Our “After On” podcast on the terrifying promise of quantum computing just came out: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/06/quantum-computings-terrifyi.html
Author Rob Reid starts with some of our common background, and then we dive into quantum computing (at minute 13) and jump to a dark scenario of one company pulling ahead of all others (minute 37).
The book is a sci-fi novel akin to “future history” as every technology described therein relates to real projects I know to exist, and in many cases ones that I have invested in. For example, the emergent AI that takes over the world is built with a deep learning stack running on a D-Wave quantum computer (and I have been on the board of D-Wave Systems for 15 years now, seeing them grow from 1 qubit to 2000 today).
Another fun detail: all of the hilarious Amazon product reviews scattered throughout the book are real. Rob posted them many years ago to woo Morgan Webb to marry him!
If you want to see what the shiny QC cylinder looks like, Linus Tech Tips recently published an energetic (and quirky) tour of the soul of the new machine and the fridge that keeps it way cool, at 0.008° above absolute zero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=342&v=60OkanvToFI (wow, 3m views of a Quantum Computer)
Oh, and I love that DFJ seed funded the AI company, per my earlier post 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/jurvetson/posts/10159155601100611
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