#the basics of semiconductors

[immortalsins]

sat here wondering why i’m finding it hard to start work on advanced electronic systems when it has the title advanced electronic systems. if they wanted me to be happy to do it they should have called it fun & challenging yet manageable and mentally fulfilling electronic systems

[inbabylontheywept]

Kevin vs. Intro to Quantum

Our first suspicion of Kevin was that he had, somehow, cheated his way up to this course. He just seemed perpetually confused, and strangely antagonistic of the professor. The weirdest example of this was when he asked what an ion was (in a third year class?), and was informed that it referred to any positively or negatively charged particle. It would have been strange enough to ask that in a senior level electrical engineering course, but his reply of "Either? That doesn't sound right" sealed him in as a well known character in the class of 19 people.

The real tipping point in our perception of him was during a lecture where the professor mentioned practical uses for a neutron beam, and Kevin asked if a beam could be made out of some other neutral material. When asked "Like what?", he replied "An atom with all of its electrons removed." When we pointed out that the protons would make that abomination extremely positively charged, he just replied with "So what if we removed those too?" and then was baffled when we informed him that would just be neutrons.

That's high school level chemistry. Not knowing it was so incredibly strange that I felt like something was off, so I waited until after class and asked him if he'd like to grab lunch. He accepted, we chatted, and I finally began to get a sense of his origin story.

See, Kevin wasn't a junior/senior year electrical engineer like the rest of us. Kevin was, in fact, three notable things: A business major, a sophomore, and a hardcore Catholic. All three of those are essential to understanding his scenario.

What had begun all of this was actually a conflict with Kevin and his roommate. Kevin frequently had his fundamental belief in Absolute Good, Absolute Bad, and Absolute Anything pushed back on by his roommate, who was in STEM. Said roommate kept invoking quantum mechanics as his proof against Absolute Knowledge. Kevin had gotten tired of having something that he didn't understand thrown at his beliefs, so he decided to take a quantum course to settle things once and for all.

Despite not having any of the pre-reqs.

He'd actually tried to take quantum for physicists first, but the school's physics department wouldn't let him. It's actually pretty strictly regulated, because it is a mandatory class for physics majors, so they limit who enters in order to make sure all the future physicists can grab a seat. However, because the engineering department's introductory quantum course is not mandatory, there aren't really any built in requirements for the class. It's just assumed that nobody would actually try to take it until their at least third year because doing so would the be the mental equivalent to slamming your nuts in the door. Just, pure suffering for no good reason.

Apparently, the counselors had tried to talk him out of it, but if Kevin was one thing, it was stubborn. He'd actually had to sign some papers basically saying "I was warned that this is incredibly stupid, but I refused to listen" in order to take the class.

He was actually pretty nice, if currently unaware of how bad he'd just fucked up. I paid for the lunch, wished him the best in the class, and reported back to the discord me and about eight other people in the class had been using. We'd all been curious about this guy's story, but now that I had the truth, I could share it with the world.

Feelings were mixed. Some people thought he was going to drop out any minute now. Others thought that he wouldn't, be also that convincing him to drop now, while he still could, was the only ethical thing. Others figured that a policy of non-interference was best. The counselors couldn't dissuade him, and if we tried to do the same, he'd probably just think it was STEM elitism trying to guard its little clubhouse. He'd figure out how hard things were, or he'd fail. Either way, it would help him learn more about the world.

We wound up taking the approach of non-interference. If nothing else, understanding his origins gave us more patience when he asked bizarre questions. He wasn't trying to waste our time, he was just trying to cram three years of pre-reqs into a one semester course. He did get a little bit combative sometimes, and we could tell that he was really wracking his brain to try and find some sort of contradiction or error that he could use to bring the whole thing down, but he never could. He just didn't understand it well enough to have a chance at poking holes in it.

First test came by, and he bombed it. Completely unprepared. He'd taken Calculus I, but he didn't know how to do integrals yet. Worse, he was far past the drop date. I imagine most people in his shoes would've stopped struggling. They'd realize they were fucked and just let themselves fail, at least salvaging their other classes grades in the process. Why waste resources on an unwinnable battle?

Kevin didn't ask questions like that. If he was stupid enough to try it, he was gonna be stupid enough to finish it. God bless him.

He invited me to lunch after the test and said that the class was more fascinating than he'd ever imagined, but he didn't know if he'd be able to pass it. He asked if I could help, and I said "Maybe." I brought the request to the discord, and from the eight people I got three volunteers who admired this dork's tenacity. He was in over his head, miles over his head, but we admired his fighting spirit and were willing to bust our asses to see if we could get this guy to pass the class.

Some of the stuff was just extra homework we gave to the guy. We told him he needed to learn integrals, stat. We sent him some copies of basic software that can be used to teach the basics of linear circuit equations, and he practiced that game like it was HALO. Just, hours sunk into it.

We were very impressed.

He was still scrabbling for air at just the surface level of the class, but he'd gone from abysmal failure to lingering on the boundary between life and death. Other people in the class started to learn about Kevin's origin story, and our little circle of four volunteer tutors grew to six. Every day, he had someone trying to help him either catch up in some way, or finish that week's homework. He'd gone from being seen as a nuisance that wasted class time to the underdog mascot.

He was getting twelve hours of personal tutoring a week, on top of three hours of classes, on top of six hours of office hours, on top of the coursework. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this kid was doing 40 hours a week just trying to pass this one single class.

Second test comes around and he gets a 60. He's ecstatic. We're ecstatic. Kid's too young to take out drinking so we just order a pizza and cheer like he just won gold at the Olympics.

After that second test, things hit another tipping point. With so much catch-up under his belt, he was able to focus a lot more on the actual material for the class. A borderline cinematic moment happened when I was trying to get ahead on the homework so that I could put more hours in on my senior project. Nobody else had finished it yet because it wasn't due for another week, nobody else knew how to do it, and when I went to the professor's office hours, Kevin was there. The professor was trying to help me, but I was still struggling. After leaving the office, I got a text from Kevin asking me to hop onto zoom.

Kevin had finished it earlier, because Kevin starts all of his homework the moment its assigned in order to make sure that he can get it done. He'd finished it the day before, and was able to walk me through it.

From student, to teacher. I'm not exaggerating when I say that he probably saved me eight hours on that assignment. I could've kissed him.

Final comes around. As soon as we're done, we six ask Kevin how he did. He's nervous, there's so much new material for him in this class that his retention hasn't been great. Us six are also a little stressed: We're going to pass the class, but the final was hard.

We wait.

We wait.

We wait.

Table with final scores, and overall scores is posted, curve included. From our class of 19 people, 4 withdrew within the deadline, 4 failed, 1 got a C, 8 got B's, and 2 got A's. We can see that the curve for a C is set at 59.2% overall.

We call Kevin. He's crying. End score, 59.2%. Teacher curved the C just to him.

It's a week into winter break so we can't gather the forces around for a party like last time, but we're all losing our shit. Kevin's losing his shit. He can't believe how stupid he was to try this course, he can't believe that six people busted their ass just to make sure he didn't die, and he can't believe that the professor basically just passed him out of effort alone.

He says it's the stupidest thing he's ever done, and while I doubt that, it was outrageously stupid. And yet, I've never been so invested in a fellow student before. I'm prouder of Kevin's C than I am of my own B. I walked on sunshine for weeks after getting the news. I still think about him sometimes. It's been two years, and I still google him, just to see that he's doing well. And he is. Man's a machine. I like to think of how many people this little pinball has bounced off in his life, how many impressions he's made.

I can't be the only person cheering for him. There must be an army of us, proudly watching babybird fly.

[doomdoomofdoom]

Driving the point home with math about oranges and bananas:

I live in central Europe. Here, oranges cost a bit more than bananas. (~25% more, if my math is right) Both are commonly imported goods to my country. I mention this as a point of comparison, not because there's moral superiority. We benefit from exploitation just the same.

Groceries in the US are generally more expensive than here for a variety of economic reasons I don't bother trying to understand. For example, if an apple cost $1 here, it would cost $1.50 in the US. For oranges, it'd be $1 vs $1.40. And bananas- Bananas cost less in the US than here. Our hypothetical $1 banana costs $0.97 in the US.

You'd think it's the other way around, right? The US has a whole state boasting about their orange production. They actually export a decent bit of oranges globally. They produce some bananas, too, but the amount is almost negligible. So most bananas are imported. Now, obviously importing stuff costs money, so imported goods should cost more, right? Right?

Unless you can buy them for so cheap, it offsets transport costs, but for that someone would need to be able to produce them for even cheaper somehow.

You ever wonder where the term "banana republic" came from?

Numbers rounded and sourced through this site; at the time of writing they do not yet seem to account for recent economic developments and potential tariffs.

it wasn't ever normal that you guys were getting coffee for cheaper than people in Brazil and Colombia (the producers) do though, I hope you know that

[river-taxbird]

AI hasn't improved in 18 months. It's likely that this is it. There is currently no evidence the capabilities of ChatGPT will ever improve. It's time for AI companies to put up or shut up.

I'm just re-iterating this excellent post from Ed Zitron, but it's not left my head since I read it and I want to share it. I'm also taking some talking points from Ed's other posts. So basically:

We keep hearing AI is going to get better and better, but these promises seem to be coming from a mix of companies engaging in wild speculation and lying.

Chatgpt, the industry leading large language model, has not materially improved in 18 months. For something that claims to be getting exponentially better, it sure is the same shit.

Hallucinations appear to be an inherent aspect of the technology. Since it's based on statistics and ai doesn't know anything, it can never know what is true. How could I possibly trust it to get any real work done if I can't rely on it's output? If I have to fact check everything it says I might as well do the work myself.

For "real" ai that does know what is true to exist, it would require us to discover new concepts in psychology, math, and computing, which open ai is not working on, and seemingly no other ai companies are either.

Open ai has already seemingly slurped up all the data from the open web already. Chatgpt 5 would take 5x more training data than chatgpt 4 to train. Where is this data coming from, exactly?

Since improvement appears to have ground to a halt, what if this is it? What if Chatgpt 4 is as good as LLMs can ever be? What use is it?

As Jim Covello, a leading semiconductor analyst at Goldman Sachs said (on page 10, and that's big finance so you know they only care about money): if tech companies are spending a trillion dollars to build up the infrastructure to support ai, what trillion dollar problem is it meant to solve? AI companies have a unique talent for burning venture capital and it's unclear if Open AI will be able to survive more than a few years unless everyone suddenly adopts it all at once. (Hey, didn't crypto and the metaverse also require spontaneous mass adoption to make sense?)

There is no problem that current ai is a solution to. Consumer tech is basically solved, normal people don't need more tech than a laptop and a smartphone. Big tech have run out of innovations, and they are desperately looking for the next thing to sell. It happened with the metaverse and it's happening again.

In summary:

Ai hasn't materially improved since the launch of Chatgpt4, which wasn't that big of an upgrade to 3.

There is currently no technological roadmap for ai to become better than it is. (As Jim Covello said on the Goldman Sachs report, the evolution of smartphones was openly planned years ahead of time.) The current problems are inherent to the current technology and nobody has indicated there is any way to solve them in the pipeline. We have likely reached the limits of what LLMs can do, and they still can't do much.

Don't believe AI companies when they say things are going to improve from where they are now before they provide evidence. It's time for the AI shills to put up, or shut up.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Autoenshittification

Forget F1: the only car race that matters now is the race to turn your car into a digital extraction machine, a high-speed inkjet printer on wheels, stealing your private data as it picks your pocket. Your car’s digital infrastructure is a costly, dangerous nightmare — but for automakers in pursuit of postcapitalist utopia, it’s a dream they can’t give up on.

Your car is stuffed full of microchips, a fact the world came to appreciate after the pandemic struck and auto production ground to a halt due to chip shortages. Of course, that wasn’t the whole story: when the pandemic started, the automakers panicked and canceled their chip orders, only to immediately regret that decision and place new orders.

But it was too late: semiconductor production had taken a serious body-blow, and when Big Car placed its new chip orders, it went to the back of a long, slow-moving line. It was a catastrophic bungle: microchips are so integral to car production that a car is basically a computer network on wheels that you stick your fragile human body into and pray.

The car manufacturers got so desperate for chips that they started buying up washing machines for the microchips in them, extracting the chips and discarding the washing machines like some absurdo-dystopian cyberpunk walnut-shelling machine:

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/desperate-times-companies-buy-washing-machines-just-to-rip-out-the-chips-187033.html

These digital systems are a huge problem for the car companies. They are the underlying cause of a precipitous decline in car quality. From touch-based digital door-locks to networked sensors and cameras, every digital system in your car is a source of endless repair nightmares, costly recalls and cybersecurity vulnerabilities:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/quality-new-vehicles-us-declining-more-tech-use-study-shows-2023-06-22/

What’s more, drivers hate all the digital bullshit, from the janky touchscreens to the shitty, wildly insecure apps. Digital systems are drivers’ most significant point of dissatisfaction with the automakers’ products:

https://www.theverge.com/23801545/car-infotainment-customer-satisifaction-survey-jd-power

Even the automakers sorta-kinda admit that this is a problem. Back in 2020 when Massachusetts was having a Right-to-Repair ballot initiative, Big Car ran these unfuckingbelievable scare ads that basically said, “Your car spies on you so comprehensively that giving anyone else access to its systems will let murderers stalk you to your home and kill you:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

But even amid all the complaining about cars getting stuck in the Internet of Shit, there’s still not much discussion of why the car-makers are making their products less attractive, less reliable, less safe, and less resilient by stuffing them full of microchips. Are car execs just the latest generation of rubes who’ve been suckered by Silicon Valley bullshit and convinced that apps are a magic path to profitability?

Nope. Car execs are sophisticated businesspeople, and they’re surfing capitalism’s latest — and last — hot trend: dismantling capitalism itself.

Now, leftists have been predicting the death of capitalism since The Communist Manifesto, but even Marx and Engels warned us not to get too frisky: capitalism, they wrote, is endlessly creative, constantly reinventing itself, re-emerging from each crisis in a new form that is perfectly adapted to the post-crisis reality:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/books/review/a-spectre-haunting-china-mieville.html

But capitalism has finally run out of gas. In his forthcoming book, Techno Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism, Yanis Varoufakis proposes that capitalism has died — but it wasn’t replaced by socialism. Rather, capitalism has given way to feudalism:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451795/technofeudalism-by-varoufakis-yanis/9781847927279

Under capitalism, capital is the prime mover. The people who own and mobilize capital — the capitalists — organize the economy and take the lion’s share of its returns. But it wasn’t always this way: for hundreds of years, European civilization was dominated by rents, not markets.

A “rent” is income that you get from owning something that other people need to produce value. Think of renting out a house you own: not only do you get paid when someone pays you to live there, you also get the benefit of rising property values, which are the result of the work that all the other homeowners, business owners, and residents do to make the neighborhood more valuable.

The first capitalists hated rent. They wanted to replace the “passive income” that landowners got from taxing their serfs’ harvest with active income from enclosing those lands and grazing sheep in order to get wool to feed to the new textile mills. They wanted active income — and lots of it.

Capitalist philosophers railed against rent. The “free market” of Adam Smith wasn’t a market that was free from regulation — it was a market free from rents. The reason Smith railed against monopolists is because he (correctly) understood that once a monopoly emerged, it would become a chokepoint through which a rentier could cream off the profits he considered the capitalist’s due:

https://locusmag.com/2021/03/cory-doctorow-free-markets/

Today, we live in a rentier’s paradise. People don’t aspire to create value — they aspire to capture it. In Survival of the Richest, Doug Rushkoff calls this “going meta”: don’t provide a service, just figure out a way to interpose yourself between the provider and the customer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

Don’t drive a cab, create Uber and extract value from every driver and rider. Better still: don’t found Uber, invest in Uber options and extract value from the people who invest in Uber. Even better, invest in derivatives of Uber options and extract value from people extracting value from people investing in Uber, who extract value from drivers and riders. Go meta.

This is your brain on the four-hour-work-week, passive income mind-virus. In Techno Feudalism, Varoufakis deftly describes how the new “Cloud Capital” has created a new generation of rentiers, and how they have become the richest, most powerful people in human history.

Shopping at Amazon is like visiting a bustling city center full of stores — but each of those stores’ owners has to pay the majority of every sale to a feudal landlord, Emperor Jeff Bezos, who also decides which goods they can sell and where they must appear on the shelves. Amazon is full of capitalists, but it is not a capitalist enterprise. It’s a feudal one:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

This is the reason that automakers are willing to enshittify their products so comprehensively: they were one of the first industries to decouple rents from profits. Recall that the reason that Big Car needed billions in bailouts in 2008 is that they’d reinvented themselves as loan-sharks who incidentally made cars, lending money to car-buyers and then “securitizing” the loans so they could be traded in the capital markets.

Even though this strategy brought the car companies to the brink of ruin, it paid off in the long run. The car makers got billions in public money, paid their execs massive bonuses, gave billions to shareholders in buybacks and dividends, smashed their unions, fucked their pensioned workers, and shipped jobs anywhere they could pollute and murder their workforce with impunity.

Car companies are on the forefront of postcapitalism, and they understand that digital is the key to rent-extraction. Remember when BMW announced that it was going to rent you the seatwarmer in your own fucking car?

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#beemers

Not to be outdone, Mercedes announced that they were going to rent you your car’s accelerator pedal, charging an extra $1200/year to unlock a fully functional acceleration curve:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/23/23474969/mercedes-car-subscription-faster-acceleration-feature-price

This is the urinary tract infection business model: without digitization, all your car’s value flowed in a healthy stream. But once the car-makers add semiconductors, each one of those features comes out in a painful, burning dribble, with every button on that fakakta touchscreen wired directly into your credit-card.

But it’s just for starters. Computers are malleable. The only computer we know how to make is the Turing Complete Von Neumann Machine, which can run every program we know how to write. Once they add networked computers to your car, the Car Lords can endlessly twiddle the knobs on the back end, finding new ways to extract value from you:

https://doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9690cce6

That means that your car can track your every movement, and sell your location data to anyone and everyone, from marketers to bounty-hunters looking to collect fees for tracking down people who travel out of state for abortions to cops to foreign spies:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7enex/tool-shows-if-car-selling-data-privacy4cars-vehicle-privacy-report

Digitization supercharges financialization. It lets car-makers offer subprime auto-loans to desperate, poor people and then killswitch their cars if they miss a payment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2eDJnwz_s

Subprime lending for cars would be a terrible business without computers, but digitization makes it a great source of feudal rents. Car dealers can originate loans to people with teaser rates that quickly blow up into payments the dealer knows their customer can’t afford. Then they repo the car and sell it to another desperate person, and another, and another:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/27/boricua/#looking-for-the-joke-with-a-microscope

Digitization also opens up more exotic options. Some subprime cars have secondary control systems wired into their entertainment system: miss a payment and your car radio flips to full volume and bellows an unstoppable, unmutable stream of threats. Tesla does one better: your car will lock and immobilize itself, then blare its horn and back out of its parking spot when the repo man arrives:

https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotely-unlocks-model-3-owners-car-uses-smart-summon-to-help-repo-agent/

Digital feudalism hasn’t stopped innovating — it’s just stopped innovating good things. The digital device is an endless source of sadistic novelties, like the cellphones that disable your most-used app the first day you’re late on a payment, then work their way down the other apps you rely on for every day you’re late:

https://restofworld.org/2021/loans-that-hijack-your-phone-are-coming-to-india/

Usurers have always relied on this kind of imaginative intimidation. The loan-shark’s arm-breaker knows you’re never going to get off the hook; his goal is in intimidating you into paying his boss first, liquidating your house and your kid’s college fund and your wedding ring before you default and he throws you off a building.

Thanks to the malleability of computerized systems, digital arm-breakers have an endless array of options they can deploy to motivate you into paying them first, no matter what it costs you:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers

Car-makers are trailblazers in imaginative rent-extraction. Take VIN-locking: this is the practice of adding cheap microchips to engine components that communicate with the car’s overall network. After a new part is installed in your car, your car’s computer does a complex cryptographic handshake with the part that requires an unlock code provided by an authorized technician. If the code isn’t entered, the car refuses to use that part.

VIN-locking has exploded in popularity. It’s in your iPhone, preventing you from using refurb or third-party replacement parts:

https://doctorow.medium.com/apples-cement-overshoes-329856288d13

It’s in fuckin’ ventilators, which was a nightmare during lockdown as hospital techs nursed their precious ventilators along by swapping parts from dead systems into serviceable ones:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3azv9b/why-repair-techs-are-hacking-ventilators-with-diy-dongles-from-poland

And of course, it’s in tractors, along with other forms of remote killswitch. Remember that feelgood story about John Deere bricking the looted Ukrainian tractors whose snitch-chips showed they’d been relocated to Russia?

https://doctorow.medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors-bc93f471b9c8

That wasn’t a happy story — it was a cautionary tale. After all, John Deere now controls the majority of the world’s agricultural future, and they’ve boobytrapped those ubiquitous tractors with killswitches that can be activated by anyone who hacks, takes over, or suborns Deere or its dealerships.

Control over repair isn’t limited to gouging customers on parts and service. When a company gets to decide whether your device can be fixed, it can fuck you over in all kinds of ways. Back in 2019, Tim Apple told his shareholders to expect lower revenues because people were opting to fix their phones rather than replace them:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/01/letter-from-tim-cook-to-apple-investors/

By usurping your right to decide who fixes your phone, Apple gets to decide whether you can fix it, or whether you must replace it. Problem solved — and not just for Apple, but for car makers, tractor makers, ventilator makers and more. Apple leads on this, even ahead of Big Car, pioneering a “recycling” program that sees trade-in phones shredded so they can’t possibly be diverted from an e-waste dump and mined for parts:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/yp73jw/apple-recycling-iphones-macbooks

John Deere isn’t sleeping on this. They’ve come up with a valuable treasure they extract when they win the Right-to-Repair: Deere singles out farmers who complain about its policies and refuses to repair their tractors, stranding them with six-figure, two-ton paperweight:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/31/dealers-choice/#be-a-shame-if-something-were-to-happen-to-it

The repair wars are just a skirmish in a vast, invisible fight that’s been waged for decades: the War On General-Purpose Computing, where tech companies use the law to make it illegal for you to reconfigure your devices so they serve you, rather than their shareholders:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/01/10/lockdown-the-coming-war-on-general-purpose-computing/

The force behind this army is vast and grows larger every day. General purpose computers are antithetical to technofeudalism — all the rents extracted by technofeudalists would go away if others (tinkereres, co-ops, even capitalists!) were allowed to reconfigure our devices so they serve us.

You’ve probably noticed the skirmishes with inkjet printer makers, who can only force you to buy their ink at 20,000% markups if they can stop you from deciding how your printer is configured:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/07/inky-wretches/#epson-salty But we’re also fighting against insulin pump makers, who want to turn people with diabetes into walking inkjet printers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/10/loopers/#hp-ification

And companies that make powered wheelchairs:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/08/chair-ish/#r2r

These companies start with people who have the least agency and social power and wreck their lives, then work their way up the privilege gradient, coming for everyone else. It’s called the “shitty technology adoption curve”:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/great-taylors-ghost/#solidarity-or-bust

Technofeudalism is the public-private-partnership from hell, emerging from a combination of state and private action. On the one hand, bailing out bankers and big business (rather than workers) after the 2008 crash and the covid lockdown decoupled income from profits. Companies spent billions more than they earned were still wildly profitable, thanks to those public funds.

But there’s also a policy dimension here. Some of those rentiers’ billions were mobilized to both deconstruct antitrust law (allowing bigger and bigger companies and cartels) and to expand “IP” law, turning “IP” into a toolsuite for controlling the conduct of a firm’s competitors, critics and customers:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

IP is key to understanding the rise of technofeudalism. The same malleability that allows companies to “twiddle” the knobs on their services and keep us on the hook as they reel us in would hypothetically allow us to countertwiddle, seizing the means of computation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

The thing that stands between you and an alternative app store, an interoperable social media network that you can escape to while continuing to message the friends you left behind, or a car that anyone can fix or unlock features for is IP, not technology. Under capitalism, that technology would already exist, because capitalists have no loyalty to one another and view each other’s margins as their own opportunities.

But under technofeudalism, control comes from rents (owning things), not profits (selling things). The capitalist who wants to participate in your iPhone’s “ecosystem” has to make apps and submit them to Apple, along with 30% of their lifetime revenues — they don’t get to sell you jailbreaking kit that lets you choose their app store.

Rent-seeking technology has a holy grail: control over “ring zero” — the ability to compel you to configure your computer to a feudalist’s specifications, and to verify that you haven’t altered your computer after it came into your possession:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/30/ring-minus-one/#drm-political-economy

For more than two decades, various would-be feudal lords and their court sorcerers have been pitching ways of doing this, of varying degrees of outlandishness.

At core, here’s what they envision: inside your computer, they will nest another computer, one that is designed to run a very simple set of programs, none of which can be altered once it leaves the factory. This computer — either a whole separate chip called a “Trusted Platform Module” or a region of your main processor called a secure enclave — can tally observations about your computer: which operating system, modules and programs it’s running.

Then it can cryptographically “sign” these observations, proving that they were made by a secure chip and not by something you could have modified. Then you can send this signed “attestation” to someone else, who can use it to determine how your computer is configured and thus whether to trust it. This is called “remote attestation.”

There are some cool things you can do with remote attestation: for example, two strangers playing a networked video game together can use attestations to make sure neither is running any cheat modules. Or you could require your cloud computing provider to use attestations that they aren’t stealing your data from the server you’re renting. Or if you suspect that your computer has been infected with malware, you can connect to someone else and send them an attestation that they can use to figure out whether you should trust it.

Today, there’s a cool remote attestation technology called “PrivacyPass” that replaces CAPTCHAs by having you prove to your own device that you are a human. When a server wants to make sure you’re a person, it sends a random number to your device, which signs that number along with its promise that it is acting on behalf of a human being, and sends it back. CAPTCHAs are all kinds of bad — bad for accessibility and privacy — and this is really great.

But the billions that have been thrown at remote attestation over the decades is only incidentally about solving CAPTCHAs or verifying your cloud server. The holy grail here is being able to make sure that you’re not running an ad-blocker. It’s being able to remotely verify that you haven’t disabled the bossware your employer requires. It’s the power to block someone from opening an Office365 doc with LibreOffice. It’s your boss’s ability to ensure that you haven’t modified your messaging client to disable disappearing messages before he sends you an auto-destructing memo ordering you to break the law.

And there’s a new remote attestation technology making the rounds: Google’s Web Environment Integrity, which will leverage Google’s dominance over browsers to allow websites to block users who run ad-blockers:

https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity

There’s plenty else WEI can do (it would make detecting ad-fraud much easier), but for every legitimate use, there are a hundred ways this could be abused. It’s a technology purpose-built to allow rent extraction by stripping us of our right to technological self-determination.

Releasing a technology like this into a world where companies are willing to make their products less reliable, less attractive, less safe and less resilient in pursuit of rents is incredibly reckless and shortsighted. You want unauthorized bread? This is how you get Unauthorized Bread:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/amp/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

[Image ID: The interior of a luxury car. There is a dagger protruding from the steering wheel. The entertainment console has been replaced by the text 'You wouldn't download a car,' in MPAA scare-ad font. Outside of the windscreen looms the Matrix waterfall effect. Visible in the rear- and side-view mirror is the driver: the figure from Munch's 'Scream.' The screen behind the steering-wheel has been replaced by the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.']

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[chillygourami]

💌 you pulled: Cheerleader Yulia! + vignette

+ background-free version at the end

thanks to @cheerleaderman for hosting this amazing event! 💜

tried to write a vignette to show off her character a bit 🎲 please read and enjoy!

You are walking next to the gymnasium, immersed in your thoughts. 

???: One, two…

???: …Three! Agh, wrong one. Starting again… again.

Yulia: Ah. Good day.

Yulia rolls the sleeves of her shirt, preparing to start the music over again. 

You: … What exactly are you doing? 

Yulia: … It’’s a bit embarrassing to admit. 

Yulia: Crowley said he’d get bonus points for the best cheerleader performance.

Yulia: But I couldn’t exactly keep up with others, so I want to practice our moves until I get in sync. 

Her moves were looking almost pathetic, honestly. 

…

Yulia: What’s that look for? 

She frowns lightly.

Good luck to you, really.

Yulia nods. 

Yulia: Since class is over, would you mind counting in rhythm for me? My head cannot stand another round of music. 

Fine, I have a bit of time. 

What do I get in return?

Yulia: I’ll buy you a bun from the cafeteria. 

Gymnasium. Evening.

You: And… five! 

Yulia: Let’s… take a break… huff. 

She sits on the floor, carefully sipping from the cola bottle.

You: Are you sure you want to perform? You look worn out. 

Yulia: Of course. 

Yulia: It may be exhausting, but it’s nice to be a part of the group too. At least sometimes. 

Yulia: Besides, Idia bet I won't survive all those "extrovert activities". If I do, he will do our cheerleader dance as a support for our class.

Yulia: Aren’t you performing for your class too? 

No, I’m participating in contests. 

Yulia: Oh! So you’re the sporty type.

Yeah. 

Yulia: I’m looking forward to our class beating yours, then!

Yulia: I’ve been wondering. Why do people love things that have rhythm to it? Like music and cheerleading activities. 

Yulia: It seems we are striving for some sort of order in our core. 

Yulia: Then I thought “If so, how come abstract art exists?”

Yulia: But it is another form of order, isn’t it? 

Could you elaborate?

I don’t really understand what you mean. 

Yulia: Sorry. I’ll clarify. 

Yulia: Let’s suppose the definition of order is a state of an object which has a firmly established structure. 

Yulia: For example, the very basic transistor. The order for it is having a few terminals of semiconductors. 

Yulia: Or, moving to art. Academic art has an order of certain rules like anatomy, shadows, lighting… etc.

Yulia: So, let’s suppose abstract and futuristic art itself defies those rules in favour of human psyche reflection.

Yulia: But creating something opposed to whatever already exists is creating another set of rules which is just a logical negation.

Yulia: Hence, order still exists, because we have an established set of rules. And that’s why we perceive such art as beautiful. 

Yulia: And even the statement “No rules” is a rule itself.

Yulia: Of course, that depends on the definition of aesthetics. Those thoughts are based on the belief that beauty is an order in some sense. 

Yulia: So… how would you define aesthetics?

Thank you for reading all the way down here 💜💜💜

[elementcattos]

can we get an exciton catto? its not quite an element like positronium but i think quasiparticles are cute

Alright, here's my take on an Exciton

From what I understood it's a quasiparticle (thing that behaves like a particle but isn't really one) made up of an electron bound to an electron hole (basically an absence of an electron where it should be). So it's kind of like Hydrogen except the proton is replaced with an empty space meant for an electron. Excitons are found in condensed matter, such as semiconductors and insulators, and are pretty large, taking up multiple atoms. They are of course much lighter and more fragile than Hydrogen.

[ttiot]

Hey, Gen Z-ers and millennials, do you really think losses of 2.7 million jobs during the trump administration was “better off”? And can’t you figure out that tariffs are paid for by the consumers not the exporting countries, basically costing you more (estimates of $3-5 thousand per year).

Meanwhile the CHIPS act under Biden/Harris has created 16 new semiconductor plants, private sector investments in 15 states, and 115,000 jobs. Under Biden/Harris, over 14 million jobs have been created, wages have gone up, overtime pay and family medical leave has been protected.

Wake up.

And being the techy generation you know it’s been proven scientifically that there was no computer fraud in the election. So why would you vote for election deniers who just want power and will lie or offer $1 million to get you to vote for them when they don’t have your best interest at heart.

Vote Blue. Vote Early. Vote Now before it’s too late.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jonathan Nicholson at HuffPost:

President Donald Trump said Monday he intended to put tariffs on a wide swath of products and basic materials in American life, a prospect that could lead to prices shooting higher for U.S. consumers. “In particular, in the very near future, we’re going to be placing tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, to return production of these essential goods to the United States of America,” Trump said during an appearance before House Republicans holding their annual party retreat in Doral, Florida. “We’re going to look at chips, semiconductors, and we’re going to look at steel and some other industries. You’re going to see things happening.” Trump also listed aluminum and copper as potential tariff targets as “things that we need for our military.” If he follows through, the tariffs could have a big impact on Americans’ costs of living. Trump has often incorrectly said tariffs — charges put on goods imported into the U.S. — are paid by the country the goods originate from. Companies that bring in the goods actually pay the tariffs.

Trump looking to hurt the US economy with his tariffs proposal that would go after a wide swath of products.

[homestuckreplay]

chumhandle etymology pt.3

Today on Rose and Dave's computer we saw the presumably final seven of the twelve trolls - Jade has counted twelve (p.1000), and between the twelve trolls and four kids all two-letter combinations of A, T, C and G are represented. These are the letters representing DNA bases in both real-world DNA sequencing and in ectobiology, as practiced imperfectly by Rose and her mom (p.934)

I wrote about the beta kids' chumhandles here, and the first five trolls (CG, AG, TA, TC, CA) here - now here's a quick overview of the rest of the set.

gallowsCalibrator [GC] – execution by hanging, or the structure made for it, and an instrument used as a reference to check that similar instruments perform accurately, or the person operating that instrument. So this is the person who ensures the gallows are used correctly, a real middle manager who doesn’t order or carry out executions themself, but enables them still. Possibly like a Jack Noir or a level below him.

arsenicCatnip [AC] – a toxic heavy metal used in car batteries, bullets, semiconductors and pesticides/herbicides, and a plant related to mint that is loved by many cats, or colloquially anything that is irresistible to someone. This evokes environmental destruction, Famine in the horsemen of the apocalypse, or more generally someone who is trying to kill or make toxic things that are enjoyed.

cuttlefishCuller [CC] – a shallow water squidlike mollusc among the most intelligent invertebrates that was once valued for its brown pigment, and a person who kills animals for population control or to eliminate rejects. This is a ruthless person who believes in survival of the fittest and their own intellectual superiority, and only cares about other creatures in terms of what they can personally gain.

centaursTesticle [CT] – a mythical creature with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a horse, also a small solar system body between Jupiter and Neptune, and a reproductive organ in male mammals. Someone who is obsessed with physical strength and prowess, has likely internalized toxic masculinity, perhaps the sort of gym bro who takes questionable supplements to increase muscle mass. Does not seem like a super online person, so this one is surprising. Also my initials are CT and I can’t believe this is the character I got.

grimAuxiliatrix [GA] – serious, foreboding or gloomy, and Latin for a female assistant or helper. This is someone in a service role who either takes their job very seriously, or their job itself involves working with dark and forbidding forces, like the person who translates the melodious chirps and tongue-clicks of NRUB'YIGLITH, SHAMEBEAST KING OF GROTESQUERY, WRITHE-LORD OF THE MOIST BEYONDHOOD (p.303) to the general public.

apocalypseArisen [AA] – the final destruction of the world or a world-altering event capable of causing this, and something that has begun to occur, become apparent, or gotten out of bed. This one is the most passive of all the handles (alongside twinArmageddons) and basically says ‘the end of the world is about to happen, or is happening now’ which it’s hard to argue with based on the story so far. Could be a highly religious person who sees themself as an agent, prophet or herald of a higher power.

adiosToreador [AT] – Spanish for goodbye, and a participant or performer in a bullfight. This person knows five words of Spanish and thinks they’re really cool because of it. They also see themselves as the bull in the bullfight, a more raw and animal strength instead of the fighter’s honed technique, and are probably a counterpart or rival to centaursTesticle.

Much like the first five, all of these names have negative connotations, although these vary between physical pain, disease and toxicity, dark bureaucracy, and cosmic-scale catastrophe. These are definitely names chosen to be hostile or intimidating, it just doesn’t work well on Rose and Dave who are plenty capable of appearing hostile and intimidating by themselves. But for people more susceptible to being trolled, these chumhandles definitely feed into the abrasive personas these kids(?) are crafting.

[stefanelectric]

Low Voltage Relays Explained: Types, Functions, and Applications

In the complex world of electrical systems, relays play a crucial role in ensuring safety, efficiency, and automation. Among these, low voltage relays stand out as versatile components that manage and protect circuits operating below 1000 volts. Whether in industrial automation, residential power distribution, or commercial infrastructure, these devices act as the nerve center of electrical control and protection.

In this comprehensive guide, we will break down what low voltage relays are, explore their types, explain their functions, and highlight their diverse applications across industries.

What Are Low Voltage Relays?

A low voltage relay is an electrically operated switch that uses a small control voltage (typically below 1000V AC or DC) to switch larger electrical loads on and off. These relays act as intermediaries between control circuits and power circuits, providing isolation, control, and protection.

Unlike manual switches, relays automate the process of circuit management, responding to electrical signals, fault conditions, or system commands without human intervention.

Types of Low Voltage Relays

Low voltage relays come in several forms, each tailored to specific tasks within an electrical system. Here are the main types:

1. Electromechanical Relays (EMRs)

· Use a coil and a movable armature to open or close contacts.

· Provide physical isolation between input and output.

· Common in traditional control panels and basic automation.

2. Solid-State Relays (SSRs)

· Use semiconductors (like thyristors or triacs) instead of mechanical contacts.

· Offer silent operation, faster switching, and longer lifespan.

· Ideal for high-speed applications and environments requiring low maintenance.

3. Overload Relays

· Specifically designed to protect motors and equipment from sustained overcurrent.

· Available as thermal overload relays (using bimetallic strips) or electronic overload relays (using sensors and processors).

4. Time Delay Relays

Provide a deliberate time lag between the relay receiving a signal and switching.

Used in motor control circuits, lighting systems, and sequential operations.

5. Overcurrent and Short-Circuit Relays

· Detect and react to current exceeding preset thresholds.

· Essential for system protection against faults and overloads.

6. Voltage Monitoring Relays

· Monitor voltage levels and trip when voltages fall below or rise above safe limits.

· Protect sensitive devices from under voltage and overvoltage conditions.

Functions of Low Voltage Relays

Low voltage relays serve multiple vital functions in electrical systems:

1. Switching and Control

Relays control the opening and closing of power circuits in response to low voltage signals from controllers, timers, or sensors. This enables remote and automated control of large electrical loads.

2. Protection

Relays detect abnormal conditions like overloads, overcurrent, under voltage, and phase failures. When such conditions arise, they disconnect the affected circuit to prevent equipment damage or fire hazards.

3. Isolation

They electrically isolate control circuits (usually low voltage, low current) from power circuits (high voltage, high current), ensuring safety and reducing interference.

4. Signal Amplification

A small control signal (from a PLC, sensor, or microcontroller) can trigger a relay to switch much larger loads, effectively amplifying the control power.

5. Automation and Sequencing

In complex systems, relays help sequence operations by ensuring that processes occur in the correct order and at the right time intervals.

Applications of Low Voltage Relays

Low voltage relays are the backbone of automation and protection in various industries. Here are some key application areas:

Industrial Automation

· Control of motors, pumps, conveyor belts, and production lines.

· Use in programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and distributed control systems (DCS).

Power Distribution Systems

· Protect electrical panels from overload and short circuits.

· Monitor voltage and current levels in distribution boards.

Building Automation

· Lighting control systems.

· HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems.

· Elevator and escalator controls.

Renewable Energy Systems

· Manage and protect solar inverters, battery banks, and wind turbines.

· Automatically disconnect faulty sections to prevent system-wide failures.

Data Centers and IT Infrastructure

· Ensure stable power supply to servers and networking equipment.

· Protect sensitive electronics from voltage fluctuations.

Transportation

· Railways, metros, and automotive applications for control and safety circuits.

Home Appliances

· Found in washing machines, microwave ovens, and HVAC units to automate functions and provide protection.

Advantages of Using Low Voltage Relays

· Enhanced Safety: Isolate control and power circuits, reducing electrical shock risks.

· Automation Ready: Easily integrated into automated systems for smarter operation.

· Cost-Effective Protection: Safeguard expensive equipment from damage due to electrical faults.

· Versatile: Available in many forms to suit different voltage levels, currents, and response times.

· Reduced Maintenance: Especially with solid-state relays, which have no moving parts.

Future Trends: Smart Relays and IoT Integration

As industries move toward smart grids and Industry 4.0, low voltage relays are also evolving:

· Digital relays offer programmable settings, self-testing, and event recording.

· IoT-enabled relays can send status updates and alerts to centralized monitoring systems.

· Energy-efficient designs reduce power consumption while providing reliable protection.

Conclusion

Low voltage relays are indispensable in modern electrical engineering, seamlessly combining protection, control, and automation. From safeguarding your home appliances to managing the power in a sprawling industrial plant, these devices ensure that electrical systems run smoothly and safely.

Understanding the different types, functions, and applications of low voltage relays empowers system designers, engineers, and even DIY enthusiasts to build safer and more efficient electrical setups.

As technology advances, the role of these small but mighty devices will only grow, driving the future of safe, smart, and automated power systems.

[darkmaga-returns]

For decades, the global liberal economic order has operated on the assumption that nations could stretch supply chains across the world to maximize efficiency and profit — with little risk. A shocking share of goods essential to U.S. national security are produced almost entirely in China — including antibiotics and components used in American military hardware. The idea that a country would rely on semiconductors from its primary geopolitical rival to launch a missile defies basic strategic logic. Yet, that is exactly what the United States has done.

[mechanicalred]

Because of this post made by @mechanical-sunchild I started thinking of some resources to check on basic information for most tech/AI/machine kins, this is not a comprehensive guide, just a starting point in research.

(Keep in mind this is are the ones that readily came to mind, some are just quick google searches and I'll probably edit this at some point)

Gold mining (a very common metal in most if not all electronics)

https://www.sciencing.com/facts-5218981-effects-gold-mining-environment/

https://earthworks.org/issues/environmental-impacts-of-gold-mining/

Lithium mining (main ingredient in most batteries)

https://www.mining-technology.com/analyst-comment/lithium-mining-negative-environmental-impact/?cf-view=&cf-closed=

Servers environmental danger (for if you are a program or use the cloud)

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-staggering-ecological-impacts-of-computation-and-the-cloud/

Lead sautering in electronics (it's still a common practice, but more so before 2003 in the US)

https://www.eptac.com/blog/leaded-vs-lead-free-solder-which-is-better

AI and LLMS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPZh9BOjkQs

General places to find news (please don't just read from these, they are good starting points but not all there is)

Environmental org that specifies on mining and oil

news site that centers in mining and technology

General video essays (these are more technology/internet non-specific yet still usefull, I'd recomend at least checking the sources)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqPd6MShV1o&t=2442s

For general legislation those are more country/state/province based, I'd recommend keeping an eye on non profits or official government sites/social media or local news (sort by topics/hashtags/keywords on most news sites)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLgNN-czUpY

I know it's a lot, but if you tackle things one by one I promise it gets easier.

Lastly, for work conditions, check not just the company, but components makers. Most semiconductors and are usually made by TSMC for example, just pick something and go up the line of production (wikipedia is great for that!) and see some of the companie practices.

[kkachizip]

KKACHI'S ENGLISH/한국어 TRANSLATION COMMISSIONS

Hi, I'm Kkachi!

I am;

A native Korean speaker currently living in Korea

A fluent English speaker of 13+ years

A former English teacher several times over

A hobbyist translator whose previous work as a translator includes several pieces of fiction, as well as a Ren'py and an RPG Maker game. I have also participated in a zine as an English to Korean translator.

I am offering services in translating;

Communication (messaging, social media replies)

Original fiction, comics, fanfiction/fancomics

Poetry, lyrics

Essays, articles, textbooks

Commission sheets

Video games

Videos, podcasts, subtitles, emails, letters

All mediums and literary styles are welcome.

Machine/AI translating tools will not be used in any step of the translation process. You are not paying me to use Google Translate or any AI translation tool that you could easily use yourself. I refuse to compromise the integrity of my work with laziness.

In the case of small-scale or solo creative projects such as indie games or fanfiction, commissions will not proceed without proof of knowledge and consent from the original creator(s).

All listed prices are of Korean to English translation.

English to Korean translation prices will add to the total price a markup of +50% (x1.5).

Prices are subject to change.

TRANSLATION PRICES

🖋️ Single sentences: 1,000₩ per sentence

Lines of dialogue, quotes, titles, OC catchphrases, images (ie memes), etc

🖋️ Fiction: 10,000₩ per 100 Hangul characters

Original fiction, fanfiction

🖋️ Comics: 1,000₩ per sentence

Fan comics, webtoon panels

I will not translate illegally sourced webtoon panels. Proof of purchase/loan must be provided. Translated panels must not be redistributed to those that have not purchased or loaned the episode(s) in question.

I do not provide lettering/image editing services.

🖋️ Prose: 10,000₩ per work

Song lyrics, poetry

Songs longer than 5 minutes and poetry that exceeds a single A4 page will require additional charges.

🖋️ Communication: 1,000₩ per sentence

Social media messages, commission communication, QRTs/replies

Proof of knowledge and consent from all parties involved is required for the translation of private conversations, except in the case of cyberbullying/harrassment. Public messages are fair game. I will never judge.

🖋️ Academic writing: 20,000₩ per 100 Hangul characters

Essays, articles, academic/non-fiction writing

I may reject commissions if the translation of a provided work is beyond my professional/academic capabilities. (Translator is a former semiconductor engineering/physics double major, currently an English student; topics such as basic physics and English literature and linguistics are within my capabilities.)

🖋️ Commission sheets: 25,000₩

I will not be translating English to Korean or Korean to English translation commission sheets. All other commissions are welcome; art, writing, crafts, etc.

Service included: reblog/retweet/other methods of sharing of finished commission sheet for signal boosting

Service not included: communication with future clients. See above for Communication services.

🖋️ Video and audio: 6,000₩ per minute

Price is subject to markup if the video/audio exceeds 3 minutes

In the case of documentaries or interviews for which professional/academic knowledge is required, I may reject commissions.

🖋️ Games: ???

Ren'py, RPG Maker games welcome

Price is up for negotiation and depends on how much text is in your game

🖋️ And more!

Please inquire via Tumblr messages if you feel you would like to employ my services.

EDITING PRICES

Emails, letters, essays

20,000₩ per 100 Hangul characters

ADDITIONAL CHARGES/DISCOUNTS

Assignment/homework: +50% (x1.5)

Applies only in the case of work assigned in relation to Korean skills

I will teach you what my translation/editing did to your original sentence & the Korean involved. I do not approve of using me as a paid cheat sheet to get an A+; I will teach and tutor instead.

Does not apply to the following: Korean sentences or words used in art homework ie design elements/comic dialogue, etc

Commercial use: +100% (x2.0)

I am not a professional freelance translator. I encourage you to look for a professional translator in the case that more serious commercial-use services are required.

Queer literature: -10%

I myself am a queer writer; all queer literature is welcome.

Fanworks related to the following; (-10%)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Original and Reboot series), SANABI (Wonder Potion), FAITH: the Unholy Trinity, certain Minecraft YouTubers and streamers (please inquire for more information)

OTHER INFORMATION

I am an adult willing to work with mature/explicit content.

I will not accept hateful material for translation in the case that I judge the translated result could be used to spread hate and bigotry.

Finished translations (with notes/commentary, if applicable) will be delivered via file format of choice.

If crediting a translator, please credit me as @kkachizip.

Please feel free to inquire via DMs if there is something not listed on this page that you would like to ask of me!

CONTACT INFORMATION/OTHER LINKS

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[mysticstronomy]

WHAT IS A QUANTUM COMPUTER??

Blog#313

Wednesday, July 12th, 2023

Welcome back,

It’s fascinating to think about the power in our pocket—today’s smartphones have the computing power of a military computer from 50 years ago that was the size of an entire room. However, even with the phenomenal strides we made in technology and classical computers since the onset of the computer revolution, there remain problems that classical computers just can’t solve. Many believe quantum computers are the answer.

Now that we have made the switching and memory units of computers, known as transistors, almost as small as an atom, we need to find an entirely new way of thinking about and building computers. Even though a classical computer helps us do many amazing things, “under the hood” it’s really just a calculator that uses a sequence of bits—values of 0 and 1 to represent two states (think on and off switch) to makes sense of and decisions about the data we input following a prearranged set of instructions.

Quantum computers are not intended to replace classical computers, they are expected to be a different tool we will use to solve complex problems that are beyond the capabilities of a classical computer.

Basically, as we are entering a big data world in which the information we need to store grows, there is a need for more ones and zeros and transistors to process it. For the most part classical computers are limited to doing one thing at a time, so the more complex the problem, the longer it takes.

A problem that requires more power and time than today’s computers can accommodate is called an intractable problem. These are the problems that quantum computers are predicted to solve.

When you enter the world of atomic and subatomic particles, things begin to behave in unexpected ways. In fact, these particles can exist in more than one state at a time. It’s this ability that quantum computers take advantage of.

Instead of bits, which conventional computers use, a quantum computer uses quantum bits—known as qubits. To illustrate the difference, imagine a sphere. A bit can be at either of the two poles of the sphere, but a qubit can exist at any point on the sphere. So, this means that a computer using qubits can store an enormous amount of information and uses less energy doing so than a classical computer.

By entering into this quantum area of computing where the traditional laws of physics no longer apply, we will be able to create processors that are significantly faster (a million or more times) than the ones we use today. Sounds fantastic, but the challenge is that quantum computing is also incredibly complex.

The pressure is on the computer industry to find ways to make computing more efficient, since we reached the limits of energy efficiency using classical methods. By 2040, according to a report by the Semiconductor Industry Association, we will no longer have the capability to power all of the machines around the world.

That’s precisely why the computer industry is racing to make quantum computers work on a commercial scale. No small feat, but one that will pay extraordinary dividends.

Originally published on forbes.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, July 15th, 2023)

"DOES MASS INCREASE WHEN NEARING THE SPEED OF LIGHT??"