Biasing the quantum vacuum to control macroscopic probability distributions

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh4920

by taubek • 3 years ago

22 10 3 years ago

pama2• 3 years ago

Are there any startups in the space of probabilistic hardware for ML? How hard would it be to make something minimally useful and cheap even if it wouldn’t compete with nvidia for most use cases?

TheRealPomax2• 3 years ago

There are, and impossible because you asked for "cheap".

TheRealPomax2• 3 years ago

Downvote all you want, but the moment you ask for a new type of chip that's both cheap and useful for current ML work, you are literally asking for the impossible.

koryk• 3 years ago

I use https://qrng.anu.edu.au/ as a quantum RNG sometimes to make decisions. If my choices are deterministic and not influenced by quantum randomness, then my choices are deterministic. Even if Everett's interpretation is true, my multiverse selves are doing the same things that I am doing.

If I use a quantum RNG to make decisions I will spice up my life in alternate realities. Mexican food or Vietnamese tonight? Use the quantum RNG to decide and get both across the multiverse.

loxias• 3 years ago

First, I love your attitude towards life and this comment elicited satisfying chuckles from my soul.

That aside, perhaps you could explain to me what's "new" and/or "better" about a quantum RNG?

Were all the sources of "true randomness" we used in the past not, at their core, relying on some sort of quantum phenomena (even if "we" didn't know it at the time).

I'm NOT an EE but I've seen all sorts of circuits (that I don't deeply understand) that rely on some side effect of a transistor or diode to produce entropy. Transistor noise, random telegraph noise, thermal noise, etc.

layer8• 3 years ago

Using the Universe Splitter is more fun: https://cheapuniverses.com/

armchairhacker• 3 years ago

https://qntm.org/causal

noobermin• 3 years ago

Can some explain? "Biasing" the "vacuum" means its no longer vacuum, but higher fock states, no? You've filled the vacuum with photons. May be this is just a terminology issue for me.

derbOac• 3 years ago

I think the idea is that even in a vacuum there are inherent fluctuations in electromagnetic field. They're adding fluctuations that are comparable to the background but slightly different; to maintain conservation of energy the vacuum fluctuations have to shift in response (I think? I'm not an expert in this area).

I guess one way of thinking about it is that at the quantum level there's no true vacuum in a classical sense.

Biasing the quantum vacuum to control macroscopic probability distributions

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