UFO Conjectures

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

For Dvelys

Bryan Sentes posted this on Facebook. He can't accept the possibility of an eventual quantum computing system:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2220813-ibm-says-google-may-not-have-reached-quantum-supremacy-after-all/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=SOC&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid
=IwAR0dKsk9uaQdoxJiSuu1tXHsjVU_22JxSsx2GBDTn0WlKhMTs0_xJ46q-10#Echobox=1571763814

(We quantumists will eventually prevail.)

RR

posted by RRRGroup at Tuesday, October 22, 2019

8 Comments:

  • Again, you misrepresent me. My thesis has always and only been that the eventual development of a quantum computer is by no measure _guaranteed_; it _may_ not come to pass.

    By Blogger Bryan Sentes, at Tuesday, October 22, 2019  

  • It's not a question of fact, about you.

    It's a question of your dislike of the quantum idea of computing, the appearance of that in your behavior.

    You suggestion that "a quantum computer is by no measure guaranteed" is what I'm pointing a finger at: it's so negative that my writing "you can't accept the possibility" is a mild opprobrium.

    RR

    By Blogger RRRGroup, at Tuesday, October 22, 2019  

  • Again, you misread me. I am neutral toward the possibility; if it comes to pass, it comes to pass, and I've never made any stronger claim. That you seem to take it to be making a stronger claim (e.g., that it will _not_ come to pass) and expressing more emotion says more about you than me.

    What I am critical of is the unswerving and uncritical faith that it will come to pass, and with it, all manner of Singularity fever dreams, including, e.g., the uploading of concsiousness.

    By Blogger Bryan Sentes, at Tuesday, October 22, 2019  

  • If I were you and wanted to leave here with clean hands, I'd write something like this:

    "I find lots of linked statements that quantum computing doesn't appear to be viable now or in the near future.

    But I also find linked statements that say otherwise, that quantum computing is inevitable.

    I, Bryan Sentes, come down on the side that thinks that quantum computing is not feasible now or anytime soon."

    If you were neutral Bryan, you wouldn't keep throwing around all the negative statements about quantum computing. You'd add a few positive projections online at Facebook and elsewhere.

    That's all I'm saying. You're a Negative Nelly, one who can't accept the idea of a possible usable quantum computer sometime down the road.

    No misreading on my part. Your words "condemn you" themselves.

    RR

    By Blogger RRRGroup, at Tuesday, October 22, 2019  

  • Brother, all I've been saying is exactly the final sentence you suggest. I trust my interlocutors are both charitable and insightful enough to deduce the other implied statements.

    At the end of the day (as I've written...), my concern is the uncritical, "happy positivism" (Foucault) expressed overwhelmingly in favour of any imaginable technological "development" (and the ideology that underwrites it). I'd urge interested or concerned parties to seek out Adam Greenfield's _Radical Technologies: the design of everyday life_ among other related, reflective, critical works.

    By Blogger Bryan Sentes, at Tuesday, October 22, 2019  

  • Bryan:

    You are an angel of intellectual acumen and I appreciate your forbearance in the matter I've presented (again).

    As always the gentleman you are, I'm happy that you seem to concede that quantum computing may be possible (sometime, somehow).

    RR

    By Blogger RRRGroup, at Tuesday, October 22, 2019  

  • Perhaps Google did not officially achieve quantum supremacy, but it is certainly on the horizon.

    Bryan, I think either your views have been misinterpreted or you're making wild assertions about our assertions.

    Let me say that I believe a technological dystopia is more realistic than a utopian one. However, I embrace this realisation.

    “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
    ― Sun Tzu

    G.K. Chesterton once suggested that the only empirically verifiable Christian doctrine is original sin. We cannot prove God exists. We can, however, prove that human beings are terribly screwed up. It is all around us. It is inside us. It’s even on the best-seller list.

    By Blogger Dvelys, at Wednesday, October 23, 2019  

  • That's a terrific, and accurate, closing paragraph.

    By Blogger Ron, at Thursday, October 24, 2019  

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