PowerSwitch

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8c0a68b0-c1bc ... ab49a.html

A new photonic chip that works on light rather than electricity has been built by an international research team, paving the way for the production of ultra-fast quantum computers with capabilities far beyond today’s devices.

Future quantum computers will, for example, be able to pull important information out of the biggest databases almost instantaneously. As the amount of electronic data stored worldwide grows exponentially, the technology will make it easier for people to search with precision for what they want.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computer

Interesting stuff, some think that the synergy of the quantum, bio and nano revolutions will eventually form the 'perfect solution' to our energy crisis.

I personally think that barring a fast crash at least some parts of the world should survive the Long Emergency (over the next few decades) and eventually convert their societies to post-fossil fuel sources of energy based on the above.

Computer power isn't really the critical limit most of the time. We're limited by the human component. Have a look at the article I wrote a few weeks ago:

http://chrisvernon.co.uk/2010/08/supercomputers/

Great! We'll be able to create chaos at even faster speed. Where will it end?

erm...in chaos?

If I bought new replacement for the 2000 computer running on Win98 that I use for CAD I might be able to print a drawing before I've drawn it. That would be a super computer. Computers have been fast enough for most small business applications for years now. Why bother upgrading, unless the old one breaks down.

It's just a shame that Microsoft can't build an operating system that's as good as the hardware it runs on.

Well that sound fantastic, optical processors could allow for fibre optic based cable networks with amazing data throughput and fully optical switching.

Think HD Video downloads so faster than you can watch them, forget scheduled TV/DVD/Blue-Ray.

Quantum computing allows for a 'Quantum' leap in science and technologies as researching new material/biological/chemistry usually involves using high end computers to number crunch something Quantum computing can process in a fraction of the time.

In addition climate change forcasting could greatly benefit from this ;o)

There is the problem of current cryptography levels being renderd transparent, so that could be problem for the IT security.

But I think we are just dipping our toes into what can be done with computers and networks at the moment.

Another step closer to the Singularity!?

kenneal wrote:If I bought new replacement for the 2000 computer running on Win98 that I use for CAD I might be able to print a drawing before I've drawn it. That would be a super computer. Computers have been fast enough for most small business applications for years now. Why bother upgrading, unless the old one breaks down.

I was thinking that the other day. The DOS version of Sage accounting software I started using in 1988 isn't really any less functional than what is available now, and ran fine on my Amstrad Pc with it's 8MHz processor, 640k RAM and 30Mb hard disk. Borland's Quattro spreadsheet (I was too tight to buy Lotus 123!) did pretty much everything that Open Office does today. I'm sure that the useful functionality of Windoze could have evolved to run on less powerful machines, although it is far better than the various GUIs like GEM and Torus Icons that were around then.

I remember Torus! Not good.

Yup, it is a big leap forward. I think one of the things which will happen in the coming decades, with the scarcity of food/energy/water is that a lot of resources/energy/willpower which is currently wasted on trivia will be focused on solving our collective problems.

Once our scientists backed by trillions of investments and the new technologies which are being developed happen - I think that we could see some really radical stuff being comercialised within 2 decades.

2030 in my opinion is the point in which we transition away from fossil fuels - the technology is certainly technically possilble to transition away from oil while enhancing our way of life - but of course politics and economics might send us in a death spiral collapse into a de-industrialised society.

Possibly. But how does the embodied energy of the new optical stuff (including imacculate premises for making it) compare with that of ye olde PC?