Lifeboat Foundation

Three photons in a 3-D ‘twist’.

Biography : Scott Aaronson is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. His research interests center around the capabilities and limits of quantum computers, and computational complexity theory more generally. He also has written about consciousness and personal identity and the relevance of quantum mechanics to these issues.

Michael Cerullo: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Given the recent advances in brain preservation, questions of personal identity are moving from merely academic to extremely practical questions. I want to focus on your ideas related to the relevance of quantum mechanics to consciousness and personal identity which are found in your paper “Ghost in the Quantum Turing Machine” ( http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0159 ), your blog “Could a Quantum Computer Have Subjective Experience?” ( http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1951 ), and your book “Quantum Computing since Democritus” ( http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/) .

Before we get to your own speculations in this field I want to review some of the prior work of Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff ( http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/content/hameroff-penrose…-or-theory ). Let me try to summarize some of the criticism of their work (including some of your own critiques of their theory). Penrose and Hameroff abandon conventional wisdom in neuroscience (i.e. that neurons are the essential computational element in the brain) and instead posit that the microtubules (which conventional neuroscience tell us are involved in nucleic and cell division, organization of intracellular structure, and intracellular transport, as well as ciliary and flagellar motility) are an essential part of the computational structure of the brain. Specifically, they claim the microtubules are quantum computers that grant a person the ability to perform non-computable computations (and Penrose claims these kinds of computations are necessary for things like mathematical understanding). The main critiques of their theory are: it relies on future results in quantum gravity that don’t exist; there is no empirical evidence that microtubules are relevant to the function of the brain; work in quantum decoherence also makes it extremely unlikely that the brain is a quatum computer; even if a brain could somehow compute non-computable functions it isn’t clear what this has to do with consciousness. Would you say these are fair criticisms of their theory and are there any other criticisms you see as relevant?

Continue reading “Scott Aaronson On The Relevance Of Quantum Mechanics To Brain Preservation, Uploading, And Identity” »

I must admit, when people see that you work with Quantum Computing and/ or networking; they have no idea how to classify you because you’re working on Nextgen “disruptive” technology that most of mainstream has not been exposed to.

Peter Wittek and I met more than a decade ago while he was an exchange student in Singapore. I consider him one of the most interesting people I’ve met and an inspiration to us all.

Currently, he is a research scientist working on quantum machine learning, an emergent field halfway between data science and quantum information processing. Peter also has a long history in machine learning on supercomputers and large-scale simulations of quantum systems. As a former digital nomad, Peter has been to over a hundred countries, he is currently based in Barcelona where, outside work hours, he focuses on dancing salsa, running long distances, and advising startups.

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More great news on Quantum Networks; some banks in Europe are leveraging the technology to communicate among themselves.

Light is everywhere. Even the darkest of rooms in our homes contain a handful of blinking LEDs. But what is light? Few of us ever stop to think about this question. Around a hundred years ago scientists discovered that light comes in granules, much like the sand on a beach, which we now call photons.

These are truly bizarre objects that obey the rules of the quantum world. The rules allow some pairs of photons to share a property called entanglement. After being entangled, two photons behave as one object. Changing one photon will affect the other at exactly the same time, no matter how far apart they are.

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Just as the single-crystal silicon wafer forever changed the nature of communication 60 years ago, Cornell researchers hope their work with quantum dot solids — crystals made out of crystals — can help usher in a new era in electronics.

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I have been encouraging my nephews to consider this as well.

After nearly three decades of searching for ways to build superfast computers that operate on the principles of quantum mechanics, the reality of a fully-fledged quantum computer is moving closer, says professor Andrew Yao Chi-chih, dean of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing.

“Quantum computing is no longer viewed as a fad, or a scientist’s pie in the sky,’’ Yao told an audience of students, faculty, and invited guests during his presentation at a Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) 25th Anniversary Distinguished Speakers Series event on January 28. Yao also took the opportunity to explain his rationale for quantum computing to be recognised as a Great Science. “Great Science involves the intersection of different scientific disciplines to create new knowledge that allows the exploration of the previously unimaginable,’’ stressed Yao, adding that Great Science also lifts the human spirit.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNlCyD_WOps&sns=em

Improving problem solving on Quantum.

1QBit has identified a new faster and more scalable method of embedding problems into a quantum annealing processor. Here’s how the Cartesian product of complete graphs, or CPCG, embedding method works to harnesses the power of quantum computing.

I cannot wait until Q-Dot technology is commercially available to industries. When we start releasing Q-Dots to the commercial sector we’re going to see some real magic happen and possibly even able to improve many things that are refined, or created today. https://lnkd.in/bF4xm73

Silicon wafers have long been the go-to for all things electronic. First appearing in the ‘50s, they quickly made it as THE connectors, basically singlehandedly kickstarting the silicon revolution. A team of researchers from the Cornell University have discovered something they consider to be the next big step in quantum electronics. They are quite certain of the answer to the question “Are Quantum Dots the Silicon Wafers of the Future?”.

1st; we all know in 30 years anything can change, wars can be fought & lost, natural disasters can occur, etc. However, posting for everyone’s amusement. 30 years ago which would be 1986; no one thought USSR would be broken up, 9/11 would happen creating the US Homeland Security, Lybia & Eygpt would overthrow their own leaders, that US Space missions would be outside the US Government, hacking at the levels we have today creating the CISO roles, of VR technology would exist, DNA and CRISPR would be discovered, etc.

So, who really knows what jobs will be fully automated v. not in 30 years or even created as a result of Quantum technology (Computing, Networking, Q-Dots for numerous thing that are not only technology, etc.). Just a fun article to share with everyone.

CSIRO says the Australian workplace of the future will be increasingly digitally-focused and automated, with titles such as online chaperone.

Continue reading “Is this the future of work? Scientists predict which jobs will still be open to humans in 2035” »