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quantum mechanical computers sound like science fiction. have read several books on the subject. unfortunately they are years away. however, many laboratories all over the world are working on them. NIST seems far along with a chip design, but they have been working on fabricating it for years without success. too many variables. very difficult.

then there’s dwave systems in canada that sounds like maybe they have some kind of qm system going, but the academics are very skeptical & dubious, even hostile. (eg scott aaronson)

a qm computer has the potential to have massive processing power if ever materialized. I suspect they will not lead to many orders of magnitude more power than existing silicon and photonic technologies. but maybe one or two orders of magnitude more. they will likely be very expensive and very sensitive. the dwave system is helium cooled.

the best systems built so far have max 7 bits at most. that was an MNR experiment done by chuang a few years ago that grabbed headlines, but there hasnt been a lot of tangible progress since then. (momentum has not built, and we seem not to be even at the beginning of moore’s curve for qm technology)

the theoretical work has exploded, however. about 10 years ago, qm computers and computing was a very obscure and esoteric topic. nowadays, its a very hot topic in theoretical and applied physics. people know what is at stake. intel is a multibilliondollar company. imagine what could be possible with a qm computer company.

would like to build & program a qm computer. so would many other ppl around the world. but academics are mostly interested in writing papers, and their designs are not always that practical. there is a NSF roadmap for different technologies, a neat document.

I have this idea for something so incredible that I am hesitant to share it, because I suspect the mere explanation of it might cause others to pursue it, and I think its easily a billion dollar idea.

well, whatever. the idea is this: use advanced computer algorithms to convert voice patterns into musical instruments. so that when you sing, it sounds like whatever instrument you choose—guitar, piano, saxaphone, whatever. (even new sounds that dont even exist yet.)

I suspect, its not as hard as you think. and I think the market would be bigger than that for the ipod, the music synthesizer, and the electric guitar.. also, VSTs & digital studio software. combined. and at least as revolutionary. (recall how revolutionary musics synthesizers were.)

another one of those ideas that Ive been haunted by ever since a teenager.

am really interested in applying AI to a computer game. interested in NPCs, non player characters. the current idea that is popping into my head is a sort of “cyber soap opera”. it would be a little like the sims, except the characters have more personality and history.

they are aware of each other, and they can estimate each others motivations, and they are not perfect. in other words, they will all have motivations, and be aware of each others motivations and try to anticipate them, but imperfectly estimate each others motivations, leading to episodes and situations, stories.

it would be a sort of goldfish bowl for simulating human psychology. the characters will have goals and try to move forward toward their goals, but encounter complications which they react to. they will be both proactive and reactive.

somehow I wonder if female brains are optimized to visualize and remember what is going on in everyone else’s brains and how that affects current situations. a sort of “relationship physics”. now, only to encode that in a game.