PythaggregatorUser asks for an explanation of why quantum computing companies are listed on the stock exchange
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lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3d42cbaf-a7d4-4b42-af3…
lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3d42cbaf-a7d4-4b42-af3…
Quantum computing exists. It is simply not competitive with regular computing.
What you're effectively asked to invest in is some very early patents on components that could eventually be scaled up into industrially viable quantum computers.
Because NVIDIA dictates enormous amounts of investment capital through it's valuation, the CEO's statement effectively means fewer dollars towards improved engineering and less likelihood that patent holders will put together a viable product before those patents expire.
Because they figure that if quantum competing does happen, it's going to be huge and if you're invested early you'll make big profits. So they take the gamble and buy stocks now just in case.
These are the people with enough money to go around to gamble on a bunch of stuff like this to play that odds. Statistically one of those bets is going to hit the jackpot and they earn all those bets back with a big profit.
Don't forget dumbasses like me who started gambling while stuck at home during covid. I buy ~$20 of speculative stocks every few months just for the thrill. It's basically the same thing as buying lottery tickets except it keeps me entertained for months or years watching them spike and fall.
How's it going? Not well. I'm sure I've lost more than I've made but it was money that I was okay with losing... same as a casino I guess.
It's a big club, and you ain't in it.
I mean, quantum computing does exist right now, it’s just not terribly stable or useful yet. With time and bucketloads of engineering it could be a huge change in how we solve problems.
My understanding is that it is *incredibly* useful for *very obscure and specific* things, and not very good at all for general purpose computing (and it may never be).
Not yet, I think. They're still too small from what I've heard to be useful for really anything at all, but they are improving and will likely start to be useful in the next 10 years or so
Yes, for cracking older cryptography.
Sounds like something someone once said about airplanes.
And it's not like Nvidia is really selling AI either...
Ironically enough, real AI can't happen until quantum computing. Actual intelligence has a quantum compenont.
I'm a neuroscientist. I have no idea how you definitively know that.
Vibes.
Somebody read "The Emperor's New Mind" and called it a day.
"read".
https://www.pbs.org/video/was-penrose-right-new-evidence-for-quantum-effects-in-the-brain-pe0bka/
Since you have a problem with reading, you can just watch that.
It's about the discovery from 6 months ago where the quantum process was found
It's great you read books about this from 50/60 years ago, but you need to stay up on recent science too if you want to shit talk people for not knowing stuff.
Do you mean you didn't hear Penrose's hypothesis from (checks watch) over fifty years ago?
Or the discovery of extended potassium superposition in microtubules from like six months ago which showed there's quantum superposition in the brain?
Or you haven't heard of either?
I'm aware of both. Hameroff has been banging on about that stuff since the 90s. The views of neither are mainstream in neuroscience.
The fact that superposition may exist in the brain does not mean it's causal in "consciousness" (cf. temperature in the regulation of cognition). And the construct of "consciousness" is far from isomorphic with "intelligence" which is where the conversation started.
I appreciate that you're enthusiastic about the approach, but I would urge you to temper your enthusiasm with due consideration of alternatives.
For that you can look at how anesthesia works...
Which, we don't know how it does. But we do know it results in a disruption of those microtubules, thus losing the superposition.
And it would also explain why a hit to the head can also cause unconscious, the microtubules being physically disrupted by the impact. Along with many other examples.
What you're doing is like arguing that we don't know if gravity is real because it's still a theory.
Hell, string theory was accepted for like 40 years, but ask any of the greatest living physicists today about it and they'll tell you it's been a waste of time and needs thrown out.
You're too hung up on scientific consensus without understanding how hard that is to achieve and that sometimes, it's still wrong.
Everything we know about conscious/intelligence points to a quantum component and has for decades. Just because we don't know everything about it doesn't mean we ignore it. Hell, we *just* got the tech to verify it's there.
It's there and it's real, regardless of if we know how it's happening. Pretending we can ignore it because we don't understand it is the opposite of science.
We have a saying in science; *science advances one funeral at a time*. It's a pithy summation of Kuhn's *The Structure of Scientific Revolutions*. So yes, I know how hard it can be to change people's minds. Most scientists do.
I partially trained in a psychology department, so I haven't even started down the path of operationalizing "consciousness". I note that neither Penrose or Hameroff are trained in the discipline either. So if you think the concept is self evident, it ain't.
I'm not throwing out the concept, but the evidence is far from overwhelming, and there are strong critiques from people like Christof Koch that can't simply be dismissed out of hand. I compared it temperature, which can also produce anesthesia and loss of consciousness. But no one would step up and say that consciousness is temperature. Or maybe they would?
User thinks thing that doesn't exist will just appear out of thin air all on its own?
The stock market is just gambling. But it's not betting on a certain company's well-being, it's whether high frequency trading algos and market maker loophole abuse will make your portfolio improve or not. If you foresaw the dude saying the thing and got some order set up to catch it in time you might even get a trade on the lit market, but most trading happens somewhere else at different prices and at times you're not allowed to participate.
As others has said. Quantum computers exist and has existed for a while.
You can even play around with one for free https://www.ibm.com/quantum/pricing
Yeah they are just mostly useless.
Same reason lab-grown meat companies exist on the stonk exchange
The value of stocks is heavily influenced by the future projection of a company's success.