[HN Gopher] Biasing the quantum vacuum to control macroscopic pr...
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       Biasing the quantum vacuum to control macroscopic probability
       distributions
        
       Author : taubek
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2023-07-23 15:40 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.science.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org)
        
       | armchairhacker wrote:
       | https://qntm.org/causal
        
       | koryk wrote:
       | I use 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 wrote:
         | First, 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 wrote:
         | Using the Universe Splitter is more fun:
         | https://cheapuniverses.com/
        
       | pama wrote:
       | Are 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 wrote:
         | There are, and impossible because you asked for "cheap".
        
           | TheRealPomax wrote:
           | Downvote 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 wrote:
             | I 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?
        
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       (page generated 2023-07-23 23:02 UTC)