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US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

arstechnica.com

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Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#51

Post by sublinear »

prerok wrote: post #35
upofadown wrote: post #24

>That technology overlaps only partially, at best, with what’s used in quantum processors. Dunno, how can you say that for sure when we don't actually know how to make a practical quantum processor? The bigger issue is that we are scaling up manufacturing of approaches that have not been made to work. I remember a meeting where the project manager pointed out that we were due to send some test boards to a customer. I…

Hahaha, hilarious. I could also tell a story or two like that. I have to say, though, I have no idea what the management is thinking when they hire such clueless PMs. Even worse, I have seen clueless product owners who had no idea about the domain we were in. I guess a recent example could be Ive designing the Luce. Maybe I am just envious. Maybe I just wish I could BS my way through life like these characters do.

There's nothing to envy. They're a hired punching bag to put distance between you and the management.

In most cases, even the PM doesn't know this. They were specifically selected to not think too deeply. Anything you say that is brutally correct and they take the wrong way is received as mean and arrogant. Those incidents give management some ammunition if they ever want to get rid of you.

Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#52

Post by ecshafer »

mounceyboy wrote: post #34

my favorite conspiracy theory - the govt has already cracked all the RSA codes but they keep funding QM to show that we're still secure.

I read once that if we really wanted to be secure, we would have a crypto library that was open source, AND all changes needed to be signed off by more than one of NSA, Mossad, FSB, China's agency, etc. This way if there is a bug they find, any agency has to assume other agencies have also found the bug.

Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#53

Post by kennywinker »

petcat wrote: post #9
kennywinker wrote: post #8

I don’t know enough about the state of quantum computing but this sounds like IBM dumping dead end research onto taxpayers

Then why are they also investing $1 billion in the same company as the taxpayers?

I suppose it’d be in the details. Like, are they locked into that investment, or is it something with checkpoints and milestones that let them bail out after a year and a few mil? What’s the ownership structure of any new ip? Etc.

It’s easy to drop a story like this, get a win for investing in the future, and then quietly disassemble it as soon as the cameras turn away.

Or, it would be easy, if this administration didn’t consider laws beneath them.

Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#54

Post by mostlysimilar »

stymaar wrote: post #49

For the past year and a half, the US administration have plunged the country in a rule of law twilight zone: the rule of law still exists, and there are still independent jurisdictions to enforce it, but the administration decided they didn't care, and they just overcome any court dismissal of their orders with a new illegal order that courts will have to push back a few month later. Which means that, in practice, th…

The future of the US depends on these people being held accountable by the next administration, and structural reforms to make their abuses harder to do again in the future.

Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#55

Post by mrits »

mostlysimilar wrote: post #54
stymaar wrote: post #49

For the past year and a half, the US administration have plunged the country in a rule of law twilight zone: the rule of law still exists, and there are still independent jurisdictions to enforce it, but the administration decided they didn't care, and they just overcome any court dismissal of their orders with a new illegal order that courts will have to push back a few month later. Which means that, in practice, th…

The future of the US depends on these people being held accountable by the next administration, and structural reforms to make their abuses harder to do again in the future.

Being held accountable in the next administration is pretty much the opposite of what a democratic society needs. It's a never ending cycle. Let the court system handle this.

Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#56

Post by ryanmcbride »

stymaar wrote: post #49

For the past year and a half, the US administration have plunged the country in a rule of law twilight zone: the rule of law still exists, and there are still independent jurisdictions to enforce it, but the administration decided they didn't care, and they just overcome any court dismissal of their orders with a new illegal order that courts will have to push back a few month later. Which means that, in practice, th…

Yup. There is no authority that is going to swoop in and hold them accountable, there is no legal recourse to be had from any court currently in existence. No one is going to save us but ourselves.

Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#57

Post by adgjlsfhk1 »

mrits wrote: post #55
mostlysimilar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The future of the US depends on these people being held accountable by the next administration, and structural reforms to make their abuses harder to do again in the future.

Being held accountable in the next administration is pretty much the opposite of what a democratic society needs. It's a never ending cycle. Let the court system handle this.

Courts can only handle cases that are brought.

Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#58

Post by complianceowll »

stymaar wrote: post #49

For the past year and a half, the US administration have plunged the country in a rule of law twilight zone: the rule of law still exists, and there are still independent jurisdictions to enforce it, but the administration decided they didn't care, and they just overcome any court dismissal of their orders with a new illegal order that courts will have to push back a few month later. Which means that, in practice, th…

[flagged]

Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#59

Post by downrightmike »

kennywinker wrote: post #8

I don’t know enough about the state of quantum computing but this sounds like IBM dumping dead end research onto taxpayers

Its all made up computation to fit the problem exactly. No real progress has been made in decades.

"Similarly, quantum factorisation is performed using sleight-of-hand numbers that have been selected to make them very easy to factorise using a physics experiment and, by extension, a VIC-20, an abacus, and a dog." https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/07/cheating-on-q...

Re: US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal

#60

Post by [deleted] »

complianceowll wrote: post #58
stymaar wrote: post #49

For the past year and a half, the US administration have plunged the country in a rule of law twilight zone: the rule of law still exists, and there are still independent jurisdictions to enforce it, but the administration decided they didn't care, and they just overcome any court dismissal of their orders with a new illegal order that courts will have to push back a few month later. Which means that, in practice, th…

[flagged]

[deleted]
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