3 ms·
Biasing the quantum vacuum to control macroscopic probability distributions
- noobermin 3y agoCan 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 3y agoI 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.
- pama 3y agoAre 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?
- TheRealPomax 3y agoThere are, and impossible because you asked for "cheap".
- TheRealPomax 3y agoDownvote 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.
- pama 3y agoI didn’t downvote, FWIW. I am also not asking for a chip. I wonder if it’s possible to solve a specialized problem with this type of computing, maybe something that right now is not addressed well, for example applications in quantum chemistry. Which are the startups you had in mind?
- koryk 3y agoI use https://qrng.anu.edu.au/ 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 3y agoFirst, 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 3y agoUsing the Universe Splitter is more fun: https://cheapuniverses.com/ https://cheapuniverses.com/
- armchairhacker 3y agohttps://qntm.org/causal https://qntm.org/causal