[Cryptography] Quantum computers and the Government

[Henry Baker]

-----Original Message-----
From: jrzx <jrzx at protonmail.ch>
Sent: Sep 13, 2021 5:03 PM
To: <hbaker1 at pipeline.com>
Cc: John Levine <johnl at iecc.com>, <leichter at lrw.com>, <cryptography at metzdowd.com>
Subject: Re: [Cryptography] Quantum computers and the Government

> We're finally reaching the feature size where quantum
> effects like 'quantum dots' can become ubiquitous.

Hardware capable of building a quantum computer using this approach would capable of doing classical logic in a classical computer immensely faster and at immensely lower power than anything we can build today.

Maybe it will be feasible to do that sort of thing in the distant future, but if people had anything remotely approaching that kind of capability, we would see it in a fundamental and radical transformation of classical computers.

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Re: "a fundamental and radical transformation of classical computers"

That's precisely what I'm saying, and we're a lot closer to this possibility than most people realize:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot

For the first time in history, we will precisely choose the numerical values of quantum levels, not because of some peculiar choice of the bandgaps of various electron shells in elementary atoms or molecules, but because of the *size* and *shape* of the lithography patterns -- which are completely under our control.

This is a BFD, as it means that amazing new circuits will be built from plain ol' silicon using the same type of processing that is done today, except for somewhat smaller feature sizes.

This is a *revolutionary* change in circuits and circuit design, made possible with an *evolutionary* change in fabrication process technology.

I expect the next decade in electronic circuits will be as innovative and chaotic as the 1945-1955 decade. I can only hope that some reasonable fraction of these scientific papers will be written in English.