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Two Quantum Computing Bills Are Coming To Congress (gizmodo.com)

Quantum computing has made it to the United States Congress. "Quantum computing is the next technological frontier that will change the world, and we cannot afford to fall behind," said Senator Kamala Harris (D-California) in a statement passed to Gizmodo. "We must act now to address the challenges we face in the development of this technology -- our future depends on it." From the report: The bill introduced by Harris in the Senate focuses on defense, calling for the creation of a consortium of researchers selected by the Chief of Naval Research and the Director of the Army Research Laboratory. The consortium would award grants, assist with research, and facilitate partnerships between the members. Another, yet-to-be-introduced bill, seen in draft form by Gizmodo, calls for a 10-year National Quantum Initiative Program to set goals and priorities for quantum computing in the US; invest in the technology; and partner with academia and industry. An office within the Department of Energy would coordinate the program. Another group would include members from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy, the office of the Director of National Intelligence to coordinate research and education activity between agencies. Furthermore, the draft bill calls for the establishment of up to five Quantum Information Science research centers, as well as two multidisciplinary National Centers for Quantum Research and Education.

44 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fusion by ffkom · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Sure, nobody could so far put up any evidence that Quantum Computing will ever be able to be more efficient than conventional computing, but hey, let's allocate billions to the belief in the hype.

  2. Re:Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    AFAIK, your post is complete nonsense. It is perfectly well known for which tasks quantum computing will be more efficient than conventional computing and how many functioning Qbits you need (with given error rates). Note that the computational power does not increase linearly when doubling qbits. Apart from the tasks that we know can be solved, there is an ever expanding list of research results of more tasks that quantum computers are suitable for. You have to think of a quantum computer like a giant and fragile (unfortunately) co-processor that is insanely fast for certain tasks, not as a replacement for conventional computers.

  3. Re:Fuck, we have a new buzzword! by Joce640k · · Score: 1

    The can use it to compute their blockchains.

    The future will be awesome with this.

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  4. QC has failed to actually work for too long by gweihir · · Score: 2

    That basically means it is a dud. There have been countless others before. This one just ghosts around a bit longer, because it sounds a bit like "magic" and people without an actual grasp of Science like that.

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    1. Re: QC has failed to actually work for too long by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      The ghost of Marvin Minsky says: "Come join me."

    2. Re:QC has failed to actually work for too long by novakyu · · Score: 1

      You don't want it to be like cold fusion? How about controlled fusion? That would be a better comparison to quantum computing---theoretically possible, always plagued by experimental complications.

    3. Re:QC has failed to actually work for too long by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Either that, or it turns out that there are some slight inaccuracies or noise effects that cannot be removed and lead to the whole thing never scaling beyond a few ten qbits, i.e. useless as computing device compared to what exists. So far, when established Physics was tested at its extremes (and a QC of useful size would most definitely do that), Physics got improved with hence unknown effects.

      But we may not even get that here. When I first heard about QC (around 25 years ago), they could entangle almost as many bits as they can today. Well, not quite, but there definitely seems to be something sub-linear going on with respect to scaling. Just for reference, what made digital computers powerful is that they had exponential scaling for a few decades.

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  5. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Only way to destroy Bitcoin is to accellerate Quantum Computing.

    Bitcoin is doing just fine destroying itself thankyouverymuch

  6. Re: Fuck, we have a new buzzword! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Only quantum apps can be appy, not Luddite Moore transistor apps.

    Quantum!

  7. Deja Vu? by bbsguru · · Score: 1

    Gosh, if only someone had thought of this before. Creating a sort of Defense Agency to oversee Research Project Administration.
    Imagine the innovations that could be unleashed! We could call it DARPA. Oh, waitaminute.
    Hey Kamala! The 60's are calling, and they want their idea back

  8. Re:Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Quantum computers can break some modern crypto. For example, RSA is based on the unproven assumption that factoring is a "hard" problem. We already know that it's not a hard problem for quantum computers. RSA is toast with quantum computing and it's not the only one. It's not about efficiency. It's about completing the totalitarian panopticon, and it's scary shit.

  9. Yeah but... by mark_reh · · Score: 1

    If it doesn't put the coal miners back to work it isn't going to go anywhere. #MAGA!

    1. Re:Yeah but... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      If it doesn't put the coal miners back to work it isn't going to go anywhere.

      Maybe they'll invent Schrodinger's Canary.

  10. Re:USA in conflict by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    We need a computer to tell us when to use "you're" and when to use "your". Additional computers help us learn about the difference between "loser" and "looser".

  11. WOW, Slashdot... I'm surprised. by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 1

    So this is a story about TWO bills about Quantum Computing coming before the US Congress, and NO jokes so far relating to quantum theory, quantum mechanics, the bills being quantum entangled with each other, nothing suggesting we are able to know the way one bill will be voted on, even if deliberations are held in closed session, merely by observing the state of the other despite the distance between them... what HAPPENED to you, SLASHDOT?!? There should be like, fifty jokes about this so far! FIFTY! This has been here for... minutes and minutes! WTF? Come ON, guys! Up the GAME! This is like a politician's sex scandal and you write jokes for late night television show hosts! They practically write themselves! I'm no comedian, and I've already come up with like, THREE! Let's GO!

    --
    Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
    1. Re:WOW, Slashdot... I'm surprised. by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Quantum will allow China to talk to its embassies without the NSA and GCHQ getting the usual realtime plaintext.
      France will use Quantum codes to direct its embassy staff to sell French bridge building and car exports to poor nations.
      Poor nations will be flooded with exported French cars and be in debt for billions after accepting French engineering projects.
      Something the NSA, CIA and MI6 have always been able to prevent France from doing in the past.
      Quantum will allow the French government to bid for contracts globally on win on design and price.
      Ireland will talk to its supporters in the US without the GCHQ having the ability to listen in on new fund raising and political support.
      Quantum will keep the NSA out of effortless network spying. The CIA will rise in standing with the product from its human spies again.
      Canada will use quantum ads to get US consumers to crave maple syrup.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:WOW, Slashdot... I'm surprised. by FranklinWebber · · Score: 1

      Will the US be able to pay for these initiatives by printing quantum money?

      Other US senators politely referred to the text of Harris' bills as 'superdense coding'.

      Repeated measurements of Senator Harris in the Congressional eigenbasis always collapse to the |Democrat> state.

  12. Breaking Encryption by PPH · · Score: 1

    Who should be allowed to do it and who should not. As if the bad guys will give a rat's ass about your silly laws. On the other hand, it's possible that the NSA is already ahead of private industry in QC and these bills are just a move to drag commercial development down into a giant bureaucratic clusterfuck.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  13. Re: So much for ideology by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2

    No, the space program of the '60s was a way to spend a lot of money in a way the public would find acceptable, to develop the technology needed for precision warhead delivery.

  14. Re:Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fus by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    >It is perfectly well known for which tasks quantum computing will be more efficient than conventional computing

    But as the poster you rudely accused of posting nonsense wrote, it's never been demonstrated.

    There are legitimate reasons to think it will never happen: Noise, cost scaling of maintaining low entropy space, incompatibility between quantum error correction on qbits and doing logic on those qbits.

    I'm a sceptic. I don't expect to see the ECDLP for deployed key sizes solved by quantum computers, ever.

    --
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  15. Kamala Harris is a Democrat by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    spending money on Basic Research is perfectly consistent with the Democratic Party's platform.

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  16. It's called basic research by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    it's when you research something that's not immediately profitable but might be some day. Most of the time it doesn't pan out and when it does it takes decades. But you wouldn't be typing this on a computer if it didn't sometimes pan out because we wouldn't have microprocessors.

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  17. Dude, it's been 30 years by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    See here. For an entirely new field of study that touches on particle physics that's not bad. Not everything has to turn a profit right the f now. If we ran things like that it would take centuries to get anything major done, which is exactly what was going on for the first several thousand years of human history.

    If we can afford to spend $21 million on a single bomb to drop on Afghanistan to inaugurate President Trump we can spend some money on basic research.

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    1. Re:Dude, it's been 30 years by novakyu · · Score: 1

      Um, where do you think a lot of basic research money comes from? NSF funding is tiny compared to what DOD spends. That MOAB funded a lot of basic science researchers.

  18. Re:Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fus by iriecolorado · · Score: 1

    The recipients of the billions in funding will look like a 'who's who' list of congressional donors.

  19. Question by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

    I'm not so bothered about the fact they're bringing two bills to the floor as I am in this question: how will the politicians spin both bills? With the same quantum spin number, or something else?

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  20. Re: Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fu by getuid() · · Score: 1

    Hey, better idea: let's allocate billions to mass surveillance, economic wars and derailing 3rd world states instead!

  21. Re:Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fus by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

    This really isn't accurate. Cold Fusion didn't correspond to how we understood how basic physics worked, and had substantial problems with claims being made that could not be replicated. Quantum computing in contrast has an extremely well-developed theory behind it; the primary issues of getting it to work are engineering, not physics. In that regard, quantum computing is very close to trying to develop practical conventional fusion technology: we're pretty sure in principle it can be done, but the engineering involved is difficult enough that it isn't clear we're going to be able to do it any time soon.

  22. Senator Harris will call her second bill... by FranklinWebber · · Score: 1

    ' Increasing Entanglement Between Military and Industrial Complexes'

  23. Future bills like this these... by FranklinWebber · · Score: 1

    ... will be referred to the new Schrodinger Committee where they can remain both live and dead while unobserved.

    1. Re:Future bills like this these... by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      The NSA can use the quantum to pay for new codes that are both in plain text for the USA to read in real time and 100% unbreakable to a China. At the same time.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:Future bills like this these... by Nivag064 · · Score: 1

      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"

      Ah! Now I know what Big Data means...

  24. Re:add cold fusion by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    Just look at history, it's how the automobile, the integrated circuit, the telephone, the light bulb, the laser printer, and digital cameras were created! Progressive science policy FTW!Or, you could look at how the Internet, manned space flight, the interstate highway system and nuclear energy were created, you stupid sonofabitch.

    --
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  25. Re:So much for ideology by HiThere · · Score: 1

    No, the market was not free during the 1960's. Not for legal goods, anyway.

    I cannot think of a time or place where it can be shown that an actual free market existed in concert with some government. There was a free market in parts of the 1860-70's US, but that was because governmental control was absent. Prior to that the indigenous population exerted control over the economies, after that the US government exerted control. There was a period in between, however, when there was essentially no government economic control in large parts of that area. The death toll was high. Fraud was rampant. It was hardly anything ideal.

    That said, heavy control over economies can be just as bad. All benefit is in the intermediate situations. The current problem is uneven control favoring those who are rich and powerful. The average degree of control seems pretty reasonable, but average is not what is experienced in any one transaction.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  26. Re:Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fus by HiThere · · Score: 1

    This depends on your precise definition of Quantum Computer. D-Wave sells something that they reasonably call a Quantum Computer, but it's not a general quantum computer. And all their customers have been cagey about how effective it is.

    That said, simulated annealing through quantum mechanics is reasonably called quantum computing. (I think I remember that that's what D-Wave claims to do.)

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  27. Re:Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fus by HiThere · · Score: 1

    Actually, it's not that clear. Certain quantum processes have been applied successfully on reasonably large scale to Quantum Computing, but they aren't (or don't seem) sufficient to build a general quantum computer, but only a specialized variety that can handle some problems well, but can't touch others.

    Other techniques have been shown to work in the lab, but getting the error rates under control has been quite a challenge, and nobody has proven that they can do this in a stable fashion.

    Even then, for many problems it has not been shown that quantum computers provide any advantage. Perhaps they do, but this will require that new algorithms be developed, and until the computers are actually available, little effort is going to be expended in this direction. And maybe they don't exist. It's also possible that one *can't* get the error rates under control.

    So it's possible that quantum computers have only a niche use, and can't really do things like Shor's algorithm in any practical case.

    Nobody knows...but it general quantum computers are reasonably realizable, then they'll make current encryption essentially worthless...so there will be an important niche use for them even if no new algorithms get developed...and there's no reason to think they won't be.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  28. Objoke1 by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress but I repeat myself.
    Mark Twain

  29. Re:So much for ideology by Cyberax · · Score: 1

    The free bank era of antebellum comes close. The government was there, but it had been very weak and ineffective.

  30. Re:Quantum Computing - world changer like Cold Fus by mysidia · · Score: 1

    It is perfectly well known for which tasks quantum computing will be more efficient than conventional computing

    False. They're not actually known to be more efficient. Today we can already build a quantum computer in the form of software simulators that stand on top of normal hardware. If quantum computation was truly inherently more efficient ---- then we could just a quantum algorithm rnning on top of the software simulator as our more-efficient implementation.

    Quantum computers might turn out not be more efficient at all. Only one limited facets of efficiency is well-known/established; the space and number of basic computation steps, and the reduction in steps.

    However; the steps being compared between types of computers are not an apples-to-apples comparison, more like apples and oranges, therefore what is known cannot show that a quantum computer will be as faster or more efficient than has been suggested.

  31. Um.... it advances human civiliztion by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    you know that's a good thing, right? Just so we're on the same page it's a good thing.

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  32. Re:So much for ideology by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    Google, Microsoft, and Lockheed are all going to have useful quantum computers by next year. This is just the government pretending that they were involved.

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  33. They have a dilemma to solve first by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 1

    If you're going to be competitive on the World Stage with Quantum Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and the like, you're first going to have to solve your education problem.

    The country that will win this race has already figured out that they need a highly educated population to get there.

    Period.

    You don't get there by putting entire generations into debt so deep that they drown in it before their lives even get started.
    You don't get there with the piss-poor system we have in place today where only the rich have a realistic chance of getting such an education en masse.
    You don't get there when kids don't want to do well in school because they get ostracized for it. It isn't " cool " to be smart these days.

    While difficult to do, the US needs to scrap the current model of our education system and go with one that will produce what we're looking for.
    Look at what is working in other countries and use their model if need be. Maybe reign in that defense budget a bit. Take the billions you were going to
    spend on yet another stealth bomber or aircraft carrier and put it towards something a bit more useful.
    ( I mean, damn, how many bombers and carriers do we really need ? )

    Simply wishing for a thing doesn't get you there. You have to put in a serious effort first.
    ( Keyword: Serious. Not the shit-show we have today )

    Rewards come later.

  34. In related news... by TomGreenhaw · · Score: 1

    Congress to take up bill regulating perpetual motion.

    --
    Greed is the root of all evil.
  35. Re:add cold fusion by ooloorie · · Score: 1

    Good grief, man, are you schizophrenic? As a free market guy, I at least recognize each of those items for the colossal waste of government spending that they are and for the massive negative consequences that they had. But you often argue against the consequences of those programs, yet simultaneously you still like the spending? Progressives and leftists: "all government spending is good, but crony capitalism and subsidies of things we morally disapprove of are bad!"