The paper's real headline result is beating the repeaterless channel capacity by showing their memory-assisted approach distributes entanglement better than any direct-transmission scheme possibly could over that distance.

Photons carrying entanglement die off exponentially in fiber and you can't just amplify them like classical signals. Memories that can store entanglement are the key ingredient for repeaters that stitch together entanglement over segments, which is what makes a continent-scale quantum network conceivable.

Agree. Slashdot, go to the corner and stand there with a dunce hat on.

There's also evidence that violent crime has reduced during this timeframe. The hypothesis is that it's due to people not being so bored, or finding alternative things to do. I don't have a citation, but crime has dropped a lot since the smartphones have become available broadly.

Geez, what a silly over reaction. AI translation is freaking amazing, and today is the worst it will be. Just put a disclaimer that the translation is the best available at this time and will be improved over time. The "I've canceled my subscription ire" is ai-phobia.
Oh là là, quelle réaction excessive et idiote. La traduction par IA est carrément incroyable, et aujourd'hui est le pire niveau qu'elle atteindra. Il suffit de mettre un avertissement disant que la traduction est la meilleure disponible actuellement et qu'elle s'améliorera avec le temps. Cette colère du style "j'ai annulé mon abonnement", c'est de l'IA-phobie.
Vaya, qué reacción exagerada tan tonta. La traducción por IA es malditamente increíble, y hoy es lo peor que va a estar. Solo pon un aviso de que la traducción es la mejor disponible en este momento y que mejorará con el tiempo. Esa ira de "he cancelado mi suscripción" es simple IA-fobia.
Meine Güte, was für eine alberne Überreaktion. KI-Übersetzung ist wahnsinnig toll, und heute ist sie so schlecht, wie sie nie wieder sein wird. Setz einfach einen Disclaimer drunter, dass dies die aktuell beste verfügbare Übersetzung ist und sie mit der Zeit verbessert wird. Dieser Zorn à la Ich habe mein Abo gekündigt‘ ist reine KI-Phobie.
(No Patreon Funds Were Spent Obtaining These Translations)

Thanks for posting a sane engineering response.
There is an argument to be made that AI processing is not democratized yet. Weâ(TM)re living in the world of mainframes again. At some point the power of Claude Opus or its relative will be in the palm of our hands, but weâ(TM)ve been here before and survived.
Another aspect of AI coding is that it is breaking down the roles within work. Especially with senior staff who had moved away from programming to maybe more planning or systems work. Now those people can contribute at the code level. This is new. It used to be that when your boss contributed code you either were in awe - because they were still a serious coder - or you rolled your eyes. Taking the example of Steve Jobs - he commanded but he never tried to produce the demos. Now he could. Handling that output or input is going to be new for organizations and also for the contributors. They now have to produce that PR and have it reviewed (maybe by AI haha) but also, and this is new, they should take responsibility for the contribution.

Ah yes, a "David vs. Goliath" struggle for identity story. But from a purely economic and developmental standpoint, the "anti-AI" narrative ignores the massive opportunity costs and the broader benefits of these investments. This trend isn't a sign of bad things, it's a sign of progress and something good. I'm not surprised though when journalists write this junk as they themselves are in the AI crosshairs. Anyway, a few points - this is perhaps the largest potential wealth injection to rural areas for, well, forever. Just look at the sheer scale of the capital being offered: When a farmer is offered $120,000 per acre for land that might typically value at $5,000 to $10,000, that is a life-changing wealth event - not just for the farmer, but for that whole local economy. Datacenters are massive contributors to local property taxes and they don't put a strain on local schools or emergency services (since nobody lives in them). To support a 2.2-gigawatt project, the "unnamed company" would likely fund massive upgrades to the local power grid and fiber-optic networks, which benefits every other business in the county. Then how about the terrible taking 40,000 acres of farmland out of production? That's going to threaten food security, right? The U.S. has roughly 895 million acres of farmland. Even if the projected 40,000 acres are used for datacenters over the next five years, that represents only 0.004% of total U.S. agricultural land. That's even without accounting for yield improvement that could come from precision agriculture (powered by AI!). Historically, every Industrial Revolution has required land - railroads, freeways, factories. Datacenters are just factories of today. They are where work gets done. Ida Huddleston has every right to refuse a sale, but these kind of BS articles frame her refusal as a "win" for the community. In reality datacenter construction creates thousands of high-paying trade jobs (electricians, HVAC, steelworkers) and hundreds of permanent technical roles. My neighbor, who is a union electrician is currently in Oregon working on a datacenter. By blocking industrial development, these Luddite stances can lock rural communities into a cycle of declining populations and shrinking tax bases as younger generations move to cities for tech-adjacent work. It all sounds so homey, motherhood and apple pie-ish, but actually, this is a sign of massive opportunity. I used to live in a paper mill town and it stank. But the locals told me it smelled of money. Time to sell up, take the cash, and be happy knowing you're helping progress!

For the non nerds reading this, the Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in the Star Trek universe designed as a no-win scenario. The goal is to test a cadet's character in the face of certain death. According to canon, James T. Kirk is the only person to ever "beat" the simulation by reprogramming the simulation so that it was possible to rescue the stranded ship. When accused of cheating, Kirk’s logic was that he changed the conditions of the test. In the corporate world, if the goal is "Problem Solving," the person who changes the conditions to find a faster, more accurate solution isn't a cheater - they are an innovator. KPMG failed their own test IMO.

"And they also make mistakes without batting a virtual eyelash. So you can't trust anything that they generate." - woah! That's damning! Thank goodness that doesn't apply to humans!

Seriously, anyone who is down on this technology needs to hand in their nerd/geek card and go and start shouting at clouds. That goes for Slashdot readers too. The handwringing over a technology by middle aged men is, just sad. This tech is transforming, dirty, gritty, and messed up. It's like the Internet used to be. If you can't handle it, then be honest, your world view is outdated and you've become your parents.

"iPhone 17 Air Drops Physical SIM Slot Globally" - first, I didn't realize you could AirDrop physical stuff - that's cool and very Apple-like to lead in technology - seconds "mind blown" - they did this globally. Wow! Not sure what the value of sharing a SIM slot is, but still pretty impressive. /jk.

Yes, Reddit's a great example of this - complete echo chamber.

IronstoneOpal’s core sensor appears to be an opticallypumped atomic magnetometer (OPM). OPM run at (roughly) room temperature and needs only a tiny heater and a pair of diode lasers—no cryostat, no liquid helium, as opposed to SQUIDs (super conducting interference devices), which I used to work on. OPM's are already flying on geomagnetic survey drones and even inside soldiers’ backpacks. The main geomagnetic field from Earth’s core is smooth (2565T), but crustal rocks add local anomalies of a few to hundredsof nT that stay fixed for millions of years. Those anomalies create a global, passive, alwayson pattern—a magnetic “street map.” Unlike radio beacons, the map cannot be jammed or spoofed; it penetrates water, clouds, and foliage. That’s why militaries have studied “MagNav” since the 1970s and why quantum magnetometers are now reviving it for autonomous drones and vehicles. The University of Strathclyde have been working on this. OPM's use cesium / rubidium vapor heated and are really light and low power.

The main hurdles with this or other magnetic geolocation systems are heading ambiguity - scalar magnetometers can’t distinguish forward/back along same contour; this can be mitigated with tri-axis OPMs or gyroscopes, space-weather storms - yup, 1000's of nTs potentially, iron noise from your vehicle, Tesla-deserts - literally deserts or oceans where the magnetic changes are minimal, old data - survey, survey, survey!

Although there are hurdles, chip-scale OPM are headed into swarming micro-UAVs, and of course, they are a good fallback when GPS is jammed, or unavailable.

I'm just going to say it, loud and clear: it is not worth going to Mars. There is no real benefit - none -for humans to set foot on that planet. The entire idea is built more on fantasy than on logic. Mars is a barren, hostile rock with virtually no atmosphere, no breathable air, and no magnetic field to shield us from cosmic radiation. We romanticize it like it’s some kind of bold frontier, but the reality is that Mars is a place that doesn’t want us there, and we’re spending billions trying to pretend otherwise.

Radiation levels alone should be enough to stop the conversation. NASA’s own research confirms that a round trip to Mars would expose astronauts to dangerous levels of radiation, well beyond what’s considered safe. And that’s just the journey. On the surface, there’s nowhere to hide. Add to that the extreme cold - averaging around minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and the paper-thin atmosphere made mostly of carbon dioxide, and it becomes clear that the whole notion of colonizing Mars is more of a survivalist hallucination than a serious strategy for the future.

There’s also this myth that we’ll “learn things” by going there. But we’ve already sent rovers, orbiters, and landers that have returned far more valuable data than any human could in that environment. If it’s science we’re after, robots can do it safer, cheaper, and better. The real motivation behind Mars is ideological - a desperate belief that we can abandon Earth and start fresh. But that’s not going to happen. Mars isn’t a backup plan. It’s a diversion.

We are a one-planet species. That’s not pessimism: it’s reality. The idea that we’re destined to become interplanetary is a comforting illusion in the face of real planetary crises. If we can’t manage to maintain a functioning biosphere on a planet already perfectly suited for life, how exactly do we expect to build one from scratch on a dead world?

Meanwhile, there are other, smarter ways to invest in space. Asteroid mining, for example, could actually yield something useful - vast quantities of rare metals and minerals that we need here on Earth. That’s not science fiction; it’s economically and technologically feasible within a couple of decades, and it wouldn’t involve risking lives or building impossible habitats. Orbital manufacturing is another promising avenue. In microgravity, we can make materials that are impossible to produce on Earth - like ultra-pure fiber optics or advanced pharmaceuticals. These things have real, near-term commercial value and could revolutionize industries down here where it matters. My opinion of Elmo has severely dropped recently, but I'd be more impressed if SpaceX were focusing on these than a retarded Mars mission.

Even solar power satellites, beaming clean energy back to Earth from orbit, offer a potential solution to our climate crisis, while staying grounded in reality. And let’s not forget planetary defense - actually protecting Earth from asteroid impacts, which is a very real and existential threat. That’s space investment that could literally save humanity.

So no, Mars is not the answer. It’s a distraction. It's a tech billionaire's fever dream sold to us as progress. If we’re going to dream big, let’s dream wisely. Let’s invest in ideas that serve this planet - because it’s the only one we’ve got. But, hey, it's his money, right? Right?

This is true for almost all entertainment, which apps kind of fall into mostly. Music, acting, film, games, Youtube, TikTok, etc., etc. for the vast majority of creators, there is no money in it *at all* from the actual creative part. There is money if (a) you become famous (b) you make money through some other means, like subscriptions, (c) you invest a whole load of money and use connections to float your product to the top, e.g., advertising, pay for reviews, radio play, commercials, etc. etc.

This last one is basically how music has been productized and sold for decades. Virtually anyone can play an instrument, and although writing a catchy song/tune is harder, it is quite possible. What transforms someone into a successful pop star is 95% the record company. This is why a lot of producers end up broke even thoguh they sold millions of copies. Why are geriatric bands still touring?

Life in the entertainment business is exemplified by huge disparities and luck. It is unfortunately, a commodity fighting for the core limited resource - people's time.

Wow! This exact thing happened about 30 billion years ago when Yark proposed a universe simulator based on Plank's Constant and e. How recursive!

This post wasnâ(TM)t written by AI, I promise, but the first disruption on my list is AI commenting. If Slashdot stories are more interesting with astute or funny comments, then while not have AI make them? Indeed, the article posters could preview the probable comments in advance to see how much engagement their post will make. Further, that too could be tweaked iteratively until the post generates the best level of commentary that will meet the goals of the site. If the goal is to get first posts, then donâ(TM)t make any comments, but if the goal is to get humans to engage, then a mixture of comments works well, including some that state facts completely wrongly so that humans jump in and correct them. If you think this is wrong, then complain to newspapers who have been printing curated letters to the editor for a very long time.
The next personal AI engine is the one mentioned in the article- music. Already today services like Spotify and saturated with AI music (good and bad) but do the services need to exist? A decentralized (so you can share the good ones) personal on-the-fly music generator could work well. It could stash any music you like (or donâ(TM)t hate) to replay. Replaying of music is a critical part of learning to like a tune or track. With a âoeyou gotta hear thisâ button, some tracks may become shared, but the days of mass music where many people like the same new tune are pretty much over. Only big money is keeping them going. Note that I wrote âoenew tuneâ. Old tunes will continue to exist. Live music will still survive too.
Another one will be PPE. Whatâ(TM)s that? N-95 masks? No, itâ(TM)s a Personal Porn Engine. PPEâ(TM)s are starting the gain steam, but are only with early adopters right now. The point of PPEâ(TM)s is that they are *personal* and not for distributing their output. Of course, some people will do that, and pay the consequences for it, but in normal use, what is shown by the PPE, stays in the PPE, or to be more accurate, nothing is stored or saved; everything is ephemeral and generated on the fly. Take a machine learning algorithm to work out what you like to see, along with options to spice up the selection, and feedback cues taken from when you stop, etc, and the PPE will be a highly personalized and thoughtful tool to bring you satisfaction. At think point authorities will in certain jurisdictions make them illegal to possess or use because of reasons.
The next engine is an AI-powered sense augmentation tool. Meta and others are already working on this, but the key is going to be speed and accuracy of feedback to the user. For sight, you wear some kind of camera. It could be on glasses, or a body cam or whatever. The input is continuously analyzed and prompts are fed back to the user via sight, sound, or potential other methods, eg, a pain literally in the butt to indicate someone you donâ(TM)t wish to engage with. Again the point of the AI is to go beyond machine vision, and instead provide interpretation or enhancement. Navigation, a personal assistant whispering in your ear, etc. are all options.
Traffic management - this is an oldie, but goodie. Everyone should be familiar with timed/sequenced traffic lights. In Germany they have dynamic signs thatâ(TM)ll tell you how fast you need to go to get through the next light on green. The US doesnâ(TM)t. In the UK, home of computing, Manchester had the city traffic lights controlled to change based on the time of day to manage inflows and outflows. Take this to the AI extreme â" so now, instead of Waze or Apple/Google Maps just routing traffic for you, there is a centralized system for say the city of New York, that will facilitate traffic control citywide totally dynamically. I think weâ(TM)ll see this in China first if it isnâ(TM)t there already.
Last one, for now, the Personal Responder. This one is imminent and does the job of tracking and suggesting all communications going to you. Straight off, it will reduce your email folder spam to zero and remove you from any subscriptions. But itâ(TM)ll monitor all your social media, Slack, email, both personal and work related. Itâ(TM)ll curate a personality that will appear to be you (a good version of you) for responses. It will have ready to go responses to every input, or, and this is crucial, know what it doesnâ(TM)t know and escalate those to you. Further, it will check everything you plan to send out checking for accuracy, tone, deceit (itâ(TM)ll check and learn if that is actually what you are trying to do), and give you insight into what kind of impact it will have - what will your audience/recipient think/feel/do? When you start work in the morning, itâ(TM)ll have a time reserved on your calendar to go through the correspondence from the night before. Essentially, this one is a Personal Assistant and everyone can afford to have one.