Comment by peter_d_sherman | Hacker News Reader

Comment by peter_d_sherman | Hacker News Reader

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peter_d_sherman

I do see the bottleneck!

But, short of having a "how to subvert the speed of light" discussion, which would be exceedingly long (and probably unproductive!) -- you've given me an idea!

Yes, you are correct that the speed of electrical propagation is limited, and does limit things!

We're completely agreed there!

OK, so here's my idea!

F--- the electrical cable entirely!

So, we have Quantum computers, Quantum bits, and all sorts of research on how to compute things with them, all kinds of professors and papers and companies and venture capital all researching how to do Quantum Computation...

Well, I say F--- all of that! (In a polite, friendly, "yes your work is really genius and I acknowledge all of your brilliant contributions kind of way!").

Here's the grail!

The grail of Quantum is NOT Quantum Computation -- but rather Quantum Communication!

In other words, get rid of the damn electrical cable, and

figure out a way to do that communication with a pair of connected-at-a-distance Quantum bits; that is -- Quantum Communication!

In other words,

Quantum Communication -- should replace wires and busses of all sorts, serial, parallel, electrical, light, what-have-you.

That's the damn grail!... (pardon my language!)

Not Quantum Computing!!! (brilliant though it is, I am not trying to knock it in any way, far from, quite the opposite!)

Quantum Communication -- replacing wires and busses of all sorts, serial, parallel, electrical, light -- would be the Holy Grail -- of being able to build bigger computers (like imagine close-to-infinite RAM -- on one motherboard! Close-to-infinite RAM! Well, it would be off that motherboard... but Quantum Communication, if it were available, would, for all intensive purposes, make that RAM so connected, would have the net effect -- of physically existing on the motherboard, even though in actuality it would not be so!)

So, to answer your question...

YES, I DO SEE THE BOTTLENECK!

But... equal-and-oppositely...

Do you see my point?

You cannot communicate over a distance faster than the speed of light even using quantum phenomenon.

About 120+ years ago or so, if you would have said to the common man that it was possible for a heavier-than-air aircraft to fly, they would have said that that feat of engineering was physically impossible...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers

Today, after 120 years or so (roughly) of heavier-than-air flight, if you were to say that heavier-than-air aircraft flight was possible, no one would even do so much as "bat an eye" at that statement...

I had an old Physics Teacher who once (very wisely!) said:

"Given time, the impossible becomes possible, the possible becomes probable, and the probable becomes damn-near-likely to occur!"

It was like that for heavier-than-air flight.

I think that future history will show your statement to be incorrect at some point -- even though, in fairness to you, your statement might very well be true today, tomorrow, and in the immediate, near-term future...

"Given time, the impossible becomes possible, the possible becomes probable, and the probable becomes damn-near-likely to occur..."

Also, as a general rule, if something is apparently "not possible" (which yours truly highly doubts) -- then anyone who's worth their salt as a scientist needs to ask WHY multiple times -- and to keep "tunneling downward" across multiple levels, multiple substrata of WHY...

See, reach a certain level of WHY (which is really a cause, which sets of the whole cause-effect-cause-effect-etc. chain), understand it -- and you can control all of the effects which proceed out of that initial cause...

If we consider waves, for example, those which could occur in a rope or steel cable tied between two posts (compare to radio transmitter and receiver, even though there is no physical medium between them), but if we consider a rope or steel cable, and the waves which can travel along that medium -- they will travel at a certain speed, relative to wavelength (incidentally, all of the "can't go faster than light speed" stuff -- is tied to wavelength, and wavelength equations of hertzian waves -- that's the WHY).

But, there's something else going on in that rope or steel cable.

And that is, the instantaneous tension of a part of the rope or steel cable -- when a certain waveform is applied, for example, when someone starts vibrating or oscillating that rope or steel cable...

See, the waveform propagates at one speed relative to the rate of oscillation.

That is one form of propagation.

Waves of that nature -- will have a certain speed relative to their wavelength (size).

But if the rope or steel cable is in tension between two points, two poles or what have you -- it will propagate changes in that tension near instantly -- much faster than the waveform formed by the aforementioned oscillation or vibration!

The same principle is at play with railroad tracks.

That is, a train moves at one speed, one velocity, but if you're far ahead of the train, if you put your ear to the train tracks (and I highly highly recommend that no one do this -- this is said for explanatory purposes only!), but if someone were to put their ear to the track of a train which was some distance away -- they would hear the vibrations propagated in the train track at a much higher speed, a much higher velocity, than the speed of the train!

Well, same thing with light speed in this case.

Light is the train, the medium in which light travels through is the train track.

The train track is in tension, and by increasing vibrations as the train gets closer, it "knows" that a train is approaching!

The vibrations in the train tracks (train tracks have extremely high tension!) -- move at a faster rate of speed than the oncoming train!

So, while you might be right in your assessment in the short term, that Quantum Communication is impossible, I respectfully disagree as to what the long-term prospects and possibilities in this area are...

You might be right today... but for how much longer will that truth hold?

Thanks for the elaborate answer... "When you can explain a complex topic in a way that even a child can understand it, it means that you are truly an expert."

Ah, but, I don't write "to be an expert"... <g>

I write to:

clarify the way I think

!

So, what's the difference?

?

Well you see, if:

a) Someone writes something

and:

b) They are basically honest, at least with respect to themself, their own thoughts, in their own writings;

and

c) They are given a chance to review and edit and correct their own writings (in Law, we call this "Amending" something) after having written them;

Then, typically, as a result of these conditions:

d) They discover, and can subsequently think about, ("examine")

their own self-contradictions

...which if they are subsequently thought about, and subsequently resolved (again, in thought) -- will invariably lead to

better and clearer thinking...

We might call this the process of "self-examination" -- through writing...

I believe Socrates said something to the effect of "The unexamined life -- is not worth living".

Now, I don't know if that's true or not...

What I do know, is that I write to:

clarify the way I think

(And of course there are other reasons too, like communication, human communication... but it's not "to be an expert"... (What would I possibly gain from being "an expert", other than a title, a higher pay grade, and possibly more incompetency than the guy who's at the next pay grade higher than me? <g>))

(Oh, and sometimes I get good jokes, good humor, good comedy ideas -- from writing... but these are slag by-products of the writing process -- and not the norm...)

Anyway, that's why I do it...

Not "to be an expert"...

"The true knowledge -- consists in knowing that one knows nothing..."

-Socrates

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