Possibilities, and the Tech Roads Ahead

  

Possibilities, and the Tech Roads Ahead

With a flurry of political nasties, instability and violence everywhere, I thought it might be a nice departure to explain two rising technologies, whose time may have come: practical and energy efficient quantum computing and the road less graveled. Let’s start with quantum computing. It’s a shift from the limited “binary” (0s and 1s) standard that almost all computers currently use, to a multilevel “qubit” processing system, capable of running, simultaneously, multiple problems at absurdly rapid processing speeds, literally millions and millions of times faster than what even our supercomputers can do with their petaflop capacity today.

In “engineering speak”: “The basic unit of information in quantum computing, the qubit (or ‘quantum bit’), serves the same function as the bit in ordinary or ‘classical’ computing. However, unlike a classical bit, which can be in one of two states (a binary), a qubit can exist in a linear combination of two states known as a quantum superposition.” So much for Wikipedia. But this is not exactly something you can simply load onto existing computer platforms, and much effort has been focused on highly specialized (and occasionally unstable) plasma computers that run at super-frozen processors firmly anchored on super-steady concrete platforms. Not only is this beyond expensive, but it is also wildly impractical… sucking down legions of electrical power in the process.

But what if there were a simpler, more reliable system, utilizing a massive off-site cloud where appropriate and trained users could harness an off-site quantum computer and the massive fileserver capacity needed? Perhaps based on a Japanese developed quantum computer, using a new optical system, that is both more stable and uses a fraction of the otherwise required electricity? The November 25th FastCompany.com describes just such a system: “For decades, quantum computing has been heralded as a technology of the future, promising to solve problems far beyond the reach of supercomputers. But its practical use has remained elusive.

“That’s changed with D-Wave’s Advantage2 quantum system, a new kind of quantum computer built for real-world use. Available remotely and on premises via the Leap quantum cloud service, the Advantage2 system runs complex calculations for businesses right now, helping optimize complicated problems from worker shift schedules to manufacturing processes… [The company] used the Advantage2 system to solve a physics problem that models how certain materials behave at the atomic level. This task is so complex that it would have taken one of the world’s fastest supercomputers nearly a million years and as much electricity as the whole world uses annually. Our system did it in 20 minutes using less than a dollar’s worth of electricity…

“A lot of people in the quantum computing industry assume that if you just make a more powerful computer, people will come. But computational power means little if it isn’t easy to access. That’s been our focus: making quantum accessible. You can program the Advantage2 system in Python. You don’t need to understand quantum mechanics. You just log in, run your code, and get results in real time.” But put this system together with AI, and the results are staggering: “The meeting of AI and quantum computing is not an abstract dream; it is an emerging reality. The two fields are complementary in profound ways. AI thrives on data but struggles with the sheer size of modern datasets and the complexity of optimization problems. Quantum computing excels at exploring vast solution spaces quickly. Together, they offer the potential to accelerate learning, discover deeper insights, and solve problems at scales previously unimaginable.

“Quantum algorithms could supercharge AI training by dramatically reducing the time needed to process massive datasets. Instead of requiring weeks of computation on classical hardware, AI models could be trained in hours or even minutes on quantum-enhanced systems. Beyond speed, quantum computing may allow AI to uncover patterns hidden so deeply in data that classical systems cannot reach them. This could mean breakthroughs in fields as diverse as drug discovery, climate modeling, financial forecasting, and material science.” Science News Today, September 7th. So, for most of those who even care, this potential is either exciting or terrifying. But there is no stopping this progress, if only our political system could learn how to manage this technology. It is a field that both the United States and China have prioritized.

For a less scary rising technology, basically a future road hopefully more traveled, there is some more digestible good news. Writing for the October 17th FastCompany.com, Patrick Sisson described a carbon capture surfacing material that could well redefine repairing or expanding road construction worldwide: “It’s a sound—and smell—car commuters have become intimately familiar with: the noxious fumes of asphalt repaving. U.S. road maintenance and highway expansion require a massive quantity of asphalt every year, roughly 400 million tons a year on average, according to Asphalt magazine, a publication of the international trade association Asphalt Institute. But a new process developed by St. Louis-based firm Verde Resources seeks to streamline the process, making it more sustainable and odorless.

“Verde’s new BioAsphalt process, which has been in development since 2022, utilizes what’s called biochar, or natural wood remnants from forestry waste that get added into the traditional asphalt material mixture of limestone and granite aggregates. This allows the road mixture to sequester a small amount of carbon. Verde CEO Jack Wong estimates that for every 100 tons of BioAsphalt that gets laid, 10 tons of carbon dioxide gets sequestered…

“Asphalt’s environmental footprint is significant. In addition to using petroleum-based materials and requiring extensive energy for heating and installation, it also releases dangerous particulate matter as cars and trucks drive atop it. The National Asphalt Pavement Association estimated that laying down the material results in 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually in the U.S.; for comparison, that’s about one-seventh the amount of emissions created by the nation’s commercial airline industry. [The company notes] that while the BioAsphalt is about 15% to 20% more expensive to make, by weight, due to the different materials, it’s engineered to require a thinner layer when applied. So it actually ends up being slightly cheaper when energy savings and reduced material volume are factored in.” The process has been and continues to be rigorously tested, and the results have been exceptional.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if we can, on occasion, ignore the political mayhem and efforts to distract and control, there are people, universities and companies working hard to make the world a more effective and livable place.