White House earmarks over $1B for quantum technology research

https://thenextweb.com/politics/2018/07/09/white-house-earmarks-over-1b-for-quantum-technology-research/

by rbanffy • 8 years ago

66 52 8 years ago

mkolodny• 8 years ago

From this article: https://thehackernews.com/2017/08/quantum-satellite-data.htm...

From past two decades, Quantum technology has been a top strategic focus in China's 5-year economic development plan. While the U.S. invested about $200 Million a year in quantum research, China spent $101 Billion in quantum physics in 2015.

If you'd like to learn more about quantum technology, this article gives a good summary: https://thenextweb.com/insider/2017/06/19/quantum-entangleme...

arthurcolle2• 8 years ago

U.S. invested about $200 million
China spent $101 Billion in quantum physics in 2015.

Wow that's pretty staggering

adventured• 8 years ago

That's because it's a fraudulent number with zero supporting evidence. There's no actual public data on what China is spending on "quantum physics."

$100 billion in 2015 would be more than all venture capital in the entire country that year. It'd be equal to 70% of all of their claimed military spending for that year.

asdsa53254• 8 years ago

Because it's a typo. China spend $101 Billion on all research in 2015. A small portion of that was more quantum physics.

WSJ issued a correction, as noted in a different comment in the thread.

hangonhn• 8 years ago

That number sounds really, really outlandish. China, officially at least, spent about $130 billion on their defense in that same year. I highly doubt they would spend that much on some research project which will bear fruit in the distant future. Even if they are willing to spend that much money, where would they even spend that much money?

soneca2• 8 years ago

Maybe they spent $101 billion up to 2015, i.e. it is the total sum of money spent for the last two decades. $5 billion a year for the last 20 years sounds too high still though (but feasible)

Veedrac• 8 years ago

It probably comes, directly or indirectly, from WSJ, who now have

Corrections & Amplifications:
Funding for basic research in China, including quantum research, was $10.1 billion in 2015. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it was $101 billion. (8/20)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-latest-leap-forward-isnt...

soneca2• 8 years ago

Nice summary. Talk about something *indistinguishable from magic"

madeuptempacct3• 8 years ago

According to everything I read "spooky action at a distance" isn't really a thing - there is no magic here, unfortunately.

madeuptempacct3• 8 years ago

I have read about this topic a ton. My understanding is that quantum communication is impossible and is being claimed here. Does not compute.

detaro• 8 years ago

What do you mean by "quantum communication"? Quantum key distribution/cryptography as done in that satellite experiment certainly is real, there's even some companies selling early commercial implementations already.

coding123• 8 years ago

That seems like a waste of taxpayer dollars.

archgoon• 8 years ago

Why? It's a perfectly legitimate avenue of research; and there is much fundamental work still to be done (which is typically the type of research the government funds).

blhack4• 8 years ago

To put that in perspective, it's about 5% of NASA's yearly budget.

I know I lose a lot of "cool kids points" for saying this, but I am seriously excited about both this, and the idea of a "space force". IT seems like we're spending real money on giant engineering projects! Love it!

hospes8• 8 years ago

What is a "space force"? And why we need any kind of weapons in space? There are already enough weapons to destroy every living thing on Earth multiple times, what makes you excited about new military spending?

brandonmenc2• 8 years ago

What is a "space force"?

We already have a "space force" - the Air Force - which was spun out of the Army. It's not odd to spin out the Space Force from the Air Force, if necessary.

And why we need any kind of weapons in space?

Because other nations want to or are in the process of weaponizing space.

The first time someone knocks out one of our GPS satellites, you'll be asking, "why don't we have a Space Force to protect against this sort of thing?"

Everyone's favorite rational pop scientist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, thinks it's "not a weird idea." [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NEcxhPh7js

madeuptempacct3• 8 years ago

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/president-trump-directs-pent...

"what makes you excited about new military spending?"

I am guessing he is excited about the fact that they are focusing on space research.

The original Russian "rockets" were just ICBM stages. There are hundreds of examples of military research boosting tech, especially when it comes to medicine and spaceflight.

asdsa53254• 8 years ago

Russia had weapons in space decades ago. We are behind

briandear2• 8 years ago

When enemy belligerents start shooting down our satellites, what then? When Mars transports are hijacked, then what?

Evil and conflict are as old as humans themselves. To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand human nature.

What stopped Soviet tanks from rolling into West Berlin? It wasn’t a brigade of huggable teddy bears.

nwah1• 8 years ago

You don't lose cool kid points, you instead lose any expectation people might have regarding your ability to perform basic risk analysis.

Things shouldn't be pursued based on whether they seem big and sciencey. They should be pursued if the benefits exceed the costs and risks. A space force does not meet that criteria.

zawazzi• 8 years ago

The purpose of calling it a space force is to align the military industrial complex with NASA's mission. This isn't about creating a legitimate space force. Who would they fight? Its about the rebranding civilian science for military funding.

craftyguy2• 8 years ago

and the idea of a "space force

The idea seems cool, I agree. But the implementation will be anything but cool. Going into space is still very expensive and hard. Be prepared for an even larger DoD budget and very expensive projects (F35 anyone?) at a scale not yet seen.

athenot• 8 years ago

I wonder if this is in reaction to Europe investing €1B a few years ago.

https://www.nature.com/news/europe-s-billion-euro-quantum-pr...

throwawayjava• 8 years ago

Here's the text of the house bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6227...

Summary:

* It's a 10-year plan

* NIST gets $400M for quantum research

* NSF gets $250M for quantum research and a mandate to establish 5 centers and to establish graduate traineeships in quantum fields. These traineeships are earmarked for US citizens.

* DOE gets $625M and a mandate to create up to 5 research centers, which go up for review after 5 years.

White House earmarks over $1B for quantum technology research

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