
A $1.2B law to boost US quantum tech - jonbaer
https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/612679/president-trump-has-signed-a-12-billon-law-to-boost-us-quantum-tech/
======
jMyles
Link to the actual legislation: [https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-
congress/house-bill/6227](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-
bill/6227)

So, whoa - I hadn't even heard of this. Had y'all?

$1.2B on an exotic tech field - with implications that bigly threaten online
privacy and security - seems like an incredible thing to get through both
houses and signed into law without it being a story in these parts.

Amash unsurprisingly voted no (joining only 10 others in the house, while 348
voted aye). A quick perusal of his twitter doesn't show me any of his thoughts
on it. I'd like to hear them.

~~~
jchw
>with implications that bigly threaten online privacy and security

Well, it never hurts to start researching post-quantum crypto even if large
quantum computers were to prove impractical. I recall Google ran an experiment
with a post-quantum key exchange algorithm [1], though I have no clue what
came of said experiment.

[1] [https://security.googleblog.com/2016/07/experimenting-
with-p...](https://security.googleblog.com/2016/07/experimenting-with-post-
quantum.html?m=1)

~~~
mapmeld
This is ongoing, and Microsoft and Google continued browser experiments with
another algorithm (paper titled "Frodo: Take off the ring! Practical, Quantum-
Secure Key Exchange from LWE")
[https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/659](https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/659) \- you
can also see a recent video from DEF CON
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCdaYAFx7hw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCdaYAFx7hw)

In both cases, they are using a type of lattice-based cryptography known as
LWE (learning with errors).

------
krastanov
I am amazed by the negativity and conspiracy theories here.

No, thanks to post-quantum encryption there is little to worry about privacy
threats from quantum computing. At most, 15 years from now today's recorded
messages will become decodable.

On the other hand, the advances in chemistry/material design/drug
discovery/metrology thanks to quantum computing will be an amazing quantum
leap [pun intended] from what we have today.

~~~
TrueTom
Metrology is actually the only field that might produce any results;
everything else is just marketing.

~~~
krastanov
Quantum computers will (obviously) be great at efficiently simulating quantum
mechanics (which is practically impossible today). Which will lead to amazing
new chemistry, which leads to drugs/cures/new materials.

------
heyjudy
Glad someone slipped that in... the Chinese government is partnering and
investing in all sorts of public works, tech fields, moon shots and countries
(infrastructure in Africa), while the US is losing ground on big ideas,
solving big problems and welcoming international talent. If there were a
positive use of nationalism that didn't precede war: _More of this, please._

~~~
coretx
The Chinese are already conduction all sorts of quantum experiments in space,
and from Earth to space and vice versa. On some occasion even in collaboration
with nation actors such as Russia. The US is lagging behind so far, the
discussed dollars won't undo this.

~~~
ksml
Do you have any sources for these statements?

~~~
tiff_seattle
[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610106/chinese-
satellite-...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610106/chinese-satellite-
uses-quantum-cryptography-for-secure-video-conference-between-continents/)

~~~
SubiculumCode
That article does not indicate that U.S. is way behind.

------
simontheowl
Here's a great report from the National Academy on progress in quantum
computing [https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25196/quantum-computing-
progress...](https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25196/quantum-computing-progress-and-
prospects)

------
l8again
Looks like an arms race to me. Whoever can get to it faster gets to decrypt
the existing algorithms. Can someone more knowledgable validate this?

~~~
dlubarov
It sounds like the money is going through the NIST and NSF, so presumably any
resulting research will become public. If the government wanted to keep the
research secret, I would expect the money to go to the CIA or somewhere else.

~~~
whatshisface
Typically it would be the NSA that worked on secret cryptographic technology,
although this might distract them from their charter of bugging civilians...
(Having a quantum computer may not help with that because they would probably
want to keep it secret and not build enough to decrypt everybody's SSL)

------
75dvtwin
Glad that President Trump signed it. Will foster new substantial research and
development in material science as well as the mathematics for the QC field.

I personally think health-benefits from Quantum computer modeling of chemical
reactions, and protein folding will bring us much closer to 'per-person'
pharmaco-genetics than current methods.

Also having a specific government structure established and dedicated to this
field is important.

"...

The law also establishes a National Quantum Coordination Office,

calls for the development of a five-year strategic plan and establishes

an advisory committee to advise the White House on issues relating to quantum
computing.

..."

[http://androidtechnews.com/trump-signs-legislation-to-
boost-...](http://androidtechnews.com/trump-signs-legislation-to-boost-
quantum-computing-research-with-1-2-billion/)

------
tphan
Where is the funding going to come from?! As a non-American, I get worried by
all this funding when America is in serious debt. :(

~~~
emptybits
I don't disagree with the important question of "Where does the money come
from?" (Perhaps, it's also, "What _didn 't_ we fund because of this?") But
FWIW, America is not unique in its serious debt situation and as a percentage
of GDP, it's not unusual. Many EU nations are in the trillions of debt
ballpark. Also China, Canada, Australia, etc. In fact, some of those nations
exceed America in national debt per capita. [1]

I write this as a Canadian. We're also a nation of serious debt and I
sometimes wonder where money for my government's big projects comes from...

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt)

~~~
galaxyLogic
From the link it seems that all major economic powers have a large "external
debt". Then who are the creditors? If every country paid their debt, where
would the money end up?

And I see from the article that "... while a country may have a relatively
large external debt (either in absolute or per capita terms) it could actually
be a "net international creditor" .

Wouldn't it be better to focus on this "balance of debts vs. assets?"

~~~
konspence
>Then who are the creditors? If every country paid their debt, where would the
money end up?

At least in the US, most of the funds would end up in private citizens or
corporations in the form of treasury bond repayments.

------
Taniwha
Or did he .... We won't know until someone opens the box ...

~~~
lihaciudaniel
But still predetermined at the moment of big bang.

~~~
Taniwha
well maybe in this universe, but not one next door where the box contents were
different, or in the much more sensible universe where they put him in the box
and didn't open it at all

------
mtgx
This likely has much more to do with the U.S. government wanting to break
encryption than say...find cancer treatments. Quantum computer efforts were
probably already funded in a much smaller way through the NSA's black budget,
but they must of thought they might as well make it public and give it a much
bigger budget.

------
coretx
Too little too late. The dialectics of lead are not likely to be surpassed by
#2, since being #1 applying this is highly likely to be inherent.

~~~
aerovistae
di·a·lec·tic /ˌdīəˈlektik/Submit PHILOSOPHY noun noun: dialectics 1\. the art
of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions.

\--------

I _really_ don't understand your use of that word here.

~~~
rofo1
OT: 'dialectic' and 'dialectics' are two of the most misused words that I see
on regular basis. It is as if people _want_ to use that word in particular, no
matter the subject. Really interesting phenomenon.

~~~
daeken
Sometimes people just like to dialectic a word into a sentence, even if they
don't know what it means.

~~~
justwalt
Congressman, did you or did you not just use the word 'pronk' as a number?

