Saturday, January 21, 2023

Happy Lunar New Year! (Updated)

Happy Lunar New Year!


No, I didn't add anything new today for the A Lady's Prerogative or Butterfly Dragon stories, but I did work on related content for a short time.


Once again, I spent the vast majority of the day working in Unreal Engine, as part of the course I'm taking and also for the possibility of future projects utilizing Unreal technology. Despite being a writer, I am also an ex-musician, programmer/coder and an aspiring Unreal Engine developer and that really goes back to my roots as a gamer and my interest in simulation. 


You see, even at 55 years old you can pursue new endeavors, while adding your previous education and life experience to your current pursuits. I still love gaming. It keeps your mind healthy and certainly isn't any worse than reading or watching television in the fact that you have to remember to stretch, exercise and use your body to keep things in balance. Our overall health depends upon both body and mind. 


The Perimeter Institute


I saw the great news about The Perimeter Institute receiving a large investment from the Government for Quantum Technology based research in Canada. I think that the news is great and seeing as I've been following happenings at the Perimeter Institute since as far back as 1999, its great to see all of this come full circle. I seem to remember listening to a great many of their lectures on Quantum Physics and Cosmology back then (in 1999). Murray Gell-Mann. Leonard Susskind. They were great to listen, and certainly so while I worked on coding and web based projects back then. They're still great for research now as well.


Bryce Maxwell in the (proverbial) flesh.


It would be nice to think that I had a part in drawing the public's attention to Quantum Physics and Quantum Computers, and that my character Bryce Maxwell from The Butterfly Dragon and A Lady's Prerogative series of stories (pictured above) might have had an influence in that regard.


Maybe it did to some degree, but realistically speaking the people at the Perimeter Institute and the University Of Waterloo, as well as other Physics and University Alumni from around the world have been spending their whole lives and careers on this matter, while I, having found the topic interesting, just jumped in and tried to elicit what I found so magnetic about it in the form of a few characters in my books and stories. They did it, and I was like one of the many bards that wrote about it. In all truth though, to be able to write the part effectively, I actually took several free University courses on Quantum Mechanics online, including a courseware package at MIT.


So I could never take the credit for the efforts of others, something I expect of others with regard to my own efforts. However, if I did manage to divert some attention to the direction of Quantum Physics and Quantum Technology from my oft pummeled corner of the world, I'm glad that I did. I wouldn't be the first however. Physicists like Richard Feynman (who forms the actual physicist inspiration part of Bryce Maxwell) and writers like Michael Crichton really have that honour for inspiring me. 

Which reminds me: don't get the impression that Bryce Maxwell is a rip-off of Ian Malcolm. The two characters are so different from each other that the only thing they have in common is social charisma and the ability to captivate an audience with banter of their chosen vocation. Keep in mind, that opinion is coming from someone who read the book (Jurassic Park), and much later saw the movie. It did however interest me enough to take a course on Fractal Geometry from a local University during the 1990s, though I had been writing very simple (and slow) Julia and Mandelbrot Set (z=z^2+c) generators since the late 1980s on various home computers. Let me get back on topic.


Congratulations to the Perimeter Institute and its good to see the Government putting investment dollars into technology of the future.


Future Uses Of Quantum Technology


There's currently a lot of hums and haws over how Quantum Computers and Quantum Technology might be effectively used, and the cost effectiveness of investing in such a new technology. Not to mention, there are some who question its usefulness altogether, but seldom is there direct discussion about the topics in the next few paragraphs and how Quantum Computers will propel humanity into the future in these key areas.


Uses In Medicine

Several of the key uses of Quantum Computing involve medical engineering. In terms of medicine, Quantum Computers will allow us to design and calculate proteins and their corresponding energy cost quickly and efficiently (nearly instantaneously), which is a key facet of quickly designing future medicines.


Uses In Genetics

Biological engineering will also benefit from Quantum Computers by allowing us to quickly calculate the generational outcome of alterations to existing or designer genome, thousands if not millions or even billions of generations into the future using currently known genetic programming techniques running on Quantum Computer powered hardware. 

It might bring us closer to achieving genetic immortality. We'll certainly see the extinction of many diseases over the next few hundred years with their help. We'll be able to engineer vegetables that yield the maximum nutritional benefit and grow quickly, making more efficient use of our arable land on the planet. We'll likely be able to engineer plants that grow into complex protein based foods. Artificial meat anyone?


Uses In Materials Engineering

In terms of designing future materials, Quantum Computers will help us to design new molecules at the atomic level that lead to near light speed capable space craft, and possibly lead us to warp technology. On the immediate horizon, they'll help us to design light and strong materials we'll need to colonize Mars and build bases on the Moon, not to mention orbital colony structures where we both live and grow food to accommodate our growing population. Cold fusion reactors too.


Quantum Internet

Imagine an global network infrastructure that expands as humanity does offering completely instantaneous communications no matter the distance between the start and end point. The rate of information transmission and reception would remain the same regardless of distance. Someone on Earth having a video or holographic teleconference with someone living on Proxima Centauri b (about 4.2 light years away) would be entirely possible with Quantum Communications.

This is possible using Quantum Entanglement as the channel and carrier for information. It will also be completely secure from eavesdropping between the origin and destination of communications, as ANY kind of eavesdropping on either end would collapse the wave function hence triggering a flag on the receiving system that the information had been compromised.


Time's Running Out

There's still a long way to go with this kind of research, but its benefits stand to take humanity to the next level. A level that might be necessary for our survival. 

There's a lot to benefit from with such research and quite honestly, the clock is ticking for humanity. It will at some point run out for us here if we haven't spread ourselves out into the Solar System, the Milky Way Galaxy and beyond. 

We'll perish by some natural disaster as the dinosaurs did (asteroid impact, extreme volcanic activity), or by some as of yet unseen biological (in the form of virii) or sociological disease (ideology) that culls us without our even being aware. Secretly destroying our potential from within, from the bottom up or the top down.


More On The Topic

If you're interested in Quantum Physics and science in general, here's some links for you:


The Perimeter Institute [YouTube]

D-Wave

IBM Quantum

Google Quantum AI

Sabine Hossenfelder [YouTube]

Tibees [YouTube]

John Michael Godier's Event Horizon [YouTube]


A Lady's Prerogative And The Butterfly Dragon Updates

I'll be working in part, taking care of some household chores and watching movies or doing some gaming over the weekend. 

I'll probably work today for a bit (Saturday January 21, 2023) on my Windows 10 system (I went back to Windows 10 several months ago), and possibly get to some writing or artwork before the weekend or throughout, though no guarantees. Most of what I'll do on Saturday will involve Unreal Engine and a bit of coding or work in blueprints. For real.

Things will be much better once I've dealt with some pesky people puppeteers, but I have strong a feeling their curtain call is just around the corner.

Besides, the hate bombing has already started so I'd better go take cover lest they try to make me into the bad guy again. Hopefully its not another cage match 🤨


Happy Lunar New Year to all my readers.


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