Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ First Object Teleported from Earth to Orbit

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This article uses the term 'object' and 'teleported' in a very specialized sense, so don't think of this as Star Trek. Still. When two photons are created at the same time and place, they become 'quantum entangled', so that any change to one photon also happens to the other, no matter how far apart they are (it's like hitting one twin in New York and having the other twin in Paris feeling the pain). The Chinese have succeeded (16 page PDF) in sending some of these photons in space and demonstrating entanglement effects at distances of up to 1400 kilometers, creating the possibility of instantaneous communications over long distances, "an essential step toward global-scale quantum internet."

As an aside, the philosopher Mo Di (also known as Mo-Tzu, and called Micius in this article) flourished in China around the same time Socrates lived in Greece, in the 4th century BCE. Mo Di was a follower of Confucius, but felt he was too formal and aristocratic; Mo Di "was drawn to the common people and looked much farther back to a life of primitive simplicity and straightforwardness in human relations."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Dec 07, 2024 11:52 a.m.

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