Quantum Supremacy

“Back in the 1980s, there was enormous enthusiasm about gene therapy, i.e., repairing broken genes. There are at least 10,000 known genetic diseases afflicting the human race. There was a belief that science would enable us to rewrite the code of life, correcting the mistakes of Mother Nature. There was even talk that gene therapy might be able to enhance the human race as well, improving our health and intelligence at the genetic level.”

“Many people ask the simple question, “Why can’t we cure the common cold?” Actually, we can. But since there are over 300 rhinoviruses that can cause colds, and since they constantly mutate, it makes no sense to develop 300 vaccines to hit this moving target. We simply live with it.”

“historians believe that the telescope ranks as perhaps the most seditious instrument ever introduced in the history of science because it challenged the powers that be and forever altered our relationship with the world around us.”

“This gets at the essence of why quantum computers are so unique and useful. An ordinary digital computer, in a sense, is like several accountants toiling away independently in an office, each doing one calculation separately, and handing off their answers from one to another. But a quantum computer is like a roomful of interacting accountants, each one simultaneously computing, and, importantly, communicating with each other via entanglement. So we say that they are coherently solving this problem together.”

“Why are quantum computers so powerful? he asks. Because the electrons are simultaneously calculating in parallel universes. They are interacting and interfering with each other via entanglement. So they can quickly outrace a traditional computer that computes in only one universe.”

“The only proven way in which to lengthen the life span of an animal is through caloric restriction. In other words, if you eat 30 percent fewer calories, you can live roughly 30 percent longer, depending on the animal being studied. This general rule has been tested across a vast array of species, from insects, mice, dogs and cats, even to apes. Animals eating fewer calories live longer than their counterparts that gorged themselves. They have fewer diseases and suffer less frequently from the problems of old age, such as cancer and hardening of the arteries.”

“Afterward, Planck said, “You cannot reason with such a man.” Sadly, one of Planck’s sons, Erwin, was later involved with a plot to assassinate Hitler. He was caught and tortured. Planck tried to save his son’s life by appealing directly to Hitler. But Erwin was executed in 1945. The Nazis put a price on Einstein’s head. His picture was featured on the cover of a Nazi magazine, with the caption “Not Yet Hanged.” He fled Germany in 1933, never to return.”

“In other words, the microworld and the macroworld obeyed two different sets of physics, but this did not affect measurements because it did not matter precisely where you chose to separate the micro- and macroworlds.”

“Laser Internet In the future, top secret messages may be sent on a separate internet channel carried by laser beams, not electrical cables. Laser beams are polarized, meaning that the waves vibrate in only one plane. When a criminal tries to tap into the laser beam, this changes the direction of polarization of the laser,”

“But the problem of converting light into sugar is a quantum mechanical process. After years of effort, scientists have isolated where quantum effects dominate this process, and all are beyond the reach of digital computers. Therefore, to create a synthetic photosynthesis that could potentially be more efficient than the natural one still eludes our finest chemists.”

“Once again, the smallest object that can simulate the universe is the universe itself.”

“In the U.S., the workers who built the atomic bomb were heralded as war heroes and as miracle workers, but a different fate awaited Turing in the U.K. Because of national secrecy laws, his accomplishments were kept classified for decades, so no one knew of his enormous contribution to the war effort.”

“Of the 60,000 meteorites that have been discovered so far, at least 125 of them have been conclusively identified as having come from Mars.”

“But these records are like pie crusts—they are made to be broken.”