I’m talking about building sexy things like ansibles or FTL engines. The kinds of transcendent ambitions that Quantum Mechanics often inspire in laypeople like me.

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stevenwoo 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Every device one has that has integrated circuits (chips) and some of the discrete components was designed based on the quantum mechanical properties of materials that were beyond us until we understood quantum mechanics - sometimes we get too accustomed to the wonder right in front of us. The Electrical Engineering curriculum at my university started with Quantum Electrodynamics for a semester. Figuring out how the sun and stars work required an understanding of the smallest particles, it's all kind of amazing.

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brookst 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I don’t think it was intended to say that quantum effects are never useful.

I interpreted the comment to mean that at at first glance quantum effects get things like instantaneous, FTL communications… but those most dramatic possibilities never work out when you dig deeper.

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Uehreka 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Let me put it this way: my axiom is aimed at people (like me) who read popular science books, skim the textbooks, and think there might be a way to make a time machine or if not that then “at least something interesting” of a similar nature.

If you have a graduate degree in quantum mechanics or work for Intel as a designer/engineer of microprocessors then yeah, you can consider yourself exempt.

	▲	stevenwoo 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I read this after someone recommended it here, you may enjoy it: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612737/how-to-make-... The title is inspired by that Carl Sagan quote from Cosmos, and the science is understandable for the most part by laypeople. There are science parts towards the end that I had to read a couple of times because it's just so unintuitive.

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whoknowsidont 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Even if we had a "stranglehold" on the deepest foundations of Quantum Mechanics it wouldn't help you with either of those things. In order for those things we need something beyond QM and a lot more grand. FTL travel and communication is in the ball park of relativity.

QM is not an umbrella term for sci-fi.

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glitchc 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Night vision goggles use quantum mechanics. Pretty sexy.