over the rest of us. As they said, the question of when is unclear. But *what* it will be used for is pretty easy to guess on: they run cryptology algorithms, so the nation that develops them first will have a lot more power in that regard. If it's not US that gets it first, then we could see some interesting times up ahead for US troops.
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Hermit
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Re:Postcard from Utopia : wish you were here.
« Reply #2 on: 2007-07-03 20:01:33 » |
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It is always possible to occlude the meaning of transmissions in a technically impermeable process, by utilizing one-time-code-pad techniques. This is not unique to modern times and if implemented appropriately, establishes opacity superior to that provided by quantum encoding (though not of course the notification of interception inherent in quantum signalling). The challenge has always been having sufficient key material distributed safely and available to deal with the volumes of data generated. Modern key distribution capacities means that this will happen. Quantum signalling and encryption is useful, but not indispensable to this process.
Where quantum encryption is useful is on broadband command and control networks; but these are in any case highly vulnerable to literal brute force methods in any situation not predicated on disparity of opponents. In other words, when the battle is between space and deep sea capable nations, the satellites and fiber networks - which are already tapped 17 ways from Sunday - will be the first to be manipulated and later, when desperation on the part of one party or the other increases, destroyed. And encryption will have little to do with this fairly inevitable progression.
Note that it is much less possible to hide chain-of-command, standard-operating-processes and rules, and even habits of individuals from the CIC to the merest recruit, and to make remarkably good projections of likely action-response couplets using modern inference engines on large data collections. Given the US military's continuous over-engagement, we have produced such prodigious volumes of activity data that our entropy here is in any case very low, making us much more susceptible to the actions of any competent opponent than any of our likely opponents.
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Hermit
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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