this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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Experiments generate quantum entanglement over optical fibres across three real cities, marking progress towards networks that could have revolutionary applications.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Meanwhile, in rural areas, dialup is still a thing.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Quantum Dial-up. We just charge you an extra $60 a month and you get nothing in return other than a cool name.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Great deal. Thanks, marketing!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

And companies will charge 2x what fiber costs because "quantum Internet".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

I pay for gigabit and only see 200mbps max but I don't see my neighbors... Fiber someday? 🤞

[–] [email protected] 49 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Can't wait until the Internet consortium tells Comcast they can't use another misleading name

[–] [email protected] 48 points 6 months ago (2 children)

It pisses me off that they're calling quantum data transmission quantum entanglement, it's not the same thing and it's misleading as fuck.

Quantum entanglement is about two quantum particles sharing the same state which if implemented somehow would allow for universal communication with no time lag. Sending quantum state communication through fiber optic, while an achievement for distributed quantum computing, is not quantum entanglement!!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Man, reading the title I thought quantum entanglement had finally arrived and I clicked that shit so fast 😂

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Quantum entanglement communications also have fundamental problems that will likely render them effectively unusable. You need a key to decrypt anything you send, and the key has to travel no faster than c. It's impossible to tell the data from the noise without the key. Attempting to read the data or to change the data being sent also collapses the effect, which can only be fixed by bringing the two systems together. In short, you can only send a single packet of data and you can't use it without a key transmitted using traditional methods.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Can that be scaled? c is still better than rotting cables.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The limit is c because you have to use cables, radio, or other traditional methods to send the key. The data in the entangled pair would also have to be set at the time the two devices are constructed, so that's not super useful. It might be useful for single use authentication, but that's about it.

Don't think of entanglement as being like one object in two spots. Think of it like identical twins. One twin getting a hair cut does nothing to the other twin's hair. Similarly, altering a property of one entangled particle does nothing to the other and actually means they are no longer entangled or identical.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Oh that's really helpful thanks for the clarification

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No problem. I was pretty disappointed when I learned all the sci-fi writers were getting it wrong. Though, to be fair, it really should be called something else.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Yeah that's exactly what I was comparing it too.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Oh boy, I can't wait entangled ads everywhere!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It'll be even more awesome when they add entangled AI to everything

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

Oh no. And even worse Internet of Everything

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (3 children)

A quantum internet could enable any two users to establish almost unbreakable cryptographic keys to protect sensitive information

We can already do that dumbass.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Ah, finally. Now we will stop talking about, hearing about, and shoving "AI" in everything and the next new thing will be "quantum internet enabled" things.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I guess that's far more unbreakable than what we have. But anyway, several three letter agencies will fight this (again) tooth and nails.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

This will be useful for militaries and corporations, not consumers. If it can't work anywhere (or over a VPN, or wirelessly, etc.) It won't work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Your statement isn't terribly we informed

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I'm sorry. I realized in a comment below that one its very useful for governments/militaries and corporations.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I mean they're not wrong, we already have encryption algorithms resistant to quantumn computers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

That's not what the article was about

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

A very useful video that explains what Quantum Internet is... and what it isn't:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-j8nGvYMA8

TL/DW: A big misconception here has to do with Quantum entanglement. Quantum Entanglement in Quantum Internet doesn't mean that you can transfer data at speeds faster than light.

It's true that this connection would be "ultra secure" but this would be very inefficient (slow) and it wouldn't be reliable in a noisy environment. It would probably be most useful for some sort of authentication protocol/key sharing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

“Almost unbreakable keys” - I’m not up to speed on what this race entails, relative to the current state of affairs. Does “almost” mean “any gov agency w/ a budget and quantum computers” can break it, it is it an actual step forward from the status quo?

A question worth asking, in context of article.

There’s not a ton of stuff I demand to be secure, full stop, but SSH and comms w/ my wife are among them. I need to dive deeper, and understand the actual risks.