Quantum energy transportation
(archive.ph)
Comments (14)
sorted by:
That's a good guess.
And the longer distance was not tested because..?
The quantum stuff has been pretty interesting, ever since it was shown that observation can influence the observed. Saying that it imparts energy, eh, I dunno where that's coming from - sounds like an assumption. But who knows, maybe we'll get quantum home computers at some point that break if you try to open the case and look at the insides, creating a great opportunity for corporations to put a stop to user-customized hardware.
The author explained they just wanted to see if it actually worked first. I think cellphones with a continuous charge would be a good start. I have done research on how to build a wireless pinball table, and this would be perfect.
If I were the guy getting to work on it, I wouldn't be able to sleep until I learned more. It's an exciting new field of research that could revolutionize technology, so I don't understand the "this is enough for now" approach.
I can see cellphones being a good first step in getting this kind of thing to consumers. Small luxury, huge amount of testing. Though I have no clue what kind of red tape this would have to break through first.
They would need to control the amount given and received, along with any radiation from the energy. So the phone has enough energy, but emits enough radiation from the transfer to effect people and equipment around it. The wireless charging systems that are available like Ossia are actually breaking the law because the amount being sent out is considered too much radiation. I'm using radiation as a generic term here, because there are a lot of waves that can cause damage to people.
For a pinball table it's not the power being given, it's the constant amount so when a button is pressed, it reacts to the ball quickly. If that amount was transmitted via WiFi, it would fry anyone who played the game for very long. High score and loss of muscles at the same time.
Ossia has not released a single product that I know of because of these regulations. It makes me wonder what their investors are actually using them for.
It's an awesome thing, but getting the basic set up will take 2-3 years to safely be done.
Interesting, I hadn't really been following that tech line. I'm not exactly big on regulations, but I can easily understand it here.
Just a few years is faster than I'd hope for, personally.
Tech moves in lurches. Once something actually works, and tech guys get it you see it move fast. Sort of like AI in the last few years. We could get it to make crappy images for years, and then suddenly Midjourney has destroyed an entire market and Chat AI can write thesis papers.
I can believe that, but having a paragraph talking about it would have been really informative in the article.
"Observation" is really a terrible word for it. The correct word is "interaction." Basically if you mash two particles together you can destabilize and mix ("entangle") their wave forms. Then when you split them up again the universe "forgets" which one is which for a second. When one of the particles gets bumped by something (like a photon bouncing off it to measure it, hence "observation") the universe goes "aha! it's that one!" and collapses the wave form of both particles so that they continue to match according to the laws of physics. If one particle was entangled with an excess of energy, then the other particle will "receive" that energy when it collapses, instantly and across any distance, because from the universe's point of view the second particle must have had that energy with it the whole time or physics would have been broken.
Think of it like the universe has an error handler that makes sure the laws of physics always get obeyed, and quantum processes like this are just us tricking the error handler into activating so we can watch it do interesting things. Its like Rollback Netcode but for physical matter.
Very good article. I know they have teleported a proton but reading about quantum wave functions, super position, how particles are in all probable locations until observed, and teleportation is fascinating. And I think we have just scratched the surface of quantum mechanics
The book Timeline by Michael Crichton is a great introductory course on the subject.
Thanks!