Geeky World Domination & Control

 

Geeky World Domination & Control

Plasma Computing + AI + Geeky Math

"In many ways, China is outpacing the United States and has largely negated the U.S. military advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of focused military investment… [China is] the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order, and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to advance that objective." 

Bipartisan Commission on the National Defense Strategy, 2024 report to Congress.

Aren’t state-of-the-art computers, especially with AI, already fast enough? Can they be made to be any faster, per Moore’s Law? And why are we wasting money making them vastly faster when we could cut taxes for the mega-rich even more? Stupid questions, right? But we’ve been using binary digital algorithms (0’s and 1’s) for decades now. Virtually all of our software is written that way, so would we have to dump that system if we want to accelerate processing time and volume? The simple answer is “yes,” but while we’re working a new way to compute (the multi-level qubit), but we aren’t quite there with a reliable computer that can harness this new system… one that can simultaneously process multiple calculations at thousands, perhaps even millions of times faster than what our super-computers can process today.

Why is this relevant? We use all sorts of encryption software to protect our financial system, state secrets, military technology and strategic information, etc., etc…. and blockchain encryption requires multiple inputs from decentralized devices, which makes it virtually unbreakable. Note the word “virtually.” If you could simultaneously run multiple hacks, with every possible combination, across that blockchain, you could in theory break that encryption. And if you could break through most conceivable forms of encryption, you could penetrate any country’s most protected data, take over all their automation and computer systems, arm or disarm all their most sophisticated weapon systems (even retargeting them towards their home base), take over every financial system on earth… and erect new encryption systems that make blockchain as much of a hacking deterrence as a balsawood door would protect your home.

So, whoever develops that computing system, properly programs it into exponentially faster at higher volumes, and deploys it globally… would… er… rule the Earth! The next-level computer works in qubits and processes at those speeds is a plasma computer (more below), and mathematics to harness that power was developed, on a theoretical basis, long before such a computer was even built. Here’s how FastCompany.com’s Adam Bluestein (July 25th) describes that effort done decades ago:

In 1994, Peter Shor, an American mathematician working at Bell Labs, published a paper with a wonky title and earth-shaking implications. In ‘Polynomial-Time Algorithms for Prime Factorization and Discrete Logarithms on a Quantum Computer,’ Shor showed how, using a hypothetical quantum computer, you could efficiently solve certain types of mathematical problems that overwhelmed even the most powerful classical computer systems—eliminating many, many steps, and cutting the calculation time exponentially.

His theory was mind-blowing, though at the time only physicists, mathematicians, and a certain breed of computer scientist noticed. One of the most widely used digital encryption protocols, RSA, relies on finding the prime factors of very large numbers—a task so hard for classical computers that cracking such encryption could take several years. This is because as the numbers to be factored get longer, the computing power required grows exponentially. But Shor demonstrated that by leveraging the weirdness of quantum mechanics, you could arrive at a solution in minutes or even seconds. Existing encryption would be rendered obsolete.

The quantum computer that Shor envisioned didn’t exist yet. But his paper helped launch a far-flung effort to build one. But building such a computer would not just transform digital encryption—it would have profound implications for physics, chemistry, materials science, drug development, and other areas where complex problems involving huge numbers of variables confound conventional computers.

It would be seven years until a team of researchers from IBM used an early type of quantum computer to demonstrate that Shor’s algorithm worked—if only to solve an easy version of the problem: factoring the number 15. Subsequent teams have executed Shor’s algorithm on different kinds of quantum computers, for numbers up to . . . 21! Factoring numbers of practical significance—not to mention performing the other miracles that quantum evangelists promise—requires bigger, better quantum computers than now exist. But after decades as a perennial technology of the future, quantum computing has hit an inflection point.

The number of quantum computing deals soared more than 700% from 2015 through 2023, according to PitchBook data, and total deal value grew tenfold to $1 billion. Governments around the world have made quantum computing a strategic national defense priority. As of February 2024, the U.S government had invested $3 billion in quantum computing projects, plus an additional $1.2 billion from the National Quantum Computing Initiative. China, meanwhile, has reportedly invested some $15 billion in quantum computing efforts. Big Techs including IBM, Intel, Google, Microsoft, AWS, and Baidu all have substantial quantum computing programs, envisioning applications in fundamental physics, chemistry, materials science, drug development, finance, climate modeling, and the training and optimizing of AI models.

Scientists have been working on a plasma computer for decades as the above numbers suggest. But so has China at a pace that some believe eclipses progress here. AI is an additional key to deploy that system, an architecture that is expanding very quickly as you may have noticed. A new, well-funded startup on Chicago’s Southside, is addressing a currently unstable and very temperature sensitive plasma computer, plagued with errors, with a new approach. PsiQuantum intends conquer those issues. Peter Shadboldt, PsiQuantum cofounder and chief science officer, is dealing with the underlying complexities.

Bluestein: “You need ways to get them to interact with each other, and ways to control and measure them. You also need to mitigate and correct for the ‘noise’ inherent to quantum systems. ‘The transistor on your laptop goes wrong way less than one in a trillion times,’ says Shadbolt. ‘Everyone’s qubits today go wrong one in a thousand times, maybe one in 10,000 times, if you’re really lucky.’” Everything seems to be a do-over, refocusing the program on stabilizing, building and interconnectivity using a ground-up reworking. See the above rendering of the proposed PsiQuantum’s plasma computer. Fingers crossed.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you understand the country that builds this plasma platform to be scalable, reliable and truly able to access the clear advances that lie ahead will be unstoppable, perhaps you just might want the United States to be the first to the table… or we just might watch China literally rule the world.