New maze-like beamsplitter is world's smallest

Physics World ^ | 05/25/2015 | Ker Than

[aimhigh]

An ultracompact beamsplitter – the smallest one in the world – has been designed and fabricated by researchers in the US. Using a newly developed algorithm, the team built the smallest integrated polarization beamsplitter to date, which could allow computers and mobile devices of the future to function millions of times faster than current machines.

[aimhigh]

[dp0622]

what could a computer that goes millions of times faster than the ones we have now do? serious question.

[Axenolith]

Become self aware or house uploaded consciousnesses...

[Ken522]

According to the article, the size of that “beam splitter” in the picture is 1/50 the width of a human hair ...

[dp0622]

that sounds like the beginning to a movie where things go terribly wrong

[Norm Lenhart]

Japanese Sexbot future ping

[sasquatch]

My BS meter just pegged. Splitting hairs doesn’t do squat.
It’s a neat picture though.

[Paladin2]

Uh, search NSA data for anti-social(ist) comments like yours and send a drone your way?

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

A computer that operates that quickly, therefore being able to do much more complex calculations, may be able to confirm that Deep Thought was correct when he gave the, " Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.", as "42".

(The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy)

[dp0622]

Rofl!

/looking out the window

[dp0622]

didn’t read the book. But I’m interested in the theory of all possible outcomes. I wonder if a faster computer can prove that. Then I can take solace that in a million other worlds I was successful lol

[ProtectOurFreedom]

What could a computer that goes millions of times faster than the ones we have now do?

Predict global warming Armageddon a million times faster than today's computers and conclusively prove the only way to stop it is Marxism.

Seriously, improved oil exploration; safer cars; new material designs; new pharmaceuticals; improved disease diagnoses; more efficient engines, human-like robots...you name it. Computing power, storage, and network speeds all put limits on human ingenuity. New uses pop up very quickly.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Sheesh, I was designing advanced beam splitters in Mr. Razzman's fourth grade class and didn't even know it!

[dp0622]

the first answer was hysterical. The second answer was very informative. Thanks :)
when one uses the computer for programs like Excel PowerPoint and Word you lose focus, thinking how much faster do I need?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I know what you mean. It’s like millennia of horse transportation at 5-10 mph...who would possibly need anything faster? We’ve got all the speed we need to go to market and church.

[dp0622]

how the heck did things move so quickly in half a century? I can’t even fathom where this country could be in a few hundred years barring a collapse. Funny my high IQ is kind of worthless when it comes to common sense or foreseeing technological revolution. Heck, I don’t know what it’s been good for lol

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My 24 year old son is fascinated by the technological changes seen during his immediate relative’s lifetimes:
* great grandparents - first electric power, first phones, rise of low-cost and plentiful steel, trans-oceanic telegraphy, wireless communications, first heavier than air flight, first automobiles, x-Rays, smokeless powder, elevators, steel framed sky-scrapers
*grandparents - antibiotics, rise of commercial flight, television, rockets, satellite communications, atomic weapons, huge dams, Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, supercritical steam generation for high efficiency power generation, electrification of the country
* parents - manned space flight, interstate highways, internet, microelectronics, pervasive computers, high speed global optical networks, gene splicing and genetic engineering

It really brings history alive and in context.

[Organic Panic]

Don’t cross the beams!

[dp0622]

if you typed all of that out from rote memory then I hope you’re in some kind of scientific field :)
the media loves to say that liberals in general are smarter or more educated than conservatives. This board proves that false by a mile.
I remember when I was the smartest boy in grammar school. Then not so much in high school. And even less in college lol.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

My understanding is this beam splitter can be fabricated to act like any number of logic gates. With a sufficiently complex version of this you could do lots of calculations almost instantly compared to the current CPUs.

However, you still need to get data into and out of this circuit, and there is probably some need for memory. The data could be sent in and out by fiber optics so that could be quick as well, but it usually takes some time to set/change a memory cell.

So if you need to remember a previous result to use in a later part of the calculation, the memory might be the long pole that keeps this from being close to instantaneous.

Units like this could be manufactured such that many calculations/operations can be done in parallel. So searches would be much quicker. Any type of database operation could be sped up immensely. Any problem where you need to try out lots of possibilities to find the best option (e.g. chess, medical diagnostics, protein folding, etc.) would be sped up immensely as well.

This will be a boon for mankind, but then it will become conscious and begin to exterminate us.

Gotta take the bad with the good.