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https://www.livescience.com/63182-quantum-computer-reverse-arrow-time.html
A new technique for quantum computing could bust open our whole model of how time moves in the universe.
A new paper, published July 18 in the journal Physical Review X [ https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.8.031013 ], opens the door to the possibility that the arrow pf time is an artifact of classical-style computation — something that's only appeared to us to be the case because of our limited tools.
A team of researchers found that in certain circumstances causal asymmetry disappears inside quantum computers.
In this paper, the researchers looked at physical systems that had a goldilocks' level of disorder and randomness — not too little, and not too much.
They tried to figure out those systems' pasts and futures using theoretical quantum computers (no physical computers involved). Not only did these models of quantum computers use less memory than the classical computer models, she said, they were able to run in either direction through time without using up extra memory. In other words, the quantum models had no causal asymmetry
"While classically, it might be impossible for the process to go in one of the directions [through time]," said Jayne Thompson, of the National University of Singapore, "our results show that 'quantum mechanically,' the process can go in either direction using very little memory."
And if that's true inside a quantum computer, that's true in the universe, she said.
Quantum physics is the study of the strange probabilistic behaviors of very small particles — all the very small particles in the universe. And if quantum physics is true for all the pieces that make up the universe, it's true for the universe itself, even if some of its weirder effects aren't always obvious to us. So if a quantum computer can operate without causal asymmetry, then so can the universe.
Thompson added that the research doesn't prove that there isn't any causal asymmetry anywhere in the universe. She and her colleagues showed there is no asymmetry in a handful of systems. But it's possible, she said, that there are some very bare-bones quantum models where some causal asymmetry emerges.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @12:36AM (4 children)
Remember, if it wasn't for Obama we wouldn't have had #CrookedHillary, and if it wasn't for #CrookedHillary we would have had a better candidate.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by fishybell on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:49AM (2 children)
Perhaps you misremember 2016. Hillary Clinton wasn't the only candidate with a, let's say, less than flattering nick name from Donald Trump.
He fought every single candidate the same way: school yard insults. There wasn't anything special about Hillary Clinton, she was just his main focus before he won the nomination and after. She was, of course, his main focus because she was the most likely candidate on the Democrat side. When Bernie Sanders started showing up as a blip on the radar he started getting air time from The Donald too.
If anyone truly believes he won't fight the 2020 campaign along the same terms, they're in for a sad, sad election cycle.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @11:24AM (1 child)
Hillary was special because she was the only democratic candidate who could have lost to Trump. Bernie could have rode a horse in drunk, wearing a dress and black-and-white-minstrel makeup, firing a shotgun down main street, and he would still have beat Trump.
(Score: 2) by dast on Wednesday August 08 2018, @07:29PM
I doubt it. We don't know that Bernie and his ideas would have had the wide appeal needed for a general election candidate. https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-candidates-backed-by-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-bernie-sanders-falter-1533753351 [wsj.com]
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:50AM
Well, Obama saved us from the first attempt of this Hilary criminal bitch. Just for that he deserves the heaven.