[Gllug] Bomb the ISP's

[Nix]

On Mon, 17 Sep 2001, Kieran Barry stipulated:
> On 17 Sep 2001, Nix wrote:
>> The NSA are spook mathematicians, not spook quantum physicists.
> 
> Well, that tears it. Maths has _nothing_ in common w/ quantum physics.

Crypto doesn't have terribly much in common, no.

>>                                                       There are few
>> enough that they can be individually tracked :)
>> 
> And, of course, the NSA is _so incompetent_ that this wouldn't interest
> them? And being the world's _biggest buyer_ of computer kit, and the
> only org that measures said kit in operations per square foot, and the
> only one that builds and runs private chip fabs, means they don't care
> about new developments? 

Of course they do. It is reasonable (i.e., totally paranoid, but that's
probably wise with the NSA ;) ) to assume that they might be as far
ahead in quantum computing as they are in crypto; two, maybe three
generations. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see that they're
following the literature, and perhaps working on it too.

But to have working quantum computers now would be akin to having built
a working PDP in the time of the Babbage Engine.

--- well, maybe not *quite* that much, but of that order. There are
multiple orders of magnitude gaps to be jumped in the lifetime problem
*and* the raw number-of-qubits problem *and* the decoherence/getting-
sane-results-out problem. One of those the NSA could perhaps jump on its
own.

But all three? As a semi-sideline (albeit an important one) to its main
job?

Forget it. (Particularly since I think since last week it probably has,
er, other things on its organizational mind.)


(Good flame though. :) )

-- 
`Upsetting this BOFH was a BAD MOVE.' --- Chris Newport

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