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Amazon adquiere Rivr, fabricante de un autómata de reparto sube escaleras #adquiere #Amazon #En_resumen #escaleras #fabricante #reparto #rivr #robot #robots_de_reparto #Sube #ButterWord #Spanish_News Comenta tu opinión 👇
https://butterword.com/amazon-adquiere-rivr-fabricante-de-un-automata-de-reparto-sube-escaleras/?feed_id=74417&_unique_id=69bd29bf31385 -
🚨 #Groundbreaking 2005 news alert! 🤡 Turns out, nailing #jelly to a #wall isn't just an idiom—it's a revolutionary #DIY experiment! 🥴 Grab your hammer, your nails, and your last shred of sanity, because this intense investigation promises to redefine the very fabric of our understanding of fruit-based wall #art. 🧠💥
https://greem.co.uk/otherbits/jelly.html #Experiment #Fruit #Revolution #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 #Groundbreaking 2005 news alert! 🤡 Turns out, nailing #jelly to a #wall isn't just an idiom—it's a revolutionary #DIY experiment! 🥴 Grab your hammer, your nails, and your last shred of sanity, because this intense investigation promises to redefine the very fabric of our understanding of fruit-based wall #art. 🧠💥
https://greem.co.uk/otherbits/jelly.html #Experiment #Fruit #Revolution #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 #Groundbreaking 2005 news alert! 🤡 Turns out, nailing #jelly to a #wall isn't just an idiom—it's a revolutionary #DIY experiment! 🥴 Grab your hammer, your nails, and your last shred of sanity, because this intense investigation promises to redefine the very fabric of our understanding of fruit-based wall #art. 🧠💥
https://greem.co.uk/otherbits/jelly.html #Experiment #Fruit #Revolution #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 #Groundbreaking 2005 news alert! 🤡 Turns out, nailing #jelly to a #wall isn't just an idiom—it's a revolutionary #DIY experiment! 🥴 Grab your hammer, your nails, and your last shred of sanity, because this intense investigation promises to redefine the very fabric of our understanding of fruit-based wall #art. 🧠💥
https://greem.co.uk/otherbits/jelly.html #Experiment #Fruit #Revolution #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 #Groundbreaking 2005 news alert! 🤡 Turns out, nailing #jelly to a #wall isn't just an idiom—it's a revolutionary #DIY experiment! 🥴 Grab your hammer, your nails, and your last shred of sanity, because this intense investigation promises to redefine the very fabric of our understanding of fruit-based wall #art. 🧠💥
https://greem.co.uk/otherbits/jelly.html #Experiment #Fruit #Revolution #HackerNews #ngated -
Suite 1858 https://mastodon.social/@cobrate/115062171986965586
(2/3) ... La Messine 22 ans ulcérée par le recueil misogyne de Proudhon -> fait publier après 2 refus #livre féministe L' #Amour La #femme et le #Mariage + société Elosegui fabrication manuelle béret basque en 19 étapes.
-> loue publiquement sans l'usage habituel pour les #femmes d'un pseudo masculin la liberté et l'audace d'Aurore Dupin dite #GeorgeSand et de Marie d'Agoult dite #DanielStern
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Sony Teams-Up With TSMC to Develop Its Next-Gen Image Sensors https://petapixel.com/2026/05/08/sony-teams-up-with-tsmc-to-develop-its-next-gen-image-sensors/ #strategicpartnership #sonysemiconductor #fabrication #imagesensor #partnership #sensorfab #Industry #business #industry #japan #News #Sony #tsmc
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Coucou mastodon ! P'tit instant promo.
Pour les personnes qui sont dans l'Ouest parisien, ma mère exposera ses créations en papier à la boutique éphémère de Rueil-Malmaison (92) avec 3 chouettes autres créatrices. Elle y proposera également un atelier de fabrication de veilleuse en kirigami (technique japonaise de découpage du papier).
Du mardi 17 mars au dimanche 29 mars à la boutique éphémère des artisans, 10-12 rue de la Libération à Rueil-Malmaison
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Stop Funding Freebies. Start Funding Founders.
There is a way for India to take on three of its biggest issues together. Youth unemployment, growing wealth inequality, and the rising mental health struggles among young people. And if we get this right, it also sets up our manufacturing story for the next twenty years.
Here is the thinking.
65% of India is under 35. Over 600 million of us are between 18 and 35 years old. No major economy in the world has a younger workforce than ours. This advantage stays with us till around 2055, and then the country starts aging. So the next ten to fifteen years is really the window we have.
But look at what is happening in this window.
Youth unemployment was at 17.8% in September 2025. For graduates under 25, the number has even touched 42% in some recent surveys. Alongside that, the Indian Psychiatric Society says nearly 60% of mental health cases in India today are from people 35 and below. A 2024 study in Scientific Reports found that 66% of unemployed Indian graduates show signs of depression, almost double the rate of those who are employed. So the joblessness and the mental health crisis are not separate issues. They are feeding each other.
The shift I want to suggest is fairly simple.
A good portion of what is currently being spent on blanket freebies could instead be sent directly to young entrepreneurs, makers, tinkerers, and small innovators. The money should land straight in their personal bank accounts, not pass through layers of departments. Aadhaar based direct transfer already works at this scale in India. The system is ready.
The important thing here is freedom of execution.
Once someone qualifies on simple criteria, they should be free to use the money the way they think is right. Some will try small scale manufacturing. Some will build hardware products. Some will start food brands, agri-tools, electronics units, repair shops, or local engineering services. Many will fail. Some will change direction. A few will go on to build something meaningful. The role of policy here is just to enable the attempt, not to control the outcome.
This is especially important if we are serious about manufacturing.
The countries that became strong manufacturing nations did not get there only by inviting foreign factories. They got there because their own people spent years running small workshops, tool rooms, fabrication units, and component businesses. That is how Germany built its base. That is broadly how China, Taiwan, and South Korea grew their supplier ecosystems. Manufacturing depth is built from the bottom up.
And here is the part that often gets missed.
Even when a young person tries something and fails, they walk away with real skills. They have worked with raw material, suppliers, costing, quality issues, and customers. This is exactly the kind of workforce a global manufacturer looks for when they decide where to set up. So even in the cases where ventures fail, the country still builds a deep, hands on, factory ready talent pool. That same group becomes the backbone of Make in India when foreign companies move operations here. The worst case is still a national win.
The base is already in place.
India has 128 unicorns. Over 1.7 lakh startups are registered with the government. Skill India trains close to 10 million people every year. What is missing is a clean mechanism that puts capital directly in the hands of young people who want to build.
On misuse, yes, some of it will happen. But that is not a reason to stop. It is a reason to design the system properly. Milestone based releases, digital dashboards, independent audits, public reporting. We already run UPI at a scale no other country has matched. Building a transparent monitoring layer for a fund like this is well within what we can do today.
On freebies, the RBI has been flagging for a while that rising subsidies are putting pressure on state finances. Punjab is already carrying debt around 50% of its GDP. Every rupee given as a short term handout is a rupee that did not go into someone’s long term ability to earn for life.
And the timing for this shift is honestly very good.
Global manufacturing is moving out of China. The world is openly looking for its next big hub. We have the people, we have the digital rails, and our startups have already shown they can build for the world. What is needed now is a clear decision to place trust and capital directly in the hands of our own youth.
So the suggestion really comes down to this.
Spend less on blanket freebies. Send that money directly to young entrepreneurs, makers, and innovators. Let them use it the way they see fit. Build accountability through digital systems, not through bureaucratic checkpoints. And treat every attempt, whether it succeeds or fails, as a contribution to India’s manufacturing future.
Make in India will work in its full sense only when Indians are funded, trusted, and equipped to build.Subscribe to get notified or follow the blog, and if you like what I write, please share it with your network 🙂
#AtmanirbharBharat #DeepTech #Economy #Entrepreneurship #Freebies #Funding #India #Inequality #Investment #MakeInIndia #Manufacturing #MentalHealth #Unemployment #Wealth -
Europe forteresse : décès record en Méditerranée, répression des défenseurs des droits humains, Leggeri accusé de crimes contre l’humanité
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I recently acquired a lot of fabric entirely by surprise and in amongst it were some patchwork squares cut out with no notion of what their final form should be.
I did the only rational thing and made some bags to sell and my goodness these are so stinking cute I kind of want to keep them!
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CW: NSFW, Purity Culture
In case you're wondering why I wear tank tops so often, I was brought up in a religion where women aren't allowed to show their shoulders or clavicle or allow fabric they are wearing to show tension between the breasts so now I think tank tops are super sexy and feel amazing on my bare skin!!!!
#AltText #nsfw #outdoors #flashing #nudity #pigtails #TankTop #CCCAdVANture2026 -
CW: NSFW, Purity Culture
In case you're wondering why I wear tank tops so often, I was brought up in a religion where women aren't allowed to show their shoulders or clavicle or allow fabric they are wearing to show tension between the breasts so now I think tank tops are super sexy and feel amazing on my bare skin!!!!
#AltText #nsfw #outdoors #flashing #nudity #pigtails #TankTop #CCCAdVANture2026 -
CW: NSFW, Purity Culture
In case you're wondering why I wear tank tops so often, I was brought up in a religion where women aren't allowed to show their shoulders or clavicle or allow fabric they are wearing to show tension between the breasts so now I think tank tops are super sexy and feel amazing on my bare skin!!!!
#AltText #nsfw #outdoors #flashing #nudity #pigtails #TankTop #CCCAdVANture2026 -
CW: NSFW, Purity Culture
In case you're wondering why I wear tank tops so often, I was brought up in a religion where women aren't allowed to show their shoulders or clavicle or allow fabric they are wearing to show tension between the breasts so now I think tank tops are super sexy and feel amazing on my bare skin!!!!
#AltText #nsfw #outdoors #flashing #nudity #pigtails #TankTop #CCCAdVANture2026 -
CW: NSFW, Purity Culture
In case you're wondering why I wear tank tops so often, I was brought up in a religion where women aren't allowed to show their shoulders or clavicle or allow fabric they are wearing to show tension between the breasts so now I think tank tops are super sexy and feel amazing on my bare skin!!!!
#AltText #nsfw #outdoors #flashing #nudity #pigtails #TankTop #CCCAdVANture2026 -
https://www.europesays.com/ch-fr/118710/ Samsung, SK Hynix et Micron lancent la fabrication de la nouvelle RAM — Frandroid #DDR5 #Micron #PénurieDeRAM #Ram #Science #ScienceAndTechnology #Sciences #SciencesEtTechnologies #SKHynix #Suisse #Technologies #Technology
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https://www.europesays.com/be-fr/97087/ Samsung, SK Hynix et Micron lancent la fabrication de la nouvelle RAM — Frandroid #BE #BEFr #Belgique #Belgium #ddr5 #Micron #PénurieDeRAM #RAM #Science #ScienceAndTechnology #Sciences #SciencesEtTechnologies #SKHynix #Technologies #Technology
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Fake call logs, real payments: How CallPhantom tricks Android users
ESET researchers discovered 28 fraudulent Android applications on Google Play, collectively named CallPhantom, that falsely claimed to provide call histories, SMS records, and WhatsApp logs for any phone number. These apps were downloaded over 7.3 million times before removal, primarily targeting users in India and the Asia-Pacific region. The apps generate fabricated data using hardcoded names and random phone numbers, displaying this fake information only after payment. CallPhantom employs three payment methods, with some bypassing Google Play's official billing system through third-party UPI payments or direct card entry, making refunds difficult. The scam exploits user curiosity about private information, charging between €5 and $80 for worthless subscriptions that deliver entirely fabricated communication data.
Pulse ID: 69fcc63f67fc5f79f089ed5c
Pulse Link: https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/69fcc63f67fc5f79f089ed5c
Pulse Author: AlienVault
Created: 2026-05-07 17:05:03Be advised, this data is unverified and should be considered preliminary. Always do further verification.
#Android #Asia #CyberSecurity #ESET #Google #GooglePlay #India #InfoSec #OTX #OpenThreatExchange #RAT #SMS #WhatsApp #bot #iOS #AlienVault
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Cómo reconocer llamadas falsas con IA – Una amenaza creciente para las empresas
La IA Generativa (GenAI) democratizó la creación de audio y vídeo falsos, hasta el punto de que generar un clip fabricado es tan fácil como pulsar un botón o dos. Las deepfakes pueden ser usadas de varias formas: desde eludir autenticaciones y controles, hasta infiltrarse en organizaciones creando un candidato falso y sintético para procesos de selección de personal. Sin embargo, podría decirse que la mayor amenaza que plantean es el fraude financiero/transferencias bancarias y el secuestro de cuentas de ejecutivos. ESET, acerca herramientas para poder identificar cuando una llamada es falsa (Fuente ESET Latam).
El Gobierno británico afirma que el año pasado se compartieron hasta 8 millones de clips falsos, frente a los 500 mil que habían sido compartidos en 2023. La cifra real puede ser mucho mayor y, así las cosas, las organizaciones tienden a subestimar esta amenaza.
Como ha demostrado un experimento de Jake Moore, Global Security Advisor de ESET, nunca ha sido tan fácil lanzar un ataque de audio deepfake. Todo lo que se requiere es un clip corto de la víctima para ser suplantado y GenAI puede hacer el resto. Así es como podría proceder un ataque, según ESET:
- Un atacante selecciona a la persona que va a suplantar. Puede ser un CEO, un CFO o incluso un proveedor.
- Encuentra una muestra de audio en Internet, lo que resulta bastante fácil para ejecutivos de alto nivel que hablan en público con regularidad. Puede proceder de una cuenta en las redes sociales, de una convocatoria de beneficios, de una entrevista en vídeo o televisión o de cualquier otra fuente. Unos segundos de grabación deberían bastar.
- Seleccionan a la persona a la que van a llamar. Para ello, puede ser necesario realizar una investigación documental, normalmente en LinkedIn, en busca de personal del servicio de asistencia informática o miembros del equipo financiero.
- Pueden llamar directamente a la persona o enviar un correo electrónico por adelantado: por ejemplo, un director general que solicita una transferencia de dinero urgente, una solicitud de restablecimiento de contraseña o autenticación multifactor (MFA), o un proveedor que exige el pago de una factura vencida.
- Llaman al objetivo preseleccionado, utilizando audio deepfake generado por GenAI para hacerse pasar por el CEO/proveedor. Dependiendo de la herramienta, pueden ceñirse a un discurso preestablecido o utilizar un método más sofisticado de «voz a voz» en el que la voz del atacante se traduce casi en tiempo real a la de su víctima.
“Este tipo de ataque es cada vez más barato, sencillo y convincente. Algunas herramientas son capaces incluso de insertar ruido de fondo, pausas y tartamudeos para que la voz suplantada resulte más creíble. Cada vez imitan mejor los ritmos, las inflexiones y los tics verbales propios de cada orador. Y cuando un ataque se lanza por teléfono, los fallos relacionados con la IA pueden ser más difíciles de detectar para quien atiende.”, advierte Macio Micucci, Investigador de Seguridad Informática de ESET Latinoamérica.
Los atacantes también pueden utilizar tácticas de ingeniería social, como presionar a que la persona responda urgentemente a su petición, con el fin de lograr sus objetivos. Si a esto se le añade que a menudo se hacen pasar por un alto ejecutivo, es fácil ver por qué algunas víctimas son engañadas. Uno de los mayores errores se produjo en 2020, cuando se engañó a un empleado de una empresa de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos haciéndole creer que su director había llamado para solicitar una transferencia de fondos de 35 millones de dólares para una operación de fusión y adquisición.
Dicho esto, hay formas de detectar a un impostor. Desde ESET sostienen que dependiendo de lo sofisticada que sea la GenAI que están utilizando, puede ser posible discernir:
- Un ritmo antinatural en el discurso del orador
- Un tono emocional antinaturalmente plano en la voz del orador
- Respiración antinatural o incluso frases sin respiración
- Un sonido inusualmente robótico (cuando se utilizan herramientas menos avanzadas)
- Ruido de fondo extrañamente ausente o demasiado uniforme
Además, en términos corporativos se recomienda empezar por la formación y concienciación de los empleados. Estos programas, según ESET, deben actualizarse para incluir simulaciones de audio deepfake que garanticen que el personal sepa qué esperar, qué está en juego y cómo actuar. Se les debe enseñar a detectar los signos reveladores de la ingeniería social y los escenarios típicos de deepfake. Deben realizarse ejercicios de red team para comprobar si los empleados asimilan bien el proceso correcto:
- Verificación fuera de banda de cualquier solicitud telefónica, es decir, utilizar cuentas de mensajería corporativas para comprobar con el remitente de forma independiente
- Dos personas que firmen las transferencias financieras importantes o los cambios en los datos bancarios de los proveedores
- Contraseñas o preguntas acordadas previamente que los ejecutivos deban responder para demostrar que son quienes dicen ser por teléfono
“Las falsificaciones son sencillas y su producción cuesta poco. Dadas las enormes sumas que pueden obtener los estafadores, es poco probable que veamos pronto el final de las estafas de clonación de voz. Por lo tanto, la mejor opción que tiene una organización para mitigar el riesgo es un triple enfoque basado en las personas, los procesos y la tecnología. Para que se adapte a medida que avanza la innovación en IA, es importante que sea revisado periódicamente. El nuevo panorama del ciberfraude exige una atención constante.”, concluye Micucci de ESET.
#arielmcorg #ciberseguridad #eset #IA #IAGenerativa #PORTADA -
Das Aktionstreff Klimagerechtigkeit #ATK0711 Stuttgart macht gleich heute Abend eine Veranstaltung zu:
🚗 🛠️ "Verkehr und Automobilindustrie im Wandel - oder doch nicht?"
🎙️ Bericht und Diskussion mit dem Collettivo di Fabrica aus Florenz
Wann? 23.05.25 um 18:30 Uhr
Wo? Linkes Zentrum Lilo Herrmann #Stuttgart@collettivodifabbricagkn #exGKN #GKN #insorgiamo @eintopf @kessel_bambule @FFF_Stuttgart
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In the tent… the sound of rain becomes a sad melody.
We love it because it’s رزق (a blessing)… but we fear it because it can steal our warmth in a single moment 💔
Under this thin piece of fabric,
live hearts that no storm can break,
and a determination stronger than the tent stake driven into the ground…
You will never truly understand this feeling unless you have lived it…
To the people of the tents — we raise our hats to you
But we are still human… we get tired, we get hungry, and we need someone to stand with us 🤍
Any support—even a small one—can make a real difference in our lives
https://gofund.me/2790a0f8
#Gaza #HelpGaza #StandWithGaza #EmergencyRelief
#SaveLives #HumanityFirst #DonateNow #SupportFamilies
#WarSurvivors #RefugeeLife #HelpThoseInNeed #KindnessMatters
#FromTheTent #VoicesOfGaza #DontIgnore -
The End of the “Peace Dividend” and the Return of History
#Identitypolitics, is what happens when liberalism turns inward and fragments - call it mad liberalism. #Culturewar is what happens when that same liberalism hardens and lashes out - bad liberalism. Both look like opposites, but they come from the same place. The uncomfortable part is both were pushed onto the "left" as the way to fight #neoliberalism the very system that’s been tearing apart the social fabric for decades. Instead of building collective power, we pushed endless identity […]https://hamishcampbell.com/the-end-of-the-peace-dividend-and-the-return-of-history/
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#Europa impone #baterías extraíbles en 2027 y ningún #fabricante de #móviles se ha quejado: ya saben cómo esquivar la #norma
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El que ensucia, paga. Los fabricantes de ropa y calzado en #España tendrán que pagar un sistema de #recogida y tratamiento de la #basuratextil que genera su negocio, un millón de toneladas de #residuos que crean
Es la #norma que quiere aprobar por decreto el #Ministerio de #TransiciónEcológica.
Una industria con crecientes #impactosambientales y que ahora terminan en un 80% en el #vertedero -
“Quantum computation is … nothing less than a distinctly new way of harnessing nature”*…
As the tools in the world around us change, the world– and we– change with them. The onslaught of AI is the change that seems to be grabbing most of our mindshare these days… and with reason. But there are, of course, other changes (in biotech, in materials science, et al.) that are also going to be hugely impactful.
Today, a look at the computing technology stalking up behind AI: quantum computing. As enthusiasts like David Deutsch (author of the quote above) argue, it can have tremendous benefits, perhaps especially in our ability to model (and thus better understand) our reality.
But quantum computing will, if/when it arrives, also present huge challenges to us as individuals and as societies– perhaps most prominently in its threat to the ways in which we protect our systems and our information: We’ve felt pretty safe for decades, secure in the knowledge that we could lose passwords to phising or hacks, but that it would take the “classical” computers we have 1 billion years to break today’s RSA-2048 encryption. A quantum computer could crack it in as little as a hundred seconds.
The technology has been “somewhere on the horizon” for 30 years… so not something that has seemed urgent to confront. But progress has accelerated; a recent Google paper reports on a programming and architectural breakthrough that greatly reduces the computing resources necessary to break classical cryptography… putting the prospect of “Q-Day” (the point at which quantum computers become powerful enough to break standard encryption methods (RSA, ECC), endangering global digital security) much closer, which would put everything from crypto-wallets to our e-banking accounts at risk.
Charlie Wood brings us up to speed…
Some 30 years ago, the mathematician Peter Shor took a niche physics project — the dream of building a computer based on the counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics — and shook the world.
Shor worked out a way for quantum computers to swiftly solve a couple of math problems that classical computers could complete only after many billions of years. Those two math problems happened to be the ones that secured the then-emerging digital world. The trustworthiness of nearly every website, inbox, and bank account rests on the assumption that these two problems are impossible to solve. Shor’s algorithm proved that assumption wrong.
For 30 years, Shor’s algorithm has been a security threat in theory only. Physicists initially estimated that they would need a colossal quantum machine with billions of qubits — the elements used in quantum calculations — to run it. That estimate has come down drastically over the years, falling recently to a million qubits. But it has still always sat comfortably beyond the modest capabilities of existing quantum computers, which typically have just hundreds of qubits.
However, two different groups of researchers have just announced advances that notably reduce the gap between theoretical estimates and real machines. A star-studded team of quantum physicists at the California Institute of Technology went public with a design for a quantum computer that could break encryption with only tens of thousands of qubits and said that it had formed a company to build the machine. And researchers at Google announced that they had developed an implementation of Shor’s algorithm that is ten times as efficient as the best previous method.
Neither company has the hardware to break encryption today. But the results underscore what some quantum physicists had already come to suspect: that powerful quantum computers may be years away, rather than decades. “If you care about privacy or you have secrets, then you better start looking for alternatives,” said Nikolas Breuckmann, a mathematical physicist at the University of Bristol, who did not work on either of the papers.
While the new results may provide a jolt for the policymakers and corporations that guard our digital infrastructure, they also signal the rapid progress that physicists have made toward building machines that will let them more thoroughly explore the quantum world.
“We’re going to actually do this,” said Dolev Bluvstein, a Caltech physicist and CEO of the new company, Oratomic…
[Wood unpacks the history of the development of the technology and explores the challenges that remain; he concludes…]
… If any group succeeds at building a quantum computer that can realize Shor’s algorithm, it will mark the end an era — specifically, the “Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum” era, as Preskill dubbed the pre-error-correction period in a 2018 paper. Each researcher has a vision for what to pursue first with a machine in the new “fault-tolerant” era.
[Robert] Huang said he would start by running Shor’s algorithm, just to prove that the device works. After that, he said he would try to use it to speed up machine learning — an application to be detailed in coming work.
Most of the architects building quantum computers, whether at Oratomic or other startups, are physicists at heart. They’re interested in physics, not cryptography. Specifically, they’re interested in all the things a computer fluent in the language of quantum mechanics could teach them about the quantum realm, such as what sort of materials might become superconductors even at warm temperatures. Preskill, for his part, would like to simulate the quantum nature of space-time.
The Caltech group knows it has years of work ahead before any of its dreams have a chance of coming true. But the researchers can’t wait to get started. “Pick a cooler life quest than building the world’s first quantum computer with your friends!” said a jubilant Bluvstein, reached by phone shortly before their paper went live, before rushing off to celebrate…
Eminently worth reading in full: “New Advances Bring the Era of Quantum Computers Closer Than Ever,” from @walkingthedot.bsky.social in @quantamagazine.bsky.social.
* David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality
###
As we prepare, we might take a moment to appreciate just how vastly and deeply the legacy systems challenged by quantum computing run, recalling that on this date in 1959 Mary Hawes, a computer scientist for the Burroughs Corporation held a meeting of computers users, manufacturers, and academics at the University of Pennsylvania aimed at creating a common business oriented programming language. At the meeting, representative Grace Hopper suggested that they ask the Department of Defense to fund the effort to create such a language. Also attending was Charles Phillips who was director of the Data System Research Staff at the DoD and was excited by the possibility of a common language streamlining their operations. He agreed to sponsor the creation of such a language. This was the genesis of what would eventually become the COBOL language.
To this day COBOL is still the most common programming language used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments, primarily on mainframe systems, with around 200 billion lines of code still in production use… all of which are in question and/or at risk in a world of quantum computing.
#COBOL #computerSecurity #computers #computing #crypto #cryptocurrency #culture #GraceHopper #history #MaryHawes #quantum #quantumComputing #Science #security #Technology -
“Quantum computation is … nothing less than a distinctly new way of harnessing nature”*…
As the tools in the world around us change, the world– and we– change with them. The onslaught of AI is the change that seems to be grabbing most of our mindshare these days… and with reason. But there are, of course, other changes (in biotech, in materials science, et al.) that are also going to be hugely impactful.
Today, a look at the computing technology stalking up behind AI: quantum computing. As enthusiasts like David Deutsch (author of the quote above) argue, it can have tremendous benefits, perhaps especially in our ability to model (and thus better understand) our reality.
But quantum computing will, if/when it arrives, also present huge challenges to us as individuals and as societies– perhaps most prominently in its threat to the ways in which we protect our systems and our information: We’ve felt pretty safe for decades, secure in the knowledge that we could lose passwords to phising or hacks, but that it would take the “classical” computers we have 1 billion years to break today’s RSA-2048 encryption. A quantum computer could crack it in as little as a hundred seconds.
The technology has been “somewhere on the horizon” for 30 years… so not something that has seemed urgent to confront. But progress has accelerated; a recent Google paper reports on a programming and architectural breakthrough that greatly reduces the computing resources necessary to break classical cryptography… putting the prospect of “Q-Day” (the point at which quantum computers become powerful enough to break standard encryption methods (RSA, ECC), endangering global digital security) much closer, which would put everything from crypto-wallets to our e-banking accounts at risk.
Charlie Wood brings us up to speed…
Some 30 years ago, the mathematician Peter Shor took a niche physics project — the dream of building a computer based on the counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics — and shook the world.
Shor worked out a way for quantum computers to swiftly solve a couple of math problems that classical computers could complete only after many billions of years. Those two math problems happened to be the ones that secured the then-emerging digital world. The trustworthiness of nearly every website, inbox, and bank account rests on the assumption that these two problems are impossible to solve. Shor’s algorithm proved that assumption wrong.
For 30 years, Shor’s algorithm has been a security threat in theory only. Physicists initially estimated that they would need a colossal quantum machine with billions of qubits — the elements used in quantum calculations — to run it. That estimate has come down drastically over the years, falling recently to a million qubits. But it has still always sat comfortably beyond the modest capabilities of existing quantum computers, which typically have just hundreds of qubits.
However, two different groups of researchers have just announced advances that notably reduce the gap between theoretical estimates and real machines. A star-studded team of quantum physicists at the California Institute of Technology went public with a design for a quantum computer that could break encryption with only tens of thousands of qubits and said that it had formed a company to build the machine. And researchers at Google announced that they had developed an implementation of Shor’s algorithm that is ten times as efficient as the best previous method.
Neither company has the hardware to break encryption today. But the results underscore what some quantum physicists had already come to suspect: that powerful quantum computers may be years away, rather than decades. “If you care about privacy or you have secrets, then you better start looking for alternatives,” said Nikolas Breuckmann, a mathematical physicist at the University of Bristol, who did not work on either of the papers.
While the new results may provide a jolt for the policymakers and corporations that guard our digital infrastructure, they also signal the rapid progress that physicists have made toward building machines that will let them more thoroughly explore the quantum world.
“We’re going to actually do this,” said Dolev Bluvstein, a Caltech physicist and CEO of the new company, Oratomic…
[Wood unpacks the history of the development of the technology and explores the challenges that remain; he concludes…]
… If any group succeeds at building a quantum computer that can realize Shor’s algorithm, it will mark the end an era — specifically, the “Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum” era, as Preskill dubbed the pre-error-correction period in a 2018 paper. Each researcher has a vision for what to pursue first with a machine in the new “fault-tolerant” era.
[Robert] Huang said he would start by running Shor’s algorithm, just to prove that the device works. After that, he said he would try to use it to speed up machine learning — an application to be detailed in coming work.
Most of the architects building quantum computers, whether at Oratomic or other startups, are physicists at heart. They’re interested in physics, not cryptography. Specifically, they’re interested in all the things a computer fluent in the language of quantum mechanics could teach them about the quantum realm, such as what sort of materials might become superconductors even at warm temperatures. Preskill, for his part, would like to simulate the quantum nature of space-time.
The Caltech group knows it has years of work ahead before any of its dreams have a chance of coming true. But the researchers can’t wait to get started. “Pick a cooler life quest than building the world’s first quantum computer with your friends!” said a jubilant Bluvstein, reached by phone shortly before their paper went live, before rushing off to celebrate…
Eminently worth reading in full: “New Advances Bring the Era of Quantum Computers Closer Than Ever,” from @walkingthedot.bsky.social in @quantamagazine.bsky.social.
* David Deutsch, The Fabric of Realityy
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As we prepare, we might take a moment to appreciate just how vastly and deeply the legacy systems challenged by quantum computing run, recalling that on this date in 1959 Mary Hawes, a computer scientist for the Burroughs Corporation held a meeting of computers users, manufacturers, and academics at the University of Pennsylvania aimed at creating a common business oriented programming language. At the meeting, representative Grace Hopper suggested that they ask the Department of Defense to fund the effort to create such a language. Also attending was Charles Phillips who was director of the Data System Research Staff at the DoD and was excited by the possibility of a common language streamlining their operations. He agreed to sponsor the creation of such a language. This was the genesis of what would eventually become the COBOL language.
To this day COBOL is still the most common programming language used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments, primarily on mainframe systems, with around 200 billion lines of code still in production use… all of which are in question and/or at risk in a world of quantum computing.
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