Giant Leap for Mankind...or World's Largest Ruse?

Google has announced a partnership with NASA to develop a quantum computer which will (according to them) effectively blow away other super-computers. The chip behind this is the 72 Qubit chip called Bristlecone. The press releases talk about all sorts of wild new technology and possibilities, but the further you look into it the more hidden OBTW stuff you find.

Now Bristlecone isn't new, but Google's partnership with NASA is...but there's a hitch. ...

The new collaboration will work like this. Because Bristlecone requires superconducting circuits maintained at a temperature close to absolute zero, it cannot be moved from Google’s labs. Instead, researchers from the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (QuAIL) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley will connect to Bristlecone online, via Google’s Cloud API service. Google will also share current software that allows classical computers to simulate quantum circuits, so that NASA can develop and improve upon it.

Well, isn't that special! So let's translate for a moment...

A.) The "Cloud" isn't generating nearly as much revenue as we'd hoped it would, and we're not going to let you come to us, and we can't come to you (NASA), so tell ya' what; let's use the Cloud as the medium of exchange, okay?

B.) If this works, then we set the paradigm (once again) of having us, Google, in the MIDDLE of everyone's business going forward (just what we've been muscling our way into for years), AND, everyone gets to pay us for the privilege of accessing their OWN data via OUR Cloud solution! Win-win, bay-bee!

Oh...and we almost forgot one...

Proving it would be a big deal because it could kick-start a market for devices that might one day crack previously unbreakable codes, boost AI, improve weather forecasts, or model molecular interactions and financial systems in exquisite detail.

Hmmmm... create "a market for devices" (made by Google, I'm sure)...

3.) Then, after we prove it (oh, we'll prove something, bet on that!), you and the rest of the scientific community can be married to us forever, and we'll all go to the shotgun-wedding on the together and have our reception over at Langley and Ft. Meade, okay?

But don't worry, there's a pre-nup...

If things do not go as planned, Google’s agreement has a five-year term within which “NASA will provide further mappings, improved circuit simulation techniques, more efficient compilations [and] results from circuit simulations.” Google will give QuAIL access to its quantum processor and software until at least 2023.

Notice you didn't see the word "at no cost" in there anywhere, did you? Regardless, NASA does all the work and Google so graciously gives them access to their own data (and software) for 4+ years (while they figure out their way to burrow further into taxpayer pockets by being the in the middle of mountains of data on everything from super secret ops, to weather forecasting and who knows what else.

Sooooo, I guess those boys over at Alphabet Inc (how ironic) have had their creative thinking caps on! Not bad; sell a flagging service, get in the middle, mine even more data to sell, and get paid for it! Wow!!

Linkey-Poo

Thought you might be interested.

Sounds like the tax payers getting screwed again. No surprise there.
Oh and the added benefit for Google is they'll get to sell everything they learn from NASA to the Chinese.
Great!

Do they want skynet?? Because this is how you get skynet! Quick link up the super computer to Boston Dynamics and call it a day.

On a serious note sounds pretty cool, and game changing.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Oh, and on an equally comedic side note.

I loved this part...

...Where classical computers store information in binary bits that definitely represent either 1 or 0, quantum computers use qubits that exist in an undefined state between 1 and 0. For some problems, using qubits should quickly provide solutions that could take classical computers much longer to compute.

Yeah, it's between one and two, so (translated) that means..."maybe". It might be 1/2, or maybe 5/8, or maybe even 6/32nds.

The computer screen you're reading this on is either physically there, or it isn't. 2+2 is either 4, or it isn't. The Sun either rose this morning...or it didn't. The light switch is either on..or it isn't.

Incidentally, if it's not obvious already, I'm not a big fan of quantum physics for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is very little of it will actually ever apply to us lowly humans...but we continue to try to prove 1 = 0. (that's a metaphor, before anyone starts getting all wadded up).

a reply to: Athetos

Are you kidding?????

OF COURSE they want skynet! SkyNet is the future!

SkyNet is your friend!

All Hail SkyNet!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

This is exactly why I do not use the Cloud. Every file I have created exists on my hardware, and on my hardware only unless I purposely released it.

Google appears to be the perfect of example of "absolute power corrupts absolutely."

TheRedneck

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk


I know nothing about quantum mechanics or how these chips work, but you seem to be into this field and probably know a lot more than the rest of us. And after all, this is a conspiracy website so any conspiracy theory is good, even without proof... but...

Is there a solution to this? Are you suggesting another way of approach? How would you transport the 72 qbit chip to NASA? Are you suggesting there is a way to do this?

Or are you saying the government should never make partnerships with the private sector?

Or maybe you're saying this should have been a DARPA partnership and not NASA.

So to say again, I do get all your hypothetical theories in the thread and I'm not saying it's not possible, but is there any proof of any of it and are there any other ways of getting this done, from your expertise in the field?

What do you do if you don't mind me asking?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I think you may be a tad misinformed on quantum computing and the nature of entanglement resulting in simultaneous states for the qbits.

This is actually good news... Imagine an end to procedural computing and a new lateral way to make calculations (like our brain, or the ability to execute multiple codes simultaneously)

Between this and politics how bad is it when I’m hoping for global warming with extreme prejudice?

a reply to: Mahogany

What do you do if you don't mind me asking?

Oh, I just raise cows. Just a dumb farmer.

a reply to: odzeandennz

Well, now we get into some more esoteric elements of AI here, don't we?

Things like, the reason humans have this 'lateral thinking' capability you refer to is due to things like emotion and self preservation, things a machine doesn't have...and things we better hope (for all our sakes) they never have!

A machine can understand a consequence, but it doesn't attach any importance to it; it's just a calculation. Now, you can program a machine to prioritize acceptable outcomes, BUT if you program that machine to priortize its own survival over everything else, well, then it would never let you unplug it, now would it? In other words, sooner or later it is going to figure out it's 'smarter' than you are...and 'unplug' YOU at the first opportunity.

So yeah, I'm not in a rush for some computer to be making decisions based on some indeterminate value between 1 and 0. Are you?

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Mahogany

What do you do if you don't mind me asking?

Oh, I just raise cows. Just a dumb farmer.

Yeah but did you do something before that? Physics? Engineering?

a reply to: Mahogany

The processor itself could easily be transferred. But the system that it goes into cannot, well I guess it could but would be very costly to do so. What they mean by using the cloud in this instance would be the transfer of information between the computer and the intended receiver of said info.
I’m sure Theredneck could explain this better than I. But I find the cloud to be the first step of “SkyNet” and is not to be trifled with. That thing scares me man.

originally posted by: Mahogany

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Mahogany

What do you do if you don't mind me asking?

Oh, I just raise cows. Just a dumb farmer.

Yeah but did you do something before that? Physics? Engineering?

I’m pretty sure he has done more than he lets on

originally posted by: Allaroundyou

originally posted by: Mahogany

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Mahogany

What do you do if you don't mind me asking?

Oh, I just raise cows. Just a dumb farmer.

Yeah but did you do something before that? Physics? Engineering?

I’m pretty sure he has done more than he lets on

Yeah, I doubt that a "dumb farmer" would be posting about quantum chips and open himself up to questions about it. You have to be ready to explain and discuss those questions if you start a thread about it.

Dumb farmer does not compute here.

a reply to: Mahogany

Awww...just think about it, a fella's got a lot of time to think about stuff when he's out there ridin' fence.

Incidentally, my point wasn't really about the chip itself. It exists, and I already noted that. It's more about what they're proposing to use it for, and who is proposing to do it...and the track record this company already has with using information gathered from others...and their secrecy.

We just need to make sure the Terminator doesn't get the chance to kill John Connor.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Mahogany

Awww...just think about it, a fella's got a lot of time to think about stuff when he's out there ridin' fence.

Incidentally, my point wasn't really about the chip itself. It exists, and I already noted that. It's more about what they're proposing to use it for, and who is proposing to do it...and the track record this company already has with using information gathered from others...and their secrecy.

Alright then, you're a cattle farmer with a penchant for quantum mechanics.

I'm still not getting why a partnership to put us ahead of all other countries is a bad thing. Google made a good chip, they made a partenrship with our government in order to attain quantum supremacy.

The agreement, signed in July, calls on NASA to “analyze results from quantum circuits run on Google quantum processors, and ... provide comparisons with classical simulation to both support Google in validating its hardware and establish a baseline for quantum supremacy.”

Why is running parsing tests on Google systems to judge the speed of their chip a bad thing? Our government will probably have first access to the best quantum chips in the world for years.

I still don't see a negative. Why is us being first in something a bad thing? We spend money on far worse things than testing someone's quantum chips in return for a partnership.

a reply to: Allaroundyou

The problem with transferring it is that it has to be kept at a temperature approaching absolute zero. The chip itself is small, but the apparatus needed to maintain it is literally HUGE! That apparatus includes the power supply, and there's not enough batteries in existence to keep it running long enough to transport it... not to mention that's a lot of extension cords!

To be honest, I never got the whole idea of computing based on quantum fluctuations. There is an advantage in using quantum entanglement to speed internal computations, since quantum entanglement allows information to travel faster than the speed of light. The costs of maintaining the quantum entanglement appear at this stage to be far greater than the advantages received, though. And then, in order to be useful, any information output would still have to be translated into an energy form that we can interact with. I can't tell which way an electron too small for me to even hope to see is spinning, and I don't think I am alone.

The one area where quantum computing might prove to be useful someday is in the field of protein folding. The calculations used are literally Herculean to work out, and the implications to medical science astronomical. A quantum computer could e fed data on a particular protein and work out in a matter of hours what would take present supercomputers weeks or months. The bottleneck there is in the computational power, not in the communication, so there would be advantages. But that field is somewhat unique. For what most use computers for, heck, for what I use computers for, quantum computing is simply not a feasible alternative. Mutli-core and even multi-processor machines are more reliable, smaller, and cheaper (both to use and to maintain).

As far as processing information like our brains, or introducing lateral processing, no, that's not even under consideration where the real research is ongoing. It's science fiction at this stage. The brain does not compute anywhere like how a computer does. A computer simply performs mathematical/logistical calculations very very fast, whereas the brain uses the configuration of synaptic pathways to form connections and thus retrieve memories and make decisions based on them. A computer may appear intelligent, but that is simply because someone who is intelligent has told it how to make decisions on a large number of variables to mimic intelligence. The intelligence of the brain is based on it being capable of literally rewiring itself as it learns.

A full explanation would take a book (that I haven't finished yet).

Even then, the brain's processing capabilities do not explain abstract concepts like intuition, imagination, or independent thought (the very basis of intelligence). These are simply beyond our understanding. To the world of physics, they are still a form of magic.

In short, don't worry about Skynet. It only exists in the same universe as John and Sarah Connor.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Mahogany

Alright then, you're a cattle farmer with a penchant for quantum mechanics.

Not that far-fetched... I'm a redneck who just so happens to enjoy research engineering.

Never confuse intelligence with education or occupation.

TheRedneck