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Quantum chip breakthrough to unleash ‘ultra-fast’ computing
Scientists have built a new quantum chip that will enable the creation of completely secure mobile phones and ultra-fast computers with capabilities far beyond today’s devices.
The international research team behind the breakthrough, who are based at the University of Bristol, will detail the development at the British Science Festival in Aberdeen this week.
In the short term, the team are applying the technology to safe communications for mobile phones and computers, which would make online banking and internet shopping more secure. Phones could be protected against hacking attempts.
Quantum technology has long been a scientific dream. The quantum chip, made from silicon, works on light and is thousands of times smaller than the glass chips used previously. It will enable mass production of quantum technologies, leading first to secure mobile phones and eventually to ultra-fast quantum computers.
Fabricating quantum circuits in silicon has the huge advantage of compatibility with modern electronics. According to Jeremy O’Brien, physics professor at Bristol, quantum processors could be integrated with conventional microelectronic circuits within three to five years.
The research – carried out in collaboration with high-tech companies Toshiba of Japan, Nokia of Finland and Oclaro of the UK, and with Heriot-Watt University in Scotland and Delft University in the Netherlands – is an essential step towards miniaturising optical quantum computers.
Antti Niskanen, research leader at Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, said: “Understanding quantum photonics opens exciting prospects for further research into security, sensors and information processing. Security of personal data, the ability for a device to sense the world around it and the ability to quickly interpret this information all offer future benefits for mobile device users,” Mr Niskanen added.
The new chip is made from silicon, like the microprocessors in all computers and smart phones. Unlike conventional silicon chips that work by controlling electrical current, the quantum chips manipulate particles of light, called photons, to perform calculations. A quantum computing device with 100 photons could in principle solve trillions of equations at the same time.
Because the technology uses the same silicon manufacturing techniques as conventional chips, a manufacturer can easily produce millions of quantum chips.
The new circuits are compatible with existing optical glass fibre infrastructure used in broadband communications, because they operate at the same wavelengths. “The global communications network, including the internet, is powered by fibre optics which use light to move information at high speed between countries, cities and buildings,” said Mark Thompson, deputy director of Bristol’s Centre for Quantum Photonics. “Our devices are directly compatible – in a sense they talk the same language.”
A quantum computer can solve complex problems that ordinarily take too long even for supercomputers. Tasks include financial risk analysis, object recognition in images, database searches and the design of new materials, drugs and clean tech devices.
“Just as wind tunnels are not used for aircraft designs any more but [have been] replaced by computer simulations, in the future we may be able to replace most chemistry labs with quantum computers,” says Prof O’Brien.
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/tech-news/quantum-chip-breakthrough-to-unleash-ultra-fast-computing/article4516380/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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