>From the article: Maybe the answer is in a nostalgia for a binary world. We have lived in a binary world. Our computers are programmed with two numbers, 0 and 1. Since the end of the Cold War, there have been two dominant political/economic systems, liberalism/capitalism, and state/socialism. Sexual orientation has been defined as male or female, he or she. In sum, our perceptions have been oriented towards either/or, black or white, good or bad. During the pandemic it’s been health or wealth, science or politics.
That binary world is over. Quantum computers do not use 0 and 1. The choice between liberal capitalism or state socialism is passé. In binary computing, there is a series of on-off physical states (or square wave current highs/lows or the optical or magnetic equivalent--i.e bits) that get grouped into larger units. Generally speaking in current systems, a byte is eight bits, a wo rd is 2 bytes (16 bits), a doubleword is 4 bytes (32 bits), and a quadword is 8 bytes ( 64 bits). For example. As soon as you reach the byte level, AFAIK, you are no longer dealing with a "binary world" but with character/symbol ordering, which isn't binary as such, since the possibilities of combination are indefinitely large and not limited to just two states. Furthermore, because of this (AFAIK) the "binary world" of notionally opposite moral or qualities is not constrained by the binary logic of a numbering system using base two. That's just the way you encode the symbols used to discuss or analyze possible states of affairs in reality, which are not constrained by the state space of binary numbering--or quinary numbering or whatever. in binary arithmetic you count to four like this: 1, 10, 11, 100 In decimal arithmetic, it's 1, 2,3, 4. Logical operations in binary computers are controlled by logic gates representing basic logic operations. Three basic gates are the AND gate, the OR gate, and the NOT gate. In addition, there can be the NAND gate , the NOR gate, and the EOR gate. Quantum computers encode information as quantum bi ts, or qubits, which can exist in superposition. Qubits represent atoms, ions, photons or electrons and their respective control devices that are working together to act as a computer memory and a processor. Apparently there are something like ten "logic" gates in quantum computing rather than three or seven, and the operations they describe, frankly, elude my very limited understanding. They are reversible and one gate can perform multiple logic operations. All of the "classical" logic operations are possible within a quantum computer. Wow. Even the Wikipedia piece on this is too hard for me. But apart from consequences for the volume of data that can be processed, the actual simultaneity of specific operations, the speed of computing, and other engineering functions, are there any fundamental differences in the world yielded by quantum computing--that is to say in the applications of the technology? As far as I can tell from the Gee Whiz internet, the main benefit is simultaneity. Quantum computers are intrinsically capable of resolving and keeping track of millions of process threads literally at the same time. This seems to be, you should excuse it, a quantum leap in computing speed and power. So we should see unbelievable improvements in artificial intelligence, weather forecasting, cryptographic analysis, and many other application domains. Current asymmetric public-private key encryption will be broken, but quantum-safe encryption will be possible. Etc., etc. Blockchain security will be in trouble if and when quantum computers reach a known time limit in their encryption-cracking power but quantum security is on the way. I can't find anything on the probable energy consumption effects--blockchain as of three years ago was looking like an ecological disaster because of the amount of electricity required for Bitcoin mining. Some mitigation of this was being discusses at the time, but I can't remember what it was supposed to be or what the sequel was. What burden if any will widespread quantum computing place on electrical generating capacity? It sounds as if it might be huge. No idea whether this is a factor. What I don't see at this Ferdinand Feghoot level is how the world we manipulate through quantum computing will be different from the current "real world" in some epistemologically or ontologically different way such that the differences between the USA and Putin's Russia will fall away and a new human essence will shine forth eternally. I guess the calculation problem could really go away--that will be good. But it will be the same damn material world. So what is the phony damn point about "nostalgia for the binary world" and the wonderful new one that is sort of being mapped on to Putin's vaccine, which doesn't really seem relevant to the quantum computing discussion? The vaccine might be OK so why not use it if its available. Agreed. But otherwise, in all honesty, this sounds like a load of Third Way Putinite propaganda. Dearest Vlad will lead us from enslavement to a fifth dimension of quantum reality. No more of this tired old capitalism vs, socialism stuff. All glory be to Vlad! Sure, anything you say--now gimme the shot. There used to be a lot of pro-Russian cockroaches that came out and wrote Putinite propaganda by jumping on the keyboards of computers that were left on overnight in the Counterpunch offices. Unlike the old Don Marquis newspaper columns, and just like this piece, they weren't the least bit funny. I suspect someone should call the exterminator before we have artificially intelligent, humorless quantum cockroaches doing the same thing in millions of simultaneous instantiations. In any case we already have vaccines ready to go if the Trump supply fuckup can be unsnarled before the variants get us. Why wait for Sputnik? Is anyone buying this? What am I missing? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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