"... a laser the size of a grain of rice, while investigating the use of semiconductor material fragments as components for quantum computing. The study was started to explore the quantum dots, and not lasers. Quantum dots act like single atoms, as components for quantum computers. The maser is a tiny, rice grain sized laser that is powered by a single electron from the artificial atoms called quantum dots.
Jason Petta, an associate professor of physics at Princeton and the lead author of the study, said, “It is basically as small as you can go with these single-electron devices.”"
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I had never heard of "quantum computing" until recently. pl
That is not AI; unless you wish to identify Automata with AI.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 19 January 2015 at 06:30 PM
I'm not enough up on physics to know if your phrasing of the energy exchange from core to surface is a heat bucket brigade. It's my understanding that the collisions do not result in increased or for that matter reduced speeds while occurring within the sun, merely travel extremely long paths to get to the surface to be emitted into space where density reduction reduces collisions commensurately.
What the exact physics of heat generation and exchange are is beyond my knowledge or interest at this point. That the current light is older than human civilization is for me an apprehendable metaphysical delight derived from the physics I don't more comprehensively understand.
Posted by: Charles I | 20 January 2015 at 02:39 PM
A.I. is like Magic. After you know how it's done, it isn't A.I. any more.
Previous casualties include robotics; computer vision; automatic scheduling; expert systems; and machine learning/statistical-driven big data. I would argue that a natural-language machine that can hold conversations with you is doing pretty decent A.I. The current generation does not have free will nor self-awareness. An irrelevant point that will change soon when it becomes necessary.
the point is, we're currently at Kitty Hawk watching a bicycle-powered contraption go for 300', and people are saying "heavier-than-air craft can never really FLY because they don't flap their wings". In 42 years we'll be dropping the A-bomb on Hiroshima. The military always gets all the goodies first, having infinite money. But a Skynet hostile to humans could be a real problem. Peace is more cost-effective than war. I'd like to see a way for real A.I. to keep from being made into a weapon to wipe people out, five minutes after it's discovered.
Posted by: Imagine | 20 January 2015 at 08:19 PM