Quantum Computers Explained – Limits of Human Technology

Where are the limits of human technology? And can we somehow avoid them? This is where quantum computers become very interesting. 














For most of our history, human technology consisted of our brains, fire, and sharp sticks. 0:06 While fire and sharp sticks became power plants and nuclear weapons, 0:10 the biggest upgrade has happened to our brains. 0:13 Since the 1960's, the power of our brain machines has kept growing exponentially, 0:17 allowing computers to get smaller and more powerful at the same time. 0:21 But this process is about to meet its physical limits. 0:25 Computer parts are approaching the size of an atom. 0:28 To understand why this is a problem, we have to clear up some basics. 0:33 In a Nutshell - By Kurzgesagt 0:39 A computer is made up of very simple components 0:42 doing very simple things. 0:44 Representing data, the means of processing it, and control mechanisms. 0:49 Computer chips contain modules, which contain logic gates, which contain transistors 0:54 A transistor is the simplest form of a data processor in computers, 0:58 basically a switch that can either block, or open the way for information coming through 1:03 This information is made up of bits 1:06 which can be set to either 0 or 1. 1:08 Combinations of several bits are used to represent more complex information. 1:13 Transistors are combined to create logic gates which still do very simple stuff. 1:18 For example, an AND Gate sends an output of 1 if all of its inputs are 1 and a output of 0 otherwise. 1:25 Combinations of logic gates finally form meaningful modules, say, for adding two numbers. 1:31 Once you can add, you can also multiply, 1:33 and once you can multiply, you can basically do anything. 1:37 Since all basic operations are literally simpler than first grade math, 1:41 you can imagine a computer as a group of 7-year-olds answering really basic math questions. 1:46 A large enough bunch of them could compute anything 1:48 from astrophysics to Zelda. 1:51 However, with parts getting tinier and tinier, 1:53 quantum physics are making things tricky. 1:56 In a nutshell, a transistor is just a electric switch. 1:59 Electricity is electrons moving from one place to another. 2:03 So, a switch is a passage that can block electrons from moving in one direction. 2:08 Today, a typical scale for transistors is 14 nanometers 2:12 Which is about 8 time less than the HIV virus' diameter 2:15 and 500 times smaller than a red blood cell. 2:18 As transistors are shrinking to the size of only a few atoms 2:22 Electrons may just transfer themselves to the other side of a blocked passage 2:25 via a process called Quantum Tunneling 2:28 In the quantum realm, physic works quite differently from the predictable way were used to 2:33 and traditional computers just stop making sense. 2:36 We are approaching a real physical barrier for our technological progress. 2:41 To solve this problem, 2:42 scientists are trying to use these unusual quantum properties to their advantage 2:47 by building quantum computers. 2:49 In normal computers, bits are the smallest unit of information. 2:53 Quantum computers use qubits which can also be set to one of two values. 2:58 A qubit can be any two level quantum system 3:00 such as a spin and a magnetic field or a single photon 3:04 0 and 1 are this system's possible states 3:07 like the photons horizontal or vertical polarization 3:10 In the quantum world, the qubit doesn't have to be just one of those 3:14 It can be in any proportions of both states at once 3:17 This is called superposition. 3:19 But as soon as you test its value, say, by sending the photon through a filter 3:24 It has to decide to be either vertically or horizontally polarized 3:29 So as long as it's unobserved, 3:31 The qubit is in a superposition of probabilities for 0 and 1 and you can't predit which it'll be 3:37 But the instant you measure it 3:39 It collapses into one of the definite states. 3:42 Superposition is a game changer. 3:44 For classical bits can be in one of two to the power of four different configurations at a time. 3:50 That's 16 possible combinations at which you can use just one 3:54 For qubits in superposition, however, can be in all of those 16 combinations at once. 4:00 This number grows exponentially with each extra qubit 4:04 20 of them can already store a million values in parallel. 4:08 A really weird and unintuitive property qubits can have is Entanglement, 4:12 a close connection that makes each of the qubits react to a change in the other state instantaneously, 4:18 no matter how far they are apart 4:20 This means when measuring just one entangled qubit, you can directly to use property of it's partner's 4:26 without having to look 4:27 Qubit Manipulation is a mind bender as well 4:31 A normal logic gate gets a simple set of inputs and produces one definite output 4:36 A quantum gate manipulates an input of superpositions, rotates probabilities, 4:41 and produces another superposition as its output. 4:44 So a quantum computer sets up some qubits, applies quantum gates to entangle them and manipulate probabilities 4:51 then finally measures the outcome, collapsing superpositions to an actual sequence of 0s and 1s 4:57 What this means is you get entire lot of calculations that are possible with your setup all done at the same time 5:04 Ultimately you can only measure one of the results and it'll only probably be the one you want, 5:09 So you might have to double check and try again. 5:12 But by cleverly exploiting superposition and entanglement, 5:15 this can be exponentially more efficient than would ever be possible on a normal computer. 5:20 So, while quantum computers will not probably not replace our home computers, 5:25 in some areas, they are vastly superior. 5:28 One of them is database searching. 5:30 To find something in a database, a normal computer may have to test every single one of its entries. 5:35 Quantum computers algorithms need only the square root of that time 5:39 which for large databases, is a huge difference 5:42 The most famous use of quantum computers is ruining IT security 5:46 right now you are browsing email and banking data is being kept secure by an encryption safety system 5:52 in which you give everyone a public key to encode messages only you can decode 5:56 The problem is that this public key can actually be used to calculate your secret private key 6:02 Luckily, doing the necessary math on any normal computer would literally take years of try and error 6:07 But a quantum computer with exponential speed-up could do it in a breeze 6:12 Another really exciting new use is simulations 6:15 Simulations of the quantum world are very intense on resources 6:19 and even for bigger structures such as molecules they often lack accuracy 6:24 So why not simulate quantum physics with actual quantum physics? 6:28 Quantum simulations could provide new insights on proteins that might revolutionize medicine. 6:34 Right now we don't know if quantum computers will be just a specallized tool 6:38 or a big revolution for humanity. 6:40 We have no idea where the limits of technology are 6:43 and there's only one way to find out. 6:46 This video is supported by the Australian Academy of Science 6:50 which promotes and supports excellence in science








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Why The War on Drugs Is a Huge Failure

 The war against drugs has been a terrible disaster for everybody involved. Why? And can we do something differently?















Over 40 years ago, US President Richard Nixon 0:02 declared drug abuse public enemy number one, 0:05 starting an unprecedented global campaign, the War on Drugs. 0:09 Today, the numbers are in. 0:11 The War on Drugs is a huge failure, with devastating unintended consequences. 0:16 It led to mass incarceration in the US; 0:19 to corruption, political destabilization, and violence 0:22 in Latin America, Asia, and Africa; 0:24 to systemic human rights abuses across the world. 0:28 It negatively affected the lives of millions of people. 0:31 All of this while we waste billions of dollars every year 0:34 only to create and fuel powerful drug cartels 0:37 while the goal of the War on Drugs seems less achievable than ever: 0:41 a world without drugs. 0:43 How could this happen? 0:54 The core strategy of the War on Drugs is “no drugs, no problems”. 0:58 So almost all of the efforts in the last few decades 1:01 have been focused on eradicating the supply of drugs 1:03 and incarcerating drug traffickers. 1:06 But this ignores the most fundamental of market forces, 1:09 supply and demand. 1:11 If you reduce the supply of anything without reducing the demand first, 1:15 its price goes up. 1:17 This might lower sales for many products, but not for drugs. 1:20 The drugs market is not price-sensitive. 1:23 Drugs will be consumed no matter what they cost. 1:26 So the effect is to encourage production of more drugs and 1:30 recruitment of more traffickers, which increases availability. 1:34 This is also known as the balloon effect: even if drug production or 1:38 a major supply route is destroyed, the supply for the end user is not reduced. 1:43 A perfect example of this is crystal meth. 1:46 The US Government tried to stop its production 1:48 by strictly regulating the sale of chemicals used to manufacture the drug. 1:53 This forced big meth producers out of business, 1:55 but the unintended consequences were that thousands of small-scale operations 1:59 started all over the country, mostly in small towns and rural communities, 2:03 using chemicals that weren’t regulated. 2:06 In response to this, some US states wanted to reduce the supply of home-grown meth 2:10 by regulating even more chemicals, 2:12 which reduced small-scale meth production drastically. 2:15 But the supply of meth still stayed the same. 2:18 Mexican drug cartels immediately took over and opened big production operations. 2:23 Their meth was even better than it was before, 2:25 and they had lots of experience in smuggling. 2:28 So all these efforts made meth production more professional, 2:31 the drug more potent, while supply wasn’t reduced at all. 2:35 You can’t win this war on the supply side. 2:38 Not only are drugs widely available, demand unbroken, 2:41 and some drugs purer than in the past, with a budget of around $30 billion, 2:46 the US Drug Enforcement Agency has an efficiency rate of less than 1% 2:50 when it comes to stopping the flow of drugs into the US 2:53 and inside the US. 2:54 For many minors around the world, it’s as easy to get illegal drugs as alcohol. 3:00 But it doesn’t stop here. 3:01 Prohibition may prevent a certain amount of people from taking drugs, 3:04 but in the process it causes huge damage to society as a whole. 3:09 Many of the problems we associate with drug use 3:11 are actually caused by the war against them. 3:14 For example, prohibition makes drugs stronger. 3:17 The more potent drugs you can store in as little space as possible, 3:20 the more profit you’ll make. 3:22 It was the same during alcohol prohibition, 3:23 which led to an increased consumption of strong liquor over beer. 3:27 The prohibition of drugs also led to more violence and murders around the world. 3:31 Gangs and cartels have no access to the legal system to settle disputes, 3:35 so they use violence. 3:37 This led to an ever-increasing spiral of brutality. 3:40 According to some estimates, the homicide rate in the US 3:43 is 25–75% higher because of the War on Drugs. 3:47 And in Mexico, the country on the frontline, 3:49 an estimated 164,000 have been murdered between 2007 and 2014, 3:55 more people than in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq 3:58 in the same period, combined. 4:00 But where the War on Drugs might do the most damage to society 4:03 is the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders. 4:06 For example, the United States, 4:08 one of the driving forces of the War on Drugs, 4:10 has 5% of the world’s total population, but 25% of the world’s prison population, 4:16 largely due to the harsh punishments and mandatory minimums. 4:20 Minorities suffer because of this especially. 4:23 African Americans make up 40% of all US prison inmates. 4:27 And while white kids are more likely to abuse drugs, 4:30 black kids are 10 times more likely to get arrested for drug offenses. 4:34 OK, but is there actually something different we could do? 4:37 Is there a way out of this mess? 4:39 In the 1980s, Switzerland experienced 4:41 a public health crisis related to heroin use. 4:44 HIV rates skyrocketed and street crime became a problem. 4:48 Swiss authorities tried a new strategy: harm reduction. 4:52 They opened free heroin maintenance centers, 4:54 where addicts would be treated and stabilized. 4:57 Here, people would be given free heroin of high quality, 4:59 they would get clean needles and have access to safe injection rooms, 5:03 showers, beds, and medical supervision. 5:06 Social workers help them find housing and deal with other problems in their lives. 5:11 The results were a sharp drop in drug-related crime 5:14 and two thirds of the people in the centers got regular jobs, 5:16 because now they could focus on getting better 5:18 insetad of financing their addiction. 5:21 Today, over 70% of all heroin addicts in Switzerland receive treatment. 5:26 HIV infections have dropped drastically. 5:29 Deaths from heroin overdoses have dropped by 50%. 5:33 And drug-related street sex work and crime has been reduced enormously. 5:37 So there are methods that are not only way cheaper, 5:40 but also actually work, instead of creating more problems. 5:44 Drug prohibition led to a system that bulldozes human rights, 5:47 costs vasts sums of money, and creates a lot of human misery, 5:51 all in pursuit of an unobtainable goal. 5:54 After 40 years of fighting, it’s time to finally end the War on Drugs 5:59 and move on to something better. 6:02 This video was supported by the Open Society Foundations 6:05 and by viewer donations on Patreon. 6:07 If you want to learn more about how you can influence drug policy, 6:10 check out the Stop the Harm campaign. 6:13 We finally have some merchandise! 6:15 If you want your own Kurzgesagt poster, T-shirt, mug, 6:18 or stickers of little monsters, 6:20 you can get them now at the DFTBA store! 6:23 Subtitles by the Amara.org community









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Alex Jones Show (VIDEO Commercial Free) Friday 2/3/17: News, Commentary & Reports

 -- Date: February 03, 2017 --
Today on The Alex Jones Show
On the Friday, Feb. 3 broadcast of the Alex Jones Show, survivalist expert James Wesley Rawles will discuss how to stay safe amid an increasing number of violent attacks on Trump supporters. Also on today's show, Rep. Kevin Martin of Pennsylvania will talk about how to get the millennial generation to come together as a community. We will continue to cover the aftermath of the Berkeley riots and Trump's feud with Iran. We'll also take your calls during this global transmission.









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