Slashdot Mirror

Alternatively, they may be trying to convince the world that they DO have a quantum computer.

Some quantum computing technology has apparently been tested in the lab (see: Spintronics), or do your own Google search on "quantum computing actual devices".

There is little doubt in my mind that the NSA either has or expects to soon have practical quantum computers and is now actively seeking help figuring out how to best make use of this new technology.

Once it is known a technology is feasible, it doesn't take long for others to duplicate it. Look at the atomic then thermonuclear arms races the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had during the cold war.

The NSA is huge compared to the CIA in both budget and staff (especially technical experts) -- something many people don't realize because the NSA was "no such agency" for several decades.

The NSA would be crazy not to use all of its resources to be making use of practical quantum computing systems for as long as possible before others develop the technology. For example, the NSA could implement quantum encryption/decryption schemes while using the latter to crack what is currently considered strong encryption used by whoever the NSA wants to spy on.

It stands to reason (hmmm...not that the U.S. government has ever tended to be reasonable) that the NSA wants to stay at least a step ahead of the "competition" whenever possible and its huge budget and massive amount of technical resources tend to allow for that to happen.

Carried to its logical extreme, the tree would grow until it exhausted every legal continuation, leaving the program nothing to do but examine the end positions to see which of them were wins--that is, checkmates--and which were draws, then work backward along the branching structure to choose the line that led to the best outcome, assuming that both sides play perfectly.

This is exactly the method that Spock would utilize while playing 3-D Chess, and he would always win. However, due to his reputation for winning by always going to this logical extreme, noone ever would want to play with him.
In the end, it was deemed a highly illogical method, since it killed his ability to play the game.

Helium-3 as a
fuel perhaps?

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_ice-age _031208.html

http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/000145.html

The here is the googled website: http://reprap.org/ I have always thought replicating machines would be cool (it's possible as can be seen from the "two-legged existence theorem"). Using a 3D printer sounds like the way to go about this today. However, I would think that whatever it is you are crafting with a machine has to necessarily be at a lower mechanical tolerance to the machine itself, so over several generations, the precision falls catastrophically. Some form of recovery or repair is needed (as in DNA). I have always thought we were a long way off from this sorta thing ... ... The practical solution outlined or implied here seems workable in contrast - use your machine to make various parts, and have a human assemble them together. It was mentioned in http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/000293.html that additional off the shelf spare parts might be needed. This certainly provides a practical trade-off for an almost self-replicating machine. Nice! Hmm "We'll be watching your future career with great interest." (Senator Palpatine)

Here's an interesting and much less fluffy interview with the guy quoted at the top of the piece.

QED