The quantum leap

In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore described a business trend that the number of transistors which can feasibly be placed in an integrated circuit has increased at a fixed exponential rate since the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958. To the present day, we have seen processing speeds doubling roughly every 18 months. This trend, which has come to be known as Moore's Law, has seen the inception of personal computing devices in the 80s, their ascent in the 90s, and the widespread networking of them in the 2000s. However, the trend is not without bounds.

It is true that the generally held belief is such that the trend described by Moore's Law will continue for at least another decade; but then what? Physicists allege that Moore's Law will collapse within a few decades due to the limitations of silicon processors. Currently, the smallest chip has a layer of silicon no more than 20 atoms across and before long this number is expected to drop to a mere 5 atoms. At this point, due to the uncertainty principle in such a confined area, the silicon will be unstable and result in short circuits.

Of course this seeming inevitability does not mean the end of computing. Rather, where silicon semiconductors break down, is the operating level of quantum computers. Quantum computing was first proposed in the 1980s by Richard Feynman and Paul Benioff -- a process which exploits the ambiguities of quantum mechanics. That is to say, quantum computers run on mere atoms, utilizing the fundamental principle and superposition which states that the state of a particle such as an electron is ambiguous. Thus, in a quantum computer, the atoms are in an unfixed state and by using probabilities, a simple two quantum bits, or qubits, of information can have four disparate values (00, 01, 10, 11 in binary); five qubits can have twenty-five values and so on. When functioning with sizable chunks, the processing speed will far surpass current digital processors.

The upshot of quantum computing I see as twofold. Human thought operates at a speed of about five-hundred trillion bits per second, a level that would take approximately 50 years to achieve with our conventional methods, a duration which cannot be sustained. It is likely we will see serious and considerable breakthroughs in artificial intelligence only by way of harnessing quantum computing. Although current efforts in the realm of quantum computing have been relegated to qubits in the single digits, many believe it is only a short matter of time the field gains momentum. In addition to implications for artificial intelligence, the revolution of quantum computing will first see the drop in demand for silicon and corresponding drop in price. Before silicon valley becomes the new rust belt, it is likely to have widespread applications and give rise to ubiquitous computing -- putting processors in pretty much anything and everything.

Akira Naito's Yuri I

Recycling

via re-nest

1. Wine corks: Yemm & Hart (www.yemmhart.com), which produces recycled building materials, turns used corks into floor and wall tiles.
2. Foam packaging: Lightweight "peanuts" made from expanded polystyrene (EPS) contain 25 to 100 percent recycled material. The Plastic Loose Fill Council (www.loosefillpackaging.com) has a "Peanut Hotline" (800-828-2214) you can call to find local recycling centers, including chain-store shippers such as Pak Mail and The UPS Store. To recycle large, molded chunks of EPS used to cushion televisions, air conditioners and such, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers (www.epspackaging.org).
3. Potato chip bags and those other foil packaging that often are used to wrap up junk food can be recycled at Terracycle.net.
4. Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234. Quantities larger than 25, call 866/33-TYVEK.
5. CDs, jewel cases, DVDs, audio and video tapes, pagers, rechargeable and single-use batteries, PDAs, and ink/toner cartridges: For $30, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box in which you can ship them up to 70 pounds of any of the above. Your fee covers the box as well as shipping and recycling fees. 800/305-GREENDISK, www.greendisk.com.
6. CDs/DVDs/Game Disks: Send scratched music or computer CDs, DVDs, and PlayStation or Nintendo video game disks to AuralTech for refinishing, and they’ll work like new: 888/454-3223, www.auraltech.com.
7. Phone Books: If your local recycling center accepts phone books, drop them off there. Otherwise contact the closest Project ReDirectory center. Find your local center with an Internet search or by contacting the company issuing the directories.
8. CFLs: Many people already know that IKEA accepts your old CFLs. So do many hardware and home improvement stores though they may charge if you're not replacing an old bulb with a new one. LampRecycle.org lists businesses and organizations that will recycle these bulbs.
9. Carpets, Rugs, Padding: There are places that will try to recycle used carpets and rugs rather than toss them into landfill. To recycle yours (depending on your area) try checking with the Carpet America Recovery Effort, UGA Carpet Recycling Resource, the California Intergrated Waste Management Board or any other number of organizations geared towards recycling.
10. Old Medicine: Rather than tossing it into the toilet (where it can end up in the water supply) or in the garbage, why not recycle it? Some states have enacted drug recycling programs including: So far, the following states have recycling programs: AK, CO, IL, KS, MA, MN, NE, NM, NY, OK, PA, SC, WV. Check the National Conference of State Legislatures website for updated information.

The End of Food

Thomas Pawlick attempts to expose the agenda behind corporate agribusinesses in The End of Food. Surely, it doesn't even cross the minds of most consumers that through the corporatization of foodstuffs, produce is grown in strains that will withstand transportation and handling, meat will be treated with additives to maintain freshness, and countless other procedures will be conducted to present appealing grocery options. The problem is that these choices made for shelf-life and appearance come at a cost; nutritional value is sacrificed.

The basic underlying principle is a good one to raise, nonetheless, Pawlick is a little too ambitious with his thesis. The large-scale trend in declining food quality Pawlick backs up with data from US Department of Agriculture Food Tables as well as Canadian Nutrient Data from 1963 to the present. Pawlick claims that the downward trend has been so significant that at the rate his data indicates, within a few decades, food will no longer have any nutritional value -- we will have to rely on suppliments -- it will be "the end of food." His unabashed use of inductive reasoning is abhorrent. Just because my alarm clock goes off every morning without fail, doesn't mean the batteries won't simply crap out one day. Clearly, if we can attribute the decline in a tomato's nutritional value to opting for a more hardy strain that has less vitamin content, it isn't the case that the tomato inherently has a disease withering its nutrients. Rather, it has been substituted with a different kind of tomato and it is absurd to think that the future of the tomato is such that it will be systematically substituted for strains of asymptotically decreasing nutritional value.

Further, Pawlick's data is presented in such a manner that it is misleading. He cites data that ranges from 1963 to the present. It isn't clear whether data was collected at any intervals in-between. Also, he always quantifies data as percentages, for example, suggesting that the potato lost 100% of its vitamin A between 1963 and 2005. The initial amount of vitamin A may have just as well been a minute trace amount and maybe even a fluke at that. Needless to say, I did not even make it halfway through the book -- waste of paper.