[ExI] 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017

[Gregory Lewis]

I'd defer to Anders, but my understanding is it is paradoxically
challenging to keep things cold in space. Space is also a vacuum as well as
at ~ 3k, thus objects principally lose energy by thermal radiation, which
is much slower than convection etc. on earth.

(I note the ISS has a pretty involved cooling system, for example).


On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 7:46 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On
> Behalf
> Of BillK
> Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 11:34 AM
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017
>
> On 22 February 2017 at 15:39, spike wrote:
> >>... WOW good question BillK.  How are they powered?
> >
>
> >...Well, nobody has built a proper quantum computer yet, (not counting
> D-Wave), so we don't know yet.
> Current estimate is 4 to 5 years.
> See:
> <https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603495/10-breakthrough-
> technologies-2017
> -practical-quantum-computing/>
> for some of the latest news.
>
> >...The labs described there use tiny chips inside big refrigerators to get
> the chips down to near absolute zero. In space, the fridges would
> disappear.
> The processing depends on the manipulation of qubits, which currently
> (during research) can take various forms. e.g. polarization of photons or
> spin of electrons, etc.  So the power requirements should be less than
> current computers, maybe even negligible.
>
> >...We'll have to wait and see.  :)
>
> >...BillK
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> Ja.  I need to make sure I understand this from an entropy point of view.
> If computing is taking place, entropy is decreasing: we are finding answers
> and arranging bits in a particular way.  If we really understand the hell
> out of the second law of thermodynamics we should be able to get this one,
> but I don't know if quantum computing does some kind of weird Heisenberg
> voodoo to get around what I have always understood to be the way it works.
>
> I would bet on the second law to hold somehow, but I might be wrong.
>
> We need a Thermo wan Kenobi who really knows from quantum computing and the
> second law.  Anyone here have buddies who are quantum hipsters with
> thermodynamics guru-ism?
>
> spike
>
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