Quantum Computing

Time – Quantum Computers Could Solve Lots of Problems and Create Lots of New Ones

Fasten your seatbelts.

"Inside the shimmering aluminum canister of IBM's System One, which sits shielded by the same kind of protective glass as the Mona Lisa, are three cylinders of diminishing circumference, rather like a set of Russian dolls. Together, these encase a chandelier of looping silver wires that cascade through chunky gold plates to a quantum chip in the base. To work properly, this chip requires super-cooling to 0.015 kelvins – a smidgen above absolute zero and colder than outer space.

Whereas traditional computers rely on binary "bits" – switches either on or off, denoted as 1s and 0s – to process information, the "qubits" that underpin quantum computing are tiny subatomic particles that can exist in some percentage of both states simultaneously, rather like a coin spinning in midair. This leap from dual to multivariate processing exponentially boosts computing power. Complex problems that currently take the most powerful supercomputer several years could potentially be solved in seconds."

"Quantum is also more in tune with nature. Molecules – the building blocks of the universe – are multiple atoms bound together by electrons that exist as part of each. The way these electrons essentially occupy two states at once is what quantum particles replicate, presenting applications for natural and material sciences by predicting how drugs interact with the human body, or substances perform under corrosion. Traditional manufacturing takes calculated guesses to make breakthroughs through trial and error; by mirroring the natural world, quantum computing should allow advances to be purposefully designed."

M1 Abrams and Leopard 2 Tanks

The stakes, escalation, and horror continue. So does the dithering of an open-ended and expensive NATO-backed proxy war.

According to Time magazine's W.J. Hennigan:

"The Ukrainian military's request for hundreds of American-made M1 Abrams and German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks has emerged as the central issue for defense chiefs meeting in Germany this week, with Western allies split on whether and how to provide heavy weaponry that Ukrainian officials say is essential to gaining the upper hand in their war against Russia.

 Germany and the U.S. each believe the other should be the one to provide Kyiv with the modern tanks it seeks. Berlin has privately insisted that Washington provide the tanks first, according to U.S. officials. But the Biden Adminstration says it has no plans to send American tanks for now, because they pose too big of a challenge for Kyiv to maintain and run."

Spare

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "The Half-Madness of Prince Harry," Peggy Noonan says the following about the Duke of Sussex:

"He is careful throughout to say he is telling his story in order to help others, those who've struggled with mental illness or been traumatized by war. It is hard to know another person's motives; it can be hard to know your own. But I don't think this book is about others. I think it's about his own very human desire for revenge, to hurt those who've hurt him. And to become secure in a certain amount of wealth. And to show his family and Fleet Street that their favorite ginger-haired flake could make his own way, set up his own palace, break free, fly his own standard, become the Duke of Netflix. This book is classic Fredo. 'I can handle things. I'm smart. Not like everybody says, like dumb, I'm smart and I want respect!'

It's all so contradictory. He says he wants reconciliation but writes things that alienate, he says he reveres the monarchy and isn't trying to bring it down but has gone beyond removing bricks from the facade and seems to be going at the bearing walls.

I close with a thought on privacy. Prince Harry violates his own. He tells us too much about himself and others.

Once there was a reigning personal style of public reticence about private pain. You didn't share it with everybody, and you didn't use it for advantage or as a weapon. I have known pain, you must bow before me. The forces of modernity have washed away the old boundary between public and private. It isn't good. It's making us less human even as we claim to be more sensitive.

But fully mature people still have a sense of their own privacy, they keep to themselves what is properly kept to oneself. Privacy isn't some relic of the pre-tech past, as I said once, it is connected to personhood. It has to do with intimate things – the inner workings of your head and heart, of your soul. You just don't give those things away. Your deepest thoughts and experiences are yours, held by you; they are part of your history. They are part of your dignity. You share them as a mark of trust. This is true intimacy, not phony intimacy but the real thing.

If you tell all the strangers your secrets what do you tell your intimates?

A friend said the other day: 'Most of the forces of the world are pushing toward exhibitionism and calling it honesty. The assumption is if you keep things to yourself you have something to hide.' But you aren't reserved out of shame, you are reserved out of a sense of your own value and self-respect. And it doesn't leave you alone; it means you are part of something larger, a whole world of distinct souls.

You shouldn't violate your own privacy, not for attention or admiration, and not for money. It's a mistake. And it won't heal you."

Prince Harry reportedly paid author and ghostwriter Jay Moehringer $1 million to write Spare. Will Moehringer come to regret writing it as Tony Schwartz did for writing The Art of the Deal for Donald Trump?

Atmospheric Rivers

Hockey Island: Martha's Vineyard

Go Vineyarders!

2023

And there's more!

The New York Times ~ The Webb Telescope is Just Getting Started

2022 Northern Lights Photographer of the Year