“NASA Halts Quantum Computing Project”
Image from www.dwave.com, Photo rendering of D-wave Quantum Computer.
By Scott Hamilton
I have written several times in the past about quantum computers and what they mean for the future of computing. However, I must admit that I had a few things wrong in unpredictable ways. As it turns out, back in February, NASA hit the pause button on their quantum computing research. I assumed, as did several others in the field, that the program was put on hold because of funding or lack of usable results, or both. We were wrong, according to techgig.com. NASA paused the program for the opposite reason. The quantum computing program was actually more successful than expected and gave NASA some surprising results.
NASA’s quantum computer was being utilized to solve overly complex problems that were impossible to solve using conventional computers. For a long time NASA engineers thought the results they were getting from the quantum computer were flawed due to the fact that these early quantum processors were noisy and often gave incorrect answers to known problems. Something unexpected happened during a routine test of the system.
During more than a few complex simulations, the quantum computer demonstrated unprecedented computational power and successfully solved the unsolvable problem. This was a remarkable achievement in computational science, which even shocked the scientists doing the research. So why did they decide to pause the project with such a seemingly successful result?
The alarming thing that happened next caused NASA to pull the plug, as the computer began generating outputs that challenged conventional thinking. Scientists began looking at these unconventional results and realized that the computer had brought new insight to the scientific community.
Did this mean that the quantum computer was thinking for itself and able to create new ideas? I believe so, especially given the remarks that the researchers and government officials in charge of the project were concerned that the quantum computer might have connected with extraterrestrial intelligence, allowing it to enter an unknown realm of computation.
NASA believes, like many others in the community, that the risks associated with such powerful machines are not worth the results that can be gained through the technology. The shutdown of NASA’s quantum computing project is only one of the many alarm bells sounding about the risks behind this particular new technology. It is alarmingly close to the creation of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which may cause these AGIs to want to protect themselves.
I do not believe NASA’s quantum computer contacted extraterrestrial intelligence, but rather became extraterrestrial intelligence. Following the shutdown of the program the U.S. government initiated a thorough investigation into the source of these unprecedented results. I must admit that when I first came across this information, I thought it was standard internet click bait and fake news in the quantum computing arena. However, after looking a little further I found that although there does not appear to be an official announcement regarding the end of the program, all research seems to have stopped, with the last published paper from NASA’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (QuAIL) stopped in April 2023. To me this indicates that either they killed the program, or found things too dangerous to share with the general public and have silenced their research. If you want to see more about the research done at (QuAIL) you can visit their website at http://alturl.com/c2dg4.
Until next week, stay safe and learn something new.
Scott Hamilton is an Expert in Emerging Technologies at ATOS and can be reached with questions and comments via email to sh*******@te**********.org or through his website at https://www.techshepherd.org.
