
Fractons, for Real? - IntronExon
https://quantumfrontiers.com/2018/02/16/fractons-for-real/
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hpcjoe
I like that they talk about their favorite tools and toy models. In grad
school, I had a number of toy models and I got to use some of my favorite
tools in my research/thesis write up.

For me, one of my favorite tools was a form of perturbation theory which I
could apply to all sorts of things. Didn't always work, and I think I annoyed
my thesis advisor with it.

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kazinator
> _Back in the early 2000s, a question that kept attracting and frustrating
> people in quantum information is how to build a quantum hard drive to store
> quantum information._

In the early 2000s, there still existed "Quantum" branded hard drives, in very
popular use.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Corporation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Corporation)

At first I thought the image was a joke.

Nope; you're just old now if you remember "Quantum Fireball".

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Taniwha
I still want to know who turned a "quantum change" from the very smallest
change one can possibly make to something revolutionarily large (I bet it was
some marketting guy)

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krastanov
This is an amusing meme/complaint, but it is not really correct. In physics
"quantum" does frequently imply very small, but its fundamental meaning is a
"discrete" change with no intermediate state. Hence, it is perfectly correct
to use "quantum leap" to describe a significant development.

P.S. There are now plenty of real-world quantum systems that are centimeter
sized. Check "cavity QED".

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leggomylibro
So is it sort of like how we use 'atomic' to mean a single discrete operation
in programming?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linearizability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linearizability)

~~~
TuringTest
Yes. The name "atom" literally meant "indivisible" in its original greek form.
It's fitting for computations that go on undisturbed until completion.

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zaroth
About halfway through TFA;

“Things start to get technical from here, but...”

Gee, thanks for the warning! </s>

