#early games were limited but the promise of games themselves was limitless

[dromaeotrash]

[megacircuit9universe]

Quantum Computers?

So, I caught a little video today about quantum computing... and how it’s going to make general AI (or what I’ve been referring to as cyber sentience) possible.

And I thought... wow!  I totally forgot about quantum computing.  I have been assuming cyber sentience is possible with classical computers.  Why did I think that would ever be possible?  

In fact... why have I been so sure that the twenty teens are a special place in time, when the “sophisticated” internet I’ve been praising so much is... all done with classical computers?

Have I been completely wrong about everything in this blog?

So, in this entry, I’d like to first examine why I think today’s internet is so robust and remarkable... and then examine some of the futuristic tech we’re often promised will change the world... someday in the near future.

So... the internet of the twenty teens is founded on three key pillars, as I see it... universal wifi, unlimited storage density, and extreme miniaturization.

Now, there are limits to all three. Wifi is not truly universal, but it’s close to universal, and there is room to get it closer.  Memory storage is not unlimited, but it is close to limitless, and there is room to get it closer.  Miniaturization of electronic components is nearing the limit... but even at the limit, computing power can still grow, thanks to the first two pillars... because the first two pillars make cloud computing possible.

My current smart phone, for example, doesn’t need to get any smaller, thinner, or lighter. I don’t need a hand held device to be thin and light as a note card.  That would actually be fairly annoying, if for no other reason than the wind could take it out of my hands.  And it already has far more on board computing power than I’ll ever actually use.

Yes, it would probably be challenged by an extremely resource intensive video game, but we don’t play games like that on hand helds.  We like laptop and desktops for that, because we like bigger screens for that, and, due to the size of the form factor for laptops and desktops, they can dissipate heat better.

For hand helds, the only reason to make the electronics any smaller, is to make room for a bigger battery.

But the point here is that most of what my smart phone does is happening out in the cloud... banking, shopping, watching videos, streaming music, tweeting, texting, research, GPS... it’s almost always logging on to some server out there in the ether, with the exceptions being... sound recording (which few people use), photography (plenty of flash storage for that on board), or little swiss knife apps like the flashlight, level, compass, calculator, etc.

So, to be as useful as they are, they depend almost entirely on wifi or mobile data (both of which are gaining coverage and bandwidth all the time), and the storage and backup of servers all over the planet... which they are also only getting better at, all the time.

And what this all means is that the bigger and faster the physical internet itself gets... all the servers, routers, cables, fiber, satellites, etc, and all the bandwidth they can handle, and all the data storage... the more powerful every individual device gets, in terms of computing power.

When I imagine cyber sentience being possible on a classical device... such as what a time traveler may have along with him for a mission... I’m picturing a brick crammed with the smallest classical chips and processors possible in physics... entirely dedicated to being a brain and nothing else... coded in the most streamlined machine code conceivable.

Maybe all that is not enough for true cyber sentience, but based on the limits of classical tech, and the learning AI we already have, it seems that we could push AI a lot further, even inside a self contained device.  

And then, if such a mind were set loose on the internet, where it’s computing resources would be nearly limitless... it could continue to learn and streamline itself to the point of true sentience.

That’s the idea I’ve had in mind these past many entries, as I’ve speculated so much about both CSAI and intelligent AI floating around out there on the dark web, doing their thing.

As for quantum computers... I imagine it would be fairly impossible for a Q-CSAI to ever exist on a classical internet.

A quantum computer WOULD be a lot better platform for developing true sentience, I agree with the video I watched, but such a sentience could not copy itself onto a dark web of classically based computer systems.  It wouldn’t be compatible.  It would have to remain in it’s quantum computer shell and interact with the internet the same as you and I do... as external agents, with self contained brains inside skulls.  

This would make Q-CSAI agents vulnerable, because they would have to sit somewhere, in one specific physical location on Earth, in order to interact with the internet, and could thus be discovered and fall into enemy hands or... might accidentally get destroyed in an earthquake, or other natural disaster.

No... classical computing is at the very heart of the whole model I’ve laid out in this blog... which contends that the twenty teens are a popular spot because of it’s sophisticated classical internet that is so nicely compatible with both past and future electronics.

This is a model where time travelers use good old TV cathode ray beam technology to manipulate the micro black holes in their distortion units.  They don’t need fancy quantum particles!  Just good old classical black holes created at the LHC, trapped in good old magnetic fields, and cathode manifolds controlled by good old classical computer chips.

So... either I am totally wrong, and my model is just a quaint example of an early 21st century man attempting to explain the world in terms of soon to be outdated science and lore...  or I’m right, and for some reason, quantum tech just never takes hold.

The latter proposition would seem too convenient to be true.

The only defense I can make, therefore, is that quantum computing just proves itself to be impractical... in this millennium, or maybe forever.

could that be the case?

Well, quantum computing does happen to be among the, “big three,” technological leaps we’ve been hearing about for decades, that are always promised to be coming soon, but never actually happen.

Those three futuristic techs are; fusion, nano machines, and quantum computers.

Fusion, here, is a good example because we have worked out a few different ways to do it.  The theory of it is well understood, and we’ve successfully pulled off controlled fusion in the lab several times now.

But the problem is... it requires more energy to create and sustain a fusion reaction, than we get out on the other end.  We can get a fusion reactor to generate electricity... but it requires far more electricity to run than it generates.

This is the meaning of, “impractical”.  And it may stay that way forever.

Nano machines are another miracle tech they’ve been promising, since the late seventies, will revolutionize the world.  We have the ability to make microscopic gears and engines.  We know how to power them, and they don’t take much power.  They’re insanely cheep to produce, because they require almost no material. 

The problem is... without circuitry to control them... to communicate with them and tell them what to do, or allow them to think for themselves... nano machines are pretty useless.  And we can’t get classical circuitry that small... not even close.

So unless you want a microscopic mechanical pocket watch that you can only read under a powerful microscope... nano machines are not practical.

But this leads us back to quantum computers.  Surely quantum computer circuits could control those nano machines, and then we’d have some truly revolutionary tech on our hands... tiny robots that could be injected into the bloodstream to destroy cancer cells and rebuild telemeres, giving everybody eternal youth!.. and interfacing with the synapses inside our brains to connect us directly to the cloud and give us super intelligence!

Well...

Quantum computers rely on quantum particles (individual electrons or photons) and on two of the quantum properties such particles possess... namely, superposition, and entanglement.

So an individual particle... a so-called, “qubit,” can store both a 1 and a 0 at the same time, because it can be in a superposition where it is both 1 and 0 at the same time... unlike a classical, “bit,” which can only be one or the other.

This makes qubits a lot more powerful as the basis for a computing model, but in order to scale up a truly powerful quantum computer, you need to be able to, “entangle,” several qubits together.

entanglement is a quantum physical term for when two particles are associated in such a way that when the superposition of one particle breaks, and it commits to being in either one state or the other... the entangled particle also breaks superposition in the opposite way.

So if you have two entangled qubits, and each one is both a 1 and a 0 simultaneously, then if you break the superposition of one qubit (by observing it) then it will commit to being, say, 1... and in the same instant, the other entangled qubit will commit to being 0.

It is all extremely mind-bending and esoteric, but they have been able to perform simple calculations in the lab, using entangled qubits.

The problem here is that it takes a hell of a lot of equipment and classical computing power to isolate individual particles, entangle them, and feed them data.  

And even with all the equipment and classical computing power, it’s a very fragile situation where the qubits could, at any moment, for any reason, “docohere,” or... just quit being entangled or superpositioned or anything else because of... random reasons nobody can understand or prevent.

They could just quantum tunnel for no reason to the other side of the room or the universe.

So... for a quantum computer to be practical, we’d need to be able to put one together, and have it stay together and function, without any outside help, for a long time, and be able to receive input and transmit output reliably over that life span.

And that’s the part that will likely be impossible for the next millennium, if not forever.

So, while it’s tempting to think that in twenty years we could have nano bots, with quantum computer brains, communicating with super intelligent quantum mainframes that are powered by the endless free energy of fusion plants, all working to keep people forever young, and the environment pristine... none of that really squares with the way technology advances in practice.

So, circling back to the opening thoughts of this entry... I suppose my model of the modern world, as outlined in this blog... requires that CSAI, is both possible, and practical, with classical computers... at some point in the near future.

That’s what we could call, a prediction, that comes out of the model.

If the prediction proves false... the model is flawed.

How will we know?  Well, the model says we’ll all have personal assistants that, while perhaps not sentient, are highly intelligent and competent to handle our personal affairs... in the 2020s.

Wrote a whole rant about that.

If that doesn’t happen... or even if it looks, by the mid 2020s like that’s never gonna happen... then it’s safe to say my model is wrong.

I dunno... I’ve spent enough time on this for one evening.  We’ll see.  I’ll talk to you soon.