3 ms·

Agreed. Seems like the author had enough education on the subject to be able to form an opinion that sounds credible enough, but lacked the capability to hammer

by Libbum 8y ago

Agreed. Seems like the author had enough education on the subject to be able to form an opinion that sounds credible enough, but lacked the capability to hammer the point home. Sure, many of the points made are valid - work is still ongoing. Progress however, has been staggering. Ignore the whole quantum computer aspect, and you still have condenser matter, nanomanufacturing, optics, material science, modelling, dilution refrigeration, metrology and many other fields that directly benefit from the funding that's going into quantum computing at the moment.

scottlocklin 8y ago
So like, if I claim I can build a perpetual motion machine in a dilution refrigerator, everything is great because "dilution refrigerator." FWIIW I sat next to a dilution refrigerator in a lab in 1991 -can you name any significant improvements in them which came from QC funding?
- Libbum 8y ago
  I don't think the combative stance helps your argument at all. You know I didn't mean that. In answer to your question: certainly. First of all: the sample volume, total number of microwave lines and resulting cooling power have all been massively increased in standard dilution fridges so that the modern quantum computing experiments can fit in. Even if you don't care about phase qubits, but are interested in something else that needs to run at mK temperatures, you're going to have a better time now rather than 30 years back. More importantly though I'd say isolation has drastically improved. Even at 4mK you can get infra red photons breaking apart Cooper-pairs: forming additional quasiparticles. That noise interferes with any qubit in the fridge. These infra red photons were originating from the fridge itself before this issue was fixed. We would never have identified this issue without studying the high sensitivity of qubits to quasiparticle creation. Finally, if you don't think that these advances are significant enough, then I don't think you're just having a dig at quantum computing, you've got an issue with the progress of science as a whole.
  - scottlocklin 8y ago
    "Combative stance?" Do you think I should be more collaborative in pointing out that quantum computing is a bullshit field? This sort of mealy mouthed attitude is how such nonsense has grown and thrived in the first place. This subject should have been laughed to scorn in 96. You're right: I have an issue with the progress of science as a whole, though I particularly take issue with "quantum computing" being considered science or technology or much of anything beyond play acting with liquid nitrogen. On the upside, nothing I learned in school is likely to be out of date ... for the rest of my life! For the sake of lolz, please characterize this massive increase in cooling power using ratios. I could have missed something.

by Libbum 8y ago

scottlocklin 8y ago

So like, if I claim I can build a perpetual motion machine in a dilution refrigerator, everything is great because "dilution refrigerator." FWIIW I sat next to a dilution refrigerator in a lab in 1991 -can you name any significant improvements in them which came from QC funding?

Libbum 8y ago
I don't think the combative stance helps your argument at all. You know I didn't mean that. In answer to your question: certainly. First of all: the sample volume, total number of microwave lines and resulting cooling power have all been massively increased in standard dilution fridges so that the modern quantum computing experiments can fit in. Even if you don't care about phase qubits, but are interested in something else that needs to run at mK temperatures, you're going to have a better time now rather than 30 years back. More importantly though I'd say isolation has drastically improved. Even at 4mK you can get infra red photons breaking apart Cooper-pairs: forming additional quasiparticles. That noise interferes with any qubit in the fridge. These infra red photons were originating from the fridge itself before this issue was fixed. We would never have identified this issue without studying the high sensitivity of qubits to quasiparticle creation. Finally, if you don't think that these advances are significant enough, then I don't think you're just having a dig at quantum computing, you've got an issue with the progress of science as a whole.
- scottlocklin 8y ago
  "Combative stance?" Do you think I should be more collaborative in pointing out that quantum computing is a bullshit field? This sort of mealy mouthed attitude is how such nonsense has grown and thrived in the first place. This subject should have been laughed to scorn in 96. You're right: I have an issue with the progress of science as a whole, though I particularly take issue with "quantum computing" being considered science or technology or much of anything beyond play acting with liquid nitrogen. On the upside, nothing I learned in school is likely to be out of date ... for the rest of my life! For the sake of lolz, please characterize this massive increase in cooling power using ratios. I could have missed something.