The U.S. government has been running a quantum internet for over two years

The U.S. government has been running a quantum internet for over two years

rt.com

The Tech Review blog announced on Monday that Richard Hughes and a team of researchers at Los Alamos National Labs in New Mexico have been running an “alternative quantum Internet,” and have been doing so for roughly two-and-a-half years. In a blog post the website broke down the basics of how Hughes and company created a system that works like a hub-and-spoke network in which all messages anywhere in the network get routed from a main node — a central hub.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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phys.org

So in quantum physics, two particles can be entangled and that means that when one of them is moved, the other one moves - it happens faster than the speed of light, and can be used to communicate instantly at a distance.

Check out the additional article from Phys.org. I think they are using quantum communication without entanglement.

The main advantage they are going for in this case is security - if someone eavesdrops, or observes the quantum signal, it will leave a trail.

Quantum entanglement communication has been seen in sci-fi as a useful way to communicate through space. Although a lot of older academics seem to dismiss this as fantasy, I'm glad steps are being taken to get there.


rt.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is pretty cool! SnF for you! Most in technology circles know that the public's technology is usually twenty years behind the true cutting edge of science. Now if they admitted this; Where have they actually gone pst that level is the truly fascinating question.

pretty awesome indeed.. will it be expensive or not? well just have to let time tell us wont we?

cheers.

Sounds like a old system they used during the cold war to link all of the missle silos together, if one was taken out all the others still could communicte with each other.

So why are they bring this stuff up again, what is the reasoning behind it.

reply to post by NexusNaViL


I agree with you that this is a pretty cool concept, but you can look at it conversely as an extremely dangerous concept. What would prevent our government from flipping that internet kill switch if they themselves still had access to the years' worth of amassed information?

Insofar as expense is concerned, I doubt that we'll ever be privy to that number; unless there's a Wikileaks-style exposure of this quantum system, it will always remain covert.

reply to post by darkbake


Not related to quantum computing, but I thought it was interesting when I first came across it. Hope you do as well.
How the Large Hadron Collider Might Change the Web

reply to post by darkbake

So in quantum physics, two particles can be entangled and that means that when one of them is moved, the other one moves - it happens faster than the speed of light, and can be used to communicate instantly at a distance.

This is a common mistake.

It can't used for instant communication because there always has to be a secondairy means of communication between the two points about the manipulation, and this can only be done with a less than FTL speed.

reply to post by DaveStinger


That is true - but would it be instant between the two quantum particles themselves? So it would still save time over a few light year distance, for example, compared to light-based communication?

Originally posted by darkbake
reply to post by DaveStinger

 

That is true - but would it be instant between the two quantum particles themselves? So it would still save time over a few light year distance, for example, compared to light-based communication?

There is no FTL travel of information between the entangled particles possible at all, because there is no way for info to travel between them.

It only appears to be to us......

Originally posted by 19KTankCommander
Sounds like a old system they used during the cold war to link all of the missle silos together, if one was taken out all the others still could communicte with each other.

So why are they bring this stuff up again, what is the reasoning behind it.

That sounds like Battlestar Galactica! :-)
I think that could have been a wired system that could be tapped along its route.
If this one gets tapped, it will leave a trace.

I always thought quantum entanglement worked like this:

In front of you you have two television screens. Each screen shows a fish in a fish tank. After a while you start to notice that when the fish on the left moves, the fish on the right also moves. As you continue to watch, you soon believe that somehow the fishes are communicating somehow.

Low and behold, in reality, there are just two cameras observing the SAME fish in the SAME tank, but from different angles, and displaying them to you on two separate TV's -- giving the illusion that there are two distinct and separate fish.

Nevermind.

-SAP-

reply to post by SloAnPainful


It has nothing to do with speed, it has to do with security, coding and decoding.

reply to post by DaveStinger


Yes I know, but I am sure it's fast as hell. I was making a joke that apperently wasn't funny.

-SAP-

reply to post by SloAnPainful


Whatever makes you feel comfortable.

reply to post by darkbake


Oh, I have been hearing about this quantum entanglement stuff on the science channel for some time now. I knew they would be finding a use for this stuff, somehow. Very cool subject!

Very cool indeed
Just marking for later reference,

15 years ago the Los Alamos web site had information about a quantum cryptography system for re-keying satellites. Worked equally well with polarized shuttered uplinks and fiber optics. Now they have it working through data hubs, no surprise. Should have been a cold war development for the CORONA era sats.

Historically we have relied on weak public key cryptography to authenticate E-commerce and that has its limits. This is good news! Much more robust multi channel encryption schemes that absolutely eliminate eavesdropping MITM attacks are possible.

Originally posted by DaveStinger
reply to post by SloAnPainful

 

It has nothing to do with speed, it has to do with security, coding and decoding.

Yeah, totally correct in this case.