Recent content by Dr Wu

One of the few images Google coughed up that actually included its magnification was this one by NASA. No such luck when it came to tracking down comparable images of microchips, though. Odd that. Could still be looking in the wrong places, of course.

Assuming the use of an electron microscope, what magnification would be needed to image a computer microchip at the micrometer level? Thanks in advance.

Yes, I suspect it will be impossible to enforce such a global ban given the seemingly unstoppable march of technology. If so, it must surely spell the end for intelligence-gathering agencies like the NSA, although old-fashioned bugging methods and similar forms of surveillance could still...

A suggestion for a short story or film script: governments around the world, concerned about the rise of criminality and social instability as a result of quantum supremacy, promptly ban all quantum-based communication systems across the social media landscape: in short usher in the equivalent...

Would it be fair to say that AI programs don't (yet) have the plasticity that biological brains possess - that's to say the silicon equivalent of the physical changes occurring in a given neuro network, in part resulting from external stimuli? Or is this a redundant question, as well as being...

Having read up on the threads in this post, the thought is not slow in forming that a ‘realistic’ high-speed interstellar journey dependant upon the use of any known onboard propulsion system is strictly for the birds. Off-board systems, on the other hand, do at least offer a hope of evading...

Thanks for that, Vanadium 50. I'll certainly give it a go. Like a lot of SF novels Artifact split the reviewers in Goodreads, some either praising or complaining about its high physics content. Well, okay, but it's worth keeping in mind that we're dealing with the hard end of Science Fiction...

Thanks for that. As a result I've now ordered a copy of "Rainbow's End" and looking forward to reading it. Going on the lack of response thus far suggests that a negative outcome isn't necessarily a bad result. Possibly it reveals that there really is a paucity of novels fulfilling the above...

Can anyone recommend any fairly "realistic" Earth-based SF novels (or short stories) published during the last ten years or thereabouts, and which are recognisably set in the "near future" - that's to say falling within the next 25 - 50 years? Sorry about the quote tags.

The novel is something of a dystopia as I recall. A fine read in Clarke's earlier literary style, apropos Childhood's End. As for immortality for mere mortals, why yes, bring it on, good health permitting. The cosmos is so big and there's so much to be done. . .

Yes, I read the article the first time, but clearly missed the connection. More generally speaking, it's surprising that so little about QA appears to have reached the mainstream print media. There's no end of books published on the subject on black holes, for instance; a fair number too about...

Thanks for your helpful comments - and the links too. Interesting reading. Your statement about the need for digital computers to operate qubit processors intrigued me somewhat. Another thought: would a quantized signal, beamed, for example, via a laser, risk becoming corrupted by the medium...

The many online articles about the future security issues posed by quantum supremacy — at least those pitched at the interested layperson (like myself) — tend for quite understandable reasons to focus on the outcomes that QS will have on today’s digital-based security systems. . . not as they...

Quite possibly Dias, Vasco da Gama, Magellan and other mariners from the late mediaeval period would have found themselves reflecting on the many things likely to go wrong while planning their oceanic voyages into the unknown: for them the deep space continuum of their times. Plenty of naysayers...

It certainly seems feasible, at least at first sight. A gas giant's magnetosphere, with its ability to trap charged particles (think Jupiter) could be hazardous to a moon's surface life, however. Of course, there's no reason why an oversized moon, due to its internal dynamics, might not have a...