With #Majorana1, #Microsoft Says Quantum Is Years Away
Mitra Azizirad, pres and COO of strategic missions wrote world was at “advent of the reliable #quantumcomputing era,” adding that “as our industry looks toward the next twelve months, the pace of quantum research and development is only going to accelerate, making this a critical and catalyzing time for business leaders to act.” Introducing a new chip based and a new state of material – topological superconductivity.
https://www.nextplatform.com/2025/02/20/with-majorana-microsoft-says-quantum-is-years-not-decades-away/

(repost from LinkedIn, QV doesn't seem to be on Fedi)

Call for Talks and Workshops - Quantum Village 4 @ DEFCON 33!

We're very excited and pleased to announce that out Call for Talks/Workshops for this year's event is now OPEN! At Quantum Village we want to 'Access All Quantum States'; from how to hack quantum networks to how quantum engineering might shift our collective futures. And we want YOU to be a part of this incredible year!

So far we are lining up amazing activities including our Quantum Capture the Flag, quantum art demonstrations, our upcoming hackable Open Source Quantum Device... do you have what it takes to join the Quantum Hacker Elite?

Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWykMdd5MWhoF9NP1AyvK7fj8VUz3B2NX8SSXGBzADKsbRMw/viewform

China unveils quantum computer that’s one quadrillion times faster than existing supercomputers

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-unveils-quantum-computer-one-085016128.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEJFmjFPUYtMuuvlnm-vfoiHhwWuwSG23oJnHEbhhDUUPokFMSLssDNhHgGLDqgaO70UdUwToATE8LO-76xaN1Xw18oON6ASSJolDxV2GGBIAJKp-FFmszRFcg68Mv7obA_ozB0ckbGFTo6wV3LXIM9qr25YAnCWUoa0ABQw79ls

Discussions: https://discu.eu/q/https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-unveils-quantum-computer-one-085016128.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEJFmjFPUYtMuuvlnm-vfoiHhwWuwSG23oJnHEbhhDUUPokFMSLssDNhHgGLDqgaO70UdUwToATE8LO-76xaN1Xw18oON6ASSJolDxV2GGBIAJKp-FFmszRFcg68Mv7obA_ozB0ckbGFTo6wV3LXIM9qr25YAnCWUoa0ABQw79ls

Scientists create world's 1st chip that can protect data in the age of #QuantumComputing attacks

https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/scientists-create-worlds-1st-chip-that-can-protect-data-in-the-age-of-quantum-computing-attacks

#GoogleCloud introduces quantum-safe digital signatures in #KMS

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-cloud-introduces-quantum-safe-digital-signatures-in-kms/

Okay, so about Microsoft's latest #quantumcomputing announcement. I'm going to link you to Scott Aaronson's blog for a nice FAQ, but I think this bit is the tl;dr: "*If* Microsoft’s claim stands, then topological qubits have finally reached some sort of parity with where more traditional qubits were 20-30 years ago.[...] Topological qubits can win if, and only if, they turn out to be so much more reliable that they leapfrog the earlier approaches [...]"

https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8669

The view from the outside:
Microsoft PR claims to have created Majorana zero modes.
Published paper in Nature does not support this claim.
Microsoft PR claims to have created topological qubit.
Published paper in Nature does not support this claim.

Seems like there's an unresolved superposition of states of Quantum Hype and Nobel Material.

https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8669
#QuantumComputing

Can someone with physics knowledge and an NYT subscription let me know if this new phase of matter claim is malarkey or not? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/technology/microsoft-quantum-computing-topological-qubit.html #quantumcomputing #microsoft

Microsoft announces Majorana 1 chip, quantum computing milestone. I’ve now learned about Majorana particles and their discoverer, Ettore Majorana, compared to Newton and Galileo by his boss Enrico Fermi (himself smartest person next to Einstein). Majorana is as enigmatic as Nikola Tesla, it turns out! And now, here’s this chip named after him. What could go wrong? @books @religion
@bookstodon #AmWritingSF #secretscifinetwork #ChristianSciFi #quantumcomputing #Majorana
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/quantum/2025/02/19/microsoft-unveils-majorana-1-the-worlds-first-quantum-processor-powered-by-topological-qubits/

The Distinguished Lecturer Series (#DLS) is the main venue of the MPL to bring to you the international thought leaders in the science of light.

In our second event in 2025, Sara Mouradian, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington gave her lecture on "Engineering (Useful) Trapped-Ion Quantum Technologies".

You’ll find her inspiring talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRkt-8Rpo6E&list=PL6yOOrXfatatYcdjK_N90smVlWbVLrfj6

Building a European Alternative for Technological Sovereignty – The EuroStack Report is Out!

Europe is at a turning point. Do we shape our digital future ourselves – or do we remain spectators in a world dominated by others?

The #EuroStack Report presents a holistic blueprint—a layer-by-layer rebuild of Europe’s technological backbone, aligned to Europe’s ethical and democratic values: privacy, self-determination, and sustainability.

Sovereign AI

Open-source ecosystems

Green supercomputing

Data commons

Sovereign cloud

By building homegrown alternatives, we can empower European citizens, workers, industries to reclaim control of our digital future.

It’s time to build a digital future that truly reflects our democratic values, economic ambitions, and environmental commitments.

Read the report here: https://www.euro-stack.info

#innovation #policy #innovationpolicy #tech #ai #resilience #sustainability#DigitalSovereignty #Europe #QuantumComputing

A bit late to the party here, but a great summary of the state of quantum computing from the very readable Scott Aaronson. tl;dr -> lots of reasons to be optimistic that scalable fault-tolerant QC will emerge eventually #quantumcomputing https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8329

Bill Gates: There's a possibility quantum computing will become useful in 3 to 5 years

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-theres-a-possibility-quantum-computing-will-become-useful-in-3-to-5-years-152007398.html

Discussions: https://discu.eu/q/https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-theres-a-possibility-quantum-computing-will-become-useful-in-3-to-5-years-152007398.html

The internet is going backwards.

Doing a web search in 2025 is a nightmare: even if you tell Google/DuckDuckGo to disable AI summaries, most of the top results you get are clearly AI-generated word salads. More than in the past, I am finding myself keeping a curated list of trusted sources, wikis, personal homepages, blogs, microblogs, to fetch information from, rather than relying on search engines. People increasingly host their own stuff, because it has become easier, and digital self sovereignty is being finally seen as something valuable. Archivists scramble to hoard data that might soon disappear. Fediverse means going back from web 2.0 to email, and frankly it's great. Well, we're still being shoved in our throats modern versions of Clippy, but I guess no pain no gain.

Now please bring back BBSs and 56k modems, and the cycle will be complete. I dream of a next era of steampunk utopia where "key exchange" has a very metallic meaning, and steam computers can factorize more than 15.

#ai #2025 #google #web3 #fediverse #digitalselfsovereignty #clippy #bbs #56k #steampunk #crypto #cryptography #quantumcomputing