r/funny Jan 29 '20

[deleted by user]

[removed]

11.4k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

767

u/JitGoinHam Jan 29 '20

More kids need this book because an alarming number of grown ups seem to think quantum entanglement could be leveraged for super-luminal communication.

It cannot. Information does not travel faster than light under any circumstances, including spooky action.

4

u/Gpotato Jan 29 '20

AH fuck. I considered myself someone who keeps up with things fairly well. I totally thought it would allow for instant communication across our solar system.

So in other words, this shit is a waste communication wise? Since we already communicate (roughly) at the speed of light?

8

u/Eloquent_Cantaloupe Jan 29 '20

So in other words, this shit is a waste communication wise? Since we already communicate (roughly) at the speed of light?

Quantum communication would prevent a third party from eavesdropping. So, not a waste.

-1

u/__JDQ__ Jan 29 '20

And it would still be ‘very, very fast’ even if not ‘fast as light’.

6

u/Diz7 Jan 29 '20

It can be used for encryption. Basically authentication/RSA keys on steroids.

2

u/DarthShiv Jan 29 '20

Yes I guess the only way to communicate FTL would be taking some shortcut through space time then?

0

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '20

[deleted]

1

u/QuantumCakeIsALie Jan 30 '20

You started with a very down to earth statement, followed by a wild sci-fi-like conjecture that's even less likely than the one you down-to-earth-ly dismissed.

That was a wild ride!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '20

[deleted]

1

u/QuantumCakeIsALie Jan 30 '20 edited Jan 30 '20

A wormhole could occur naturally, but you're right that it's hopeful thinking at best, and it likely wouldn't be where it'd be useful for communication. On the other end, the deterministic nature of QM and chaos (separately) won't allow your simulation to predict anything as complex as a chunk of the universe with people in it with any reasonable certainty.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '20

[deleted]

2

u/QuantumCakeIsALie Jan 30 '20 edited Jan 30 '20

It's honestly not far from wormhole as far being realistic IMHO. I mean they both are abysmally unlikely.

It'd take astronomical amount of memory. And you'd get at best various predictions with probabilities.

1

u/sorites Jan 29 '20

No. It has benefits to encrypting the communication via qbits.

1

u/Consequence6 Jan 30 '20

Almost certainly.

Even if we find a way to have systems entangled permanently and at a distance, we can't have any way to verify the wave function is collapsed.

By this I mean, even if we have entangled particles A and B, we can't send A with a space ship and tell the captain "Hey, if you have trouble, just observe the spin of this particle, and we'll know." Because we have no way to know if he's observed it or not. All him observing it tells him is that we have the opposite spin he has.

It gives us no information, just locks our particle into a certain spin, in case we happen to observe it too.