Lifeboat Foundation

Condensing electrons into Quantum Wires to advance QC on multiple devices as well as other areas of technology.

Researchers have observed quantum effects in electrons by squeezing them into one-dimensional ‘quantum wires’ and observing the interactions between them. The results could be used to aid in the development of quantum technologies, including quantum computing.

Scientists have controlled electrons by packing them so tightly that they start to display quantum effects, using an extension of the technology currently used to make computer processors. The technique, reported in the journal Nature Communications, has uncovered properties of quantum matter that could pave a way to new quantum technologies.

Continue reading “A tight squeeze for electrons: Quantum effects observed in ‘one-dimensional’ wires” »

Nice article; however, disappointed that the author expanded the exploration of programming in Quantum to include Google, MIT, U. Sydney, etc. who all have been exploring the programming on QC. D-Wave indeed is doing a lot in this space and has been even training numerous US Government personnel on QC; just would be interesting to learn more about the advances in this space from other players who have been sharing for several months their breakthroughs in programming QC.

The jury is still out when it comes to how wide-ranging the application set and market potential for quantum computing will be. Optimistic estimates project that in the 2020s it will be a billion-dollar field, while others expect the novelty will wear off and the one company behind the actual production of quantum annealing machines will go bust.

Ultimately, whichever direction the market goes with quantum computing will depend on two things. First, the ability for applications of sufficient value to warrant the cost of quantum systems have to be in place. Second, and connected to that point, is the fact that enough problems can be mapped to these machines—a tricky problem that if not solved, will lead to a limited ecosystem of capabilities and, of course, developers.

Continue reading “One thought on ‘So, You Want to Program Quantum Computers…’” »

Rotating black holes can implement quantum gates and quantum circuits, like Bell states, which are quantum counterparts of the classical computer programing.

The black holes sparked the public imagination for almost 100 years. Their presence in the universe has been debated for long; however, the detection of X-ray radiation coming from the center of the galaxies has put an end to the discussion and undoubtedly proven their existence.

The vast majority, if not all, of the known black holes were unveiled by detecting the X-ray radiation emitted by the stellar material around them. Black holes emit X-ray radiation, light with high energy, due to the extreme gravity in their vicinity. X-ray photons emitted near rotating black holes not only exposed the existence of these phantom-like astrophysical bodies, but also seem to carry hidden quantum messages.

Continue reading “Quantum information encoded in spinning black holes” »

Another step forward by Chen on QC through his work on topological insulators.

National Academy of Sciences.

I’m amazed no one has done this before, and there’s only one company doing it now. Microfabrica, based in Van Nuys, California, has perfected the technique of mass producing mechanical devices using the same electrodeposition technology used to make computer chips.

“We are the only high-volume production additive manufacturing platform in the market,” Microfabrica CEO Eric Miller tells me. “We use engineering grade metals to make commercially robust parts, and we’re focused on another end of the spectrum from where a lot of the 3D companies are focused, and that’s at the micro scale.”

The resulting devices are vanishingly small, and exquisitely made. How small? The company makes biopsy forceps less than a millimeter in diameter for a medical device company and timing mechanisms (i.e., clocks) that are less than half a centimeter across for a defense contractor, as well many other very small devices and precision parts.

Saya is a computer-generated school girl created by Japanese artists Teruyuki Ishikawa and Yuka Ishikawa. She looks so detailed that she has broken past the uncanny valley, and she could herald a new era in CGI.

Japanese artists Teruyuki Ishikawa & Yuka Ishikawa (a.k.a Telyuka) have given birth to Saya, and she’s remarkable. But despite how realistic she may look, she’s not real. Rather, she’s a computer-generated rendition of a school girl.

Telkuya started the Saya project in 2015, and they have been working to constantly improve her—make her more detailed and more life-like.

In recent years, it’s been exciting watching advances in AI like IBM’s Watson smashing humans at Jeopardy and Google’s AlphaGo AI beating champions at the game of Go a decade earlier than expected. But the sophisticated algorithms under the hood are really the stars of the show.

These powerful computing systems are fundamentally changing industries and automating a growing number of day-to-day tasks. At the same time, AI still isn’t perfect, and we’ve seen hints of its potential dark side. Our algorithms are only as good as the data we feed them. And there’s been a spirited debate about existential dangers down the road.

Here’s a look into some of the topics leading the dialogue as AI technology evolves into its next generation.

Continue reading “8 Takes on the Rise of AI and Its Implications” »

SRI International, the Silicon Valley research lab where Apple’s virtual assistant Siri was born, is working on a new generation of virtual assistants that respond to users’ emotions.

As artificial-intelligence systems such as those from Amazon, Google, and Facebook increasingly pervade our lives, there is an ever greater need for the machines to understand not only the words we speak, but what we mean as well—and emotional cues can be valuable here (see “AI’s Language Problem”).

“[Humans] change our behavior in reaction to how whoever we are talking to is feeling or what we think they’re thinking,” says William Mark, who leads SRI International’s Information and Computing Sciences Division. “We want systems to be able to do the same thing.”

Continue reading “The next generation of bots can respond to your mental state” »

Not a complete list — where are al the various joint ventures & start ups that are also in play; however, what about all those Laboratories (Governmental, Universities, and joint venture related labs) such as Los Alamos or ORNL or MIT or USC, and what about all of the governmental agencies (NASA, DoD, etc.), and how about all of those special programs like DARPA. And, this is only the US not to mention what has been happening in China, Australia, Canada, UK, Spain, Germany, Russia, Singapore, etc.

Nice article to use as a starting list only; itmissed many, many other companies, labs, universities, and governments who are really leading most of the progress forward in QC. Some start up to add — Qubitekk, QC Ware, Rigetti Computing to just name 3 off the top of my head. Article is missing a lot in its list.

Google, Microsoft, and Airbus are investing in quantum computing. In all, we identified 18 corporates developing the tech, or partnering with startups like D-Wave to do so, and what they hope to achieve.