
Air Force Study Shows Potential, Limits of Quantum Tech - jonbaer
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/air-force/2015/08/09/air-force-study-shows-potential-limits-quantum-technology-pentagon/31233467/
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Trombone12
Quality science coverage! It came as a shock to me that the USAF didn't use
transistors or leds!

Wait, was that the wrong sort of quantum? Well, then I also am surprised that
they are only just now thinking of exploring superconductors, although I guess
that too is the wrong sort of quantum. And lasers, and laser optics, I guess
those are also not quite quantum enough to be covered in a study about quantum
tech...

Good thing they at least discovered that quantum computing is still not
something you do with more bits than you have fingers, and that quantum
encryption turned out to be like regular encryption: hard to get right.

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mturmon
The name of the expert quoted in the briefing, Werner Dahm
([https://www.aiaa.org/Secondary.aspx?id=15445](https://www.aiaa.org/Secondary.aspx?id=15445)),
rung a bell.

He seems to be the son of an earlier Werner Dahm, the one who helped develop
the Saturn V rocket, and who was before that the youngest of Wernher von
Braun's team at Peenemunde.

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jonbaer
I think there are a few more areas that need to be figured out before the "big
bang" of quantum, things like HTS for example but it's obvious huge inroads
have already been made (ie, [http://www.wired.com/2012/02/ibm-quantum-
milestone/](http://www.wired.com/2012/02/ibm-quantum-milestone/)) but the part
that bugs me about this article is the fact that it is a "highly redacted
report that won't be available until January" ... who does that help? Would
you even want anyone outside the US to know any of this ... if something under
those redacted lines is amazing (in the computational sense), I am sure it is
in the best interest to hide it for a while.

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1971genocide
Almost all the people I know who are doing pure physics are studying quantum
computing.

I am not sure if its hype or the professors actually think its going to really
viable soon - In any case I am not sure why there is a shortage of funding !

I do not see why we cannot fund both the software side and hardware side.
Research in quantum computing is cheap, unlike building new rockets, or
building particle accelerators like the European.

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moron4hire
WTF does "quantum capabilities" mean?

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Trombone12
It means someone imagined they could put "quantum" in front of a
"capabilities", creating a vague sense of "futureness", and get away with it.

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mikeash
No, it means you can have 1 capability, or 2 capabilities, but you can't ever
have 1.5 capabilities.

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nolite
omg.. it took a govt study to come to the conclusion that quantum technologies
aren't ready for prime time..?

