Hmm, with any emerging technology you will see a bunch of companies with
the litigation clout (investors) buying up licensing seats (fees) to
guarantee their placement in the markets. Though this doesn't
necessarily negate the fact of whether they are doing it, I am curious
what the outcome of a serious examination will say.
On 5/21/2011 2:20 AM, Chuck Bowling wrote:
There appears to be some dispute as to whether the Dwave system is
actually a scalable qbit system capable of solving real world problems
more efficiently than a standard desktop computer.
(warning: geek alert)
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/loser-dwave-does-not-quantum-compute/0
On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 4:17 PM, gabbydott <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Thanks for providing me with the right key words. And this is the
stuff I meant: http://www.dwavesys.com/en/products-services.html
On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 7:30 PM, Chuck Bowling
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Nanotechnology is used in a lot of places but it's still far
from reaching its full potential. Right now most nanotech is
just new applications of materials science. Potentially
nanotech could be used to create robots smaller than a single
human cell or for that matter to create new life.
As to quantum physics, it provides insight into
microelectronics. But the hope is that one day we will be able
to create computers based on quantum spin. That still hasn't
happened yet.
On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 9:58 AM, gabbydott
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
What? I thought nanotech was already in use in the
cosmetics industry and quantatech (is that how you call
it?) in the computer industry.
On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 1:38 PM, Chuck Bowling
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I'm in agreement about the radical changes that
nanotech appear to promise. Changes that could spell
doom or a complete redefinition of what it is to be
human. It's about the only thing that makes me want to
live longer than my allotted time. Just so that I can
see what miracles come next.
On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 9:40 PM, Ash
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Yeah, I was fear mongering Chuck, a political
device. ;-) This is a favorite topic of mine, it
is at the axis of many fields. To accelerate
nanotech development I think we should implement
rapid prototyping, experimentation and analysis
systems. When I envision man at the beginning of
this revolution I look for tools that would allow
an explosion (figuratively) of development, being
able to catalog and operate a multitude of
experiments in parallel, while building a massive
library of modeled behavior for materials and
systems interoperating in the real world to
improve the robustness and diversity of this
technology is apparently the way to go. To think
that the behavior of biological systems can be
abstracted and used to formulate dynamic systems
guided by expert algorithms to solve material
challenges in real time guided by people over vast
distances, it goes beyond genetics, I am in awe at
the potential universe we are venturing toward. We
will also be able to make changes to ourselves and
our experience of this world at a similar rate..
On 5/19/2011 1:41 AM, Chuck Bowling wrote:
I think that with nanotechnology we will be able
to synthesize pretty much anything we want from
raw materials in the future. Assuming that any
alien race capable of traveling the trillions of
miles to get here would have at least the same
level of technology my guess is that they
wouldn't need anything we'd have to offer.
On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 8:48 PM, Ash
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
There is another good reason to develop our
technologies as a species, think how we are
looking at the planets and celestial bodies
as vast resources. Imagine if something else
came through and strip mined the resources we
would need to develop into a spacefaring
species, that would suck big time. Like a
tribe of humans moving through and picking
all the nuts we squirrels need, or worse,
deciding we were in the way of those
resources, think what we have done in those
situations.. I know it's unlikely considering
the vast resources out there, but something
might have it's eye on our pale blue dot too,
working faster than us at making the leap.
On 5/18/2011 8:37 PM, Chuck Bowling wrote:
I think right now the technology will only
allow us to tell if a planet is rocky or a
gas giant. And even then only if it is a
relatively massive planet. The last time I
read anything on the subject the smallest
planet found was something like 3 times the
size of the Earth.
IMO, the analogy with Columbus doesn't hold.
17th century technology allowed humans to
travel anywhere on the Earth - albeit slow
and wrought with hazard. If the analogy is
that a neighboring star is like a new
continent then we are more like cavemen
discovering that a log can float. At the
rate we're going it might be a thousand
years before we can actually mount an
expedition to another star.
I think the primary reason we are so far
from actually exploring other stars is
mainly political rather than technological.
But, I think you are right. It is a project
worth attaching too. Now if we could just
make the damn politicians see it that way... ;)
On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 4:58 PM, archytas
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I'm not sure how accurate they can be in
revealing planets enough like
ours to offer possibilities of a new
promised land. They claim there
is one 20 light years away, or 300,000
years at current space travel
speeds. One can feel that this at least
puts us somewhere near the
position of 'Columbus'. Our current
'tin-foil' technology won't do,
but at this kind of distance we are
talking about something other than
worm-holes, 'relativity flight' or the
kind of physics in which
distance is an illusion.
For someone like me who can't take
god-stories seriously and quite
likes the idea of a human future (or at
least the idea of evolution
not just ending through catastrophe),
there is an opportunity to
believe in something distant in time and
a need for us to direct
ourselves towards it. A time, perhaps
in which a form of conscious
life can live very differently from now,
and a project worth attaching
to - perhaps a reason for spirituality.
Comments on this or the
technology welcome.
