Lifeboat Foundation

Congrats again to Geordie Rose and Vern Brownell for their company’s awesome achievements so far in 2017! I also, would like to take this time to recognize a very special friend of mine Yanbo Xue who continues to do amazing advancements in QC for D-Wave. Congrats Yanbo in your new and incredible role as Research Lead for D-Waves Deep Learning research team and work. I expect we will see many more great things as a result of this great move.

D-Wave open sourced its software tool with the hopes of encouraging more companies to adopt quantum computing technology.

My friends at ORNL just announced they broke a record in the transmittal of information via Qubits this week. We’re getting closer for our QC networking and storage capabilities.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Feb. 1, 2017 — Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have set a new record in the transfer of information via superdense coding, a process by which the properties of particles like photons, protons and electrons are used to store as much information as possible.

The ORNL team transferred 1.67 bits per qubit, or quantum bit, over a fiber optic cable, edging out the previous record of 1.63 per qubit.

Continue reading “ORNL researchers break data transfer efficiency record” »

A blueprint for QC larger servers mass production. The question is; is it the right blueprint for everyone? Not sure.

An international team, led by a scientist from the University of Sussex, have today unveiled the first practical blueprint for how to build a quantum computer, the most powerful computer on Earth.

Continue reading “First ever blueprint unveiled to construct a large scale quantum computer” »

More detailed write up on QC Blueprint introduced this week. It does seem to try to address scalability; however, the real test is when we test a smart device and a small server with the blueprint.

The availability of a universal quantum computer may have a fundamental impact on a vast number of research fields and on society as a whole. An increasingly large scientific and industrial community is working toward the realization of such a device. An arbitrarily large quantum computer may best be constructed using a modular approach. We present a blueprint for a trapped ion–based scalable quantum computer module, making it possible to create a scalable quantum computer architecture based on long-wavelength radiation quantum gates. The modules control all operations as stand-alone units, are constructed using silicon microfabrication techniques, and are within reach of current technology. To perform the required quantum computations, the modules make use of long-wavelength radiation–based quantum gate technology. To scale this microwave quantum computer architecture to a large size, we present a fully scalable design that makes use of ion transport between different modules, thereby allowing arbitrarily many modules to be connected to construct a large-scale device. A high error–threshold surface error correction code can be implemented in the proposed architecture to execute fault-tolerant operations. With appropriate adjustments, the proposed modules are also suitable for alternative trapped ion quantum computer architectures, such as schemes using photonic interconnects.

Watch out for the black holes in those QC chips.

Eindhoven professor Rembert Duine has proposed a way to simulate black holes on an electronic chip. This makes it possible to study fundamental aspects of black holes in a laboratory on earth. Additionally, the underlying research may be useful for quantum technologies. Duine (also working at Utrecht University) and colleagues from Chile published their results today in Physical Review Letters.

“Right now, it’s purely theoretical,” says Duine, “but all the ingredients already exist. This could be happening in a lab one or two years from now.” One possibility is in the group of Physics of Nanostructures in the Department of Applied Physics. According to Duine, in these labs experiments are being done that are necessary to create this type of black holes.

Continue reading “Black holes on an electronic chip” »

New research details how to use the radiation and gravity of the stars to decelerate a high-velocity interstellar projectile.

In April last year, billionaire Yuri Milner announced the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative. He plans to invest 100 million US dollars in the development of an ultra-light light sail that can be accelerated to 20 percent of the speed of light to reach the Alpha Centauri star system within 20 years. The problem of how to slow down this projectile once it reaches its target remains a challenge. René Heller of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen and his colleague Michael Hippke propose to use the radiation and gravity of the Alpha Centauri stars to decelerate the craft. It could then even be rerouted to the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri and its Earth-like planet Proxima b.

Continue reading “Space Travel Visionaries Solve the Problem of Interstellar Slowdown” »

A satellite that’s scheduled to launch later this year will conduct plant-growth experiments in both lunar and Martian gravity, as a way to help prepare for future human settlement of these worlds.

The Eu: CROPIS spacecraft will rotate around its own axis in low-Earth orbit, at an altitude of over 370 miles (600 kilometers). The satellite will initially produce the gravitational force of the moon on its inside for six months, and will then replicate Martian gravity for another six months.

During this time, tomato seeds will germinate and grow into small space tomatoes; 16 onboard cameras will document the plants’ progress. [Plants in Space: Photos by Gardening Astronauts].

Experts at the University of Oslo, Norway have discovered a new way for robots to design, evolve and manufacture themselves, without input from humans, using a form of artificial evolution called “Generative design,” and 3D printers – although admittedly the team, for now at least, still has to assemble the final product, robot, when it’s printed.

Generative design is something we’ve talked about several times before and it’s where artificial intelligence programs – creative machines, if you will – not humans, innovate new products – such as chairs and even Under Armour’s new Architech sneakers.

Continue reading “Norwegian robot learns to self-evolve and 3D print itself in the lab” »

Interesting article; however, 2 things missing from it. 1) China has already implemented a QC wireless network and in phase 2 of their work on QC communications which is also involving a QC platform and hacking. 2) Author stated that Mosca believes by 2026 a nation state will have QC. I would suggest Mosca network a little more as China and Sydney are well ahead of schedule plus many of us involved in QC already are testing the scalability of QC on small devices and other platforms v. mammoth servers thanks to much of the new findings last year on proving the reliability and traceability of particles at various complex states of entanglement and information processing as well as the more recent findings of enabling the constant cold temperatures needed to support QC on small servers.

My own estimates is we’re within a 5 year window of being able to see a more pragmatic version of QC as servers and networking for the broader masses. I don’t believe we’re 10 years away or less than 5 years at the moment; however, things could change tomorrow to the point we see the timeline shortened from 5 to 3 years as I do have friends who believe we’re within 3 years.

Even though quantum computers don’t exist yet, security companies are preparing to protect against them.

Continue reading “Fear sells in the computer security business, and quantum computers could be very scary” »