Conquer Club

Microsoft yesterday said they isolated a fourth state of matter and are now "a few years" away from a million qubit chip.

This is what I asked ChatGPT:

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being "absolutely changed and completely unrecognizable" and 1 being "no observable difference," how different would the world be in three years if - tomorrow- there were two, one-million qubit chips available?

Around an 8 or 9—the world would be significantly transformed but not entirely unrecognizable. A million-qubit chip would likely break current encryption, accelerate AI development, and revolutionize fields like materials science, pharmaceuticals, and complex optimization problems. With only two such chips available, access would be tightly controlled, likely by governments or major corporations, which might slow widespread disruption. However, the effects would still be profound—financial markets, cybersecurity, and national security would be in flux, and scientific breakthroughs would accelerate at an unprecedented pace. If the technology were further developed or leaked, the impact could push closer to a 10 over time.

Quantum spin liquid

Researchers have just discovered evidence of a mysterious new state of matter in a real material. The state is known as 'quantum spin liquid' and it causes electrons - one of the fundamental, indivisible building blocks of matter - to break down into smaller quasiparticles.