It is perhaps not surprising that the big cloud providers a poor term really have jumped into quantum computing. Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Google, and their like have steadily transformed into major technology developers, no doubt in service of their large cloud services offerings. The same is true internationally. You may not know, for example, that Chinas cloud giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent also all have significant quantum development initiatives.

The global cloud crowd tends to leave no technology stone unturned and quantum was no different. Now the big players are all-in. At Amazon, most of the public attention has centered on Braket, its managed quantum services offering that provides tools for learning and access to a variety of quantum computers. Less well-known are Amazons Quantum Solutions Lab, Center for Quantum Computing, and Center for Quantum Networking, the last just launched in June. These four initiatives capture the scope of AWSs wide-ranging quantum ambitions, which include building a fault-tolerant quantum computer.

HPCwire recently talked with Simone Severini, director, quantum computing, AWS, about its efforts. A quantum physicist by training, Severini has been with AWS for ~ four years. He reports to AWSs overall engineering chief, Bill Vass. Noting that theres not much evidence that NISQ era systems will provide decisive business value soon, Severini emphasized quantum computing is a long-term bet. Now is the time for watching, learning, and kicking the tires on early systems.

Amazon Braket provides a huge opportunity for doing that. Customers can keep an eye on the dynamics of the evolution of this technology. We believe theres really not a single path to quantum computing. Its very, very early, right. This is a point that I like to stress, said Severini. I come from academia and have been exposed to quantum computing, one way or another, for over two decades. Its amazing to see the interest in the space. But we also need to be willing to set the right expectations. Its definitely very, very early still in quantum computing.

Launched in 2019, AWS describes Braket as a fully managed quantum computing service designed to help speed up scientific research and software development for quantum computing. This is not unlike what most big quantum computer makers, such D-Wave, IBM and Rigetti also provide.

The premise is to provide all the quantum tools and hardware infrastructure required for new and more experienced quantum explorers to use on a pay-as-you-go basis. Indeed, in the NISQ era, many believe such portal offerings are the only realistic way to deliver quantum computing. Cloud providers (and other concierge-like service providers such Strangeworks, for example) have the advantage of being able to provide access to several different systems.

With Braket, said Severini, Users dont have to sign contracts. Just go there, and you have everything you need to see whats going on [in quantum computing], to program or to simulate, and to use quantum computers directly. We have multiple devices with different [qubit] technologies on the service. The hope is that on one side, customers can indeed keep an eye on the technology on the other side, researchers can run experiments and hopefully contribute to knowledge as well contribute to science.

Braket currently offers access to quantum computers based on superconducting, trapped ion, photonic, and quantum annealers. Presumably other qubit technologies, cold atoms for example, will be added over time.

Interestingly, Braket is also a learning tool for AWS. Its an important exercise for us as well, because in this way, we can envision how quantum computers one day, would really feed a complex, cloud based infrastructure. Today, the workloads on Braket are all experimental, but for us, its important to learn things like security or operator usability, and the management of resources that we do for customers, said Severini. This is quite interesting, because in the fullness of time, a quantum computer could be used together with a lot of other classical resources, including HPC.

On the latter point, there is growing belief that much of quantum computing may indeed become a hybrid effort with some pieces of applications best run on quantum computers and other parts best run on classical resources. Well see. While it is still early days for the pursuit of hybrid classical-quantum computing, AWS launched Amazon Braket Hybrid late year. Heres an excerpt of AWSs description:

Amazon Braket Hybrid Jobs enables you to easily run hybrid quantum-classical algorithms such as the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) and the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), that combine classical compute resources with quantum computing devices to optimize the performance of todays quantum systems. With this new feature, you only have to provide your algorithm script and choose a target device a quantum processing unit (QPU) or quantum circuit simulator. Amazon Braket Hybrid Jobs is designed to spin up the requested classical resources when your target quantum device is available, run your algorithm, and release the instances after completion so you only pay for what you use. Braket Hybrid Jobs can provide live insights into algorithm metrics to monitor your algorithm as it progresses, enabling you to make adjustments more quickly. Most importantly, your jobs have priority access to the selected QPU for the duration of your experiment, putting you in control, and helping to provide faster and more predictable execution.

To run a job with Braket Hybrid Jobs, you need to first define your algorithm using either the Amazon Braket SDK orPennyLane. You can also use TensorFlow and PyTorch or create a custom Docker container image. Next, you create a job via the Amazon Braket API or console, where you provide your algorithm script (or custom container), select your target quantum device, and choose from a variety of optional settings including the choice of classical resources, hyper-parameter values, and data locations. If your target device is a simulator, Braket Hybrid Jobs is designed to start executing right away. If your target device is a QPU, your job will run when the device is available and your job is first in the queue. You can define custom metrics as part of your algorithm, which can be automatically reported to Amazon CloudWatch and displayed in real time in the Amazon Braket console. Upon completion, Braket Hybrid Jobs writes your results to Amazon S3 and releases your resources.

The second initiative, Amazon Quantum Solution Lab, is aimed at collaborative research programs; it is, in essence, Amazons professional quantum services group.

They engage in research project with customers. For example, they recently wrote a paper with a team of researchers at Goldman Sachs. They run a very interesting initiative together with BMW Group, something called the BMW Group quantum computing challenge. BMW proposed four areas related to their interests, like logistic, manufacturing, some stuff that related to automotive engineering, and there was a call for a proposal to crowdsource solutions that use quantum computers to address these problems, said Severini.

There were 70 teams, globally, that submitted solutions. I think this is very interesting because [its still early days] and the fact is that quantum computers are not useful in business problems today. They cant [yet] be more impactful than classical computing today. An initiative of this type can really help bridge the real world with the theory. We have several such initiatives, he said.

Building a Fault-Tolerant Computer

Amazons efforts to build a fault-tolerant quantum are based at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing, located in Pasadena, Calif., and run in conjunction with Caltech. We launched this initiative in 2019 but last year, in 2021, we opened a building that we built inside the campus of Caltech, said Severini. Its a state of the art research facility and we are doing research to build an error-corrected, fault tolerant computer, he said.

AWS has settled on semiconductor-based superconducting qubit technology, citing the deep industry knowledge of semiconductor manufacturing techniques and scalability. The challenge, of course, is achieving fault-tolerance. Todays NISQ systems are noisy and error-prone and require near-zero Kelvin temperatures. Severini said simply, There is a lot of scientific challenges still and theres a lot of engineering to be done.

We believe strongly that there are two things that need to be done at this stage. One is improving error rates at the physical level and to invest in material science to really understand on a fundamental level how to build components that have an improvement in with respect to error rates. The second point is [to develop] new qubit architectures for protecting qubits from errors, he said.

This facility includes everything [to do] that. We are doing the full stack. Were building everything ourselves from software to the architecture to the qubits, and the wiring. These are long-term investments, said Severini.

AWS has been relatively quiet in promoting its quantum computer building effort. It has vigorously embraced competing qubit technologies on Braket, and Severini noted that its still unclear how progress will unfold. Some approaches may work well for a particular application but not for others. AWS is tracking all of them, and is including some prominent quantum researchers. For example, John Preskill, the Caltech researcher who coined the term NISQ, is an Amazon Scholar. (Preskill, of course, is fittingly the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology.)

Last February, AWS published a paper in PRX Quantum (Building a fault-tolerant quantum computer using concatenated cat codes) which outlines directional thinking. The abstract is excerpted below:

We present a comprehensive architectural analysis for a proposed fault-tolerant quantum computer based on cat codes concatenated with outer quantum error-correcting codes. For the physical hardware, we propose a system of acoustic resonators coupled to superconducting circuits with a two-dimensional layout. Using estimated physical parameters for the hardware, we perform a detailed error analysis of measurements and gates, includingcnotand Toffoli gates. Having built a realistic noise model, we numerically simulate quantum error correction when the outer code is either a repetition code or a thin rectangular surface code.

Our next step toward universal fault-tolerant quantum computation is a protocol for fault-tolerant Toffoli magic state preparation that significantly improves upon the fidelity of physical Toffoli gates at very low qubit cost. To achieve even lower overheads, we devise a new magic state distillation protocol for Toffoli states. Combining these results together, we obtain realistic full-resource estimates of the physical error rates and overheads needed to run useful fault-tolerant quantum algorithms. We find that with around 1000 superconducting circuit components, one could construct a fault-tolerant quantum computer that can run circuits, which are currently intractable for classical computers. Hardware with 18000 superconducting circuit components, in turn, could simulate the Hubbard model in a regime beyond the reach of classical computing.

The latest big piece of Amazons quantum puzzle is the AWS Center for Quantum Networking, located in Boston. AWS says major news about the new center is forthcoming soon. The quantum networking center, said Severini, is focused on hardware, software, commercial and scientific applications. That sounds like a lot and is perhaps in keeping with Amazons ambitious quantum programs overall.

The proof of all these efforts, as the saying goes, will be in the pudding.

Stay tuned.

Feature Image:A microwave package encloses the AWS quantum processor. The packaging is designed to shield the qubits from environmental noise while enabling communication with the quantum computers control systems. Source: AWS

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AWS Takes the Short and Long View of Quantum Computing - HPCwire

Quantum computers could open the door to new scientific discoveries, life-saving drugs, and improvements in supply chains, logistics and the modelling of financial data

Quantum computers could open the door to new scientific discoveries, life-saving drugs, and improvements in supply chains, logistics and the modelling of financial data

India has been witnessing growing interest in quantum computing, with students, developers, and academia actively participating. Consequently, the country is emerging as a talent hub for quantum computing, said Sandip Patel, MD, IBM India/South Asia region, in an interview. Edited excerpts

Quantum computing is an exciting new technology that will shape our world of tomorrow by providing us with an edge and a myriad of possibilities. Quantum computing is a fundamentally different way of processing information compared to todays classical computing systems. While todays classical computers store information as binary 0 and 1 states, quantum computers draw on the fundamental laws of nature to carry out calculations using quantum bits. Unlike a bit that has to be a 0 or a 1, a qubit can be in a combination of states, which allows for exponentially larger calculations and gives them the potential to solve complex problems which even the most powerful classical supercomputers are not capable of.

Quantum computers tap into the quantum mechanical phenomenon to manipulate information and are expected to shed light on processes of molecular and chemical interactions, address difficult optimisation problems, and boost the power of artificial intelligence. Advances like these could open the door to new scientific discoveries, life-saving drugs, and improvements in supply chains, logistics and the modelling of financial data. IBM today is actively working with major corporations and governments, to help advance their quantum roadmaps, and help grows their pool of quantum talent to make quantum computing practical for the benefit of science, industry and society.

In India, we are witnessing a growing interest in quantum computing with active participation (amongst the highest) from students, developers, and academia in various initiatives like the IBM Quantum Challenge, IBM Quantum Summer School, Qiskit Challenge-India (Qiskit is an open-source software development kit built by IBM for the quantum developer community), and so on. We also have a growing community of Qiskit Advocates and IBM Quantum Ambassadors in India. Furthermore, we regularly organise India-focused programmes such as Qiskit India Week of Quantum, which celebrated women in quantum to kickstart their journeys in quantum, and was attended by almost 300 students. The Qiskit textbook is available in Tamil, Bengali and Hindi and was accessed more than 30,000 times by students in India in 2021 alone. We see India as a talent hub for quantum computing skills that is crucial for growing and maintaining such an interdisciplinary field.

Academia plays an important role in building skills for any deep technology including quantum. Hence, last May, we announced our collaboration with leading educational institutions in India through the IBM Quantum Educators Programme. The faculty and students of these institutions will be able to access IBM Quantum systems, quantum learning resourcesand, quantum tools over IBM Cloud for educational purposes. This allows them to work on actual quantum computers and program them using the Qiskit open-source framework. In partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, IBM conducted a course on Quantum Computing on the NPTEL platform last year, which had more than 10,000 participants. We are also collaborating with academia for joint research on quantum computing and recently, one of the research papers got accepted at a top Physics Conference.

India is poised to play a pivotal role in the quantum technology revolution globally. IBM is committed to helping India advance its quantum agenda by developing the talent and skills landscape and building an ecosystem with industry, business, academia and government. We are counting on the vibrant Indian talent and expertise to help solve some of the most pressing challenges. As per our quantum roadmap announced in 2021, IBM debuted its first 127-qubit processor. In 2022, IBM extended its quantum roadmap even further to clearly lay out how we will blaze a path towards frictionless quantum computing. This expanded roadmap includes our plans to build a 4,000+qubit processor by 2023, along with significant milestones to build an intelligent quantum software orchestration platform that will abstract away the noise and complexity of quantum machines, and allow large and complicated problems to be easily broken apart and solved across a network of quantum and classical systems. Once realised, this era of quantum-centric supercomputing will open up new, large, and powerful computational spaces for industries globally.

In India, we have a strong team working across research, development, and consulting, working closely with academia, industry, and the public sector. Our team is working to support and accelerate Indias national quantum mission and is participating in building a strong quantum ecosystem as that is crucial for succeeding. The team has been constantly growing to support the needs of the Indian ecosystem and is only expected to grow even further in the coming years as it supports more and more customers to take their quantum journey. We have quantum scientists and engineers around the world conducting fundamental research to improve the technology, as well as collaborating with our partners to advance toward practical applications with a quantum advantage for science and business. Quantum requires multidisciplinary skills and IBM has the best scientists and engineers working together to improve the technology and drive applications of importance to the industry.

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India witnessing growing interest in quantum computing: IBM - The Hindu

Westford, USA, Aug. 30, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quantum computers touted as next big thing in computing. Major reliance on quantum computers could mean we're soon entering a new era of artificial intelligence, ubiquitous sensors, and more efficient drug discovery. While quantum computers are still in the earliest stages of development, growing interest in their capabilities means that they are likely to become a central part of future computing systems. This has created a growing demand for quantum computing market and software, with providers already reporting strong demand from major customers.

The promise of quantum computing is that it can solve complex problems much faster than traditional computers. This is because quantum computers are able to exploit the properties of subatomic particles such as photons, which are able to ferry information around extremely fast. So far, quantum computing market has been witnessing a demand coming mainly for scientific and research purposes.

However, this is set to change soon as there is growing demand for quantum computers market for various applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and data analytics. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one application that could benefit greatly from the speed and accuracy of quantum computing. AI relies on algorithms that are trained on large data sets and are able to learn and improve upon their skills with repeated use. However, classical computer databases can take hours or even days to train an AI algorithm.

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Only 4 Countries are Responsible for 86% of Total Funding Since 2001

Quantum computing market is heating up. Companies like Google and IBM are racing to develop the technology, which could one day lead to massive improvements in artificial intelligence and other areas of cybersecurity. As per SkyQuests analysis, $1.9 billion public funding was announced in the second half of the year 2021, which, in turn, took the total global funding to $31 billion from year 2001. It was also observed that most of the private and public funding is coming from the US only, which account for around 49% of the private fundings, which is followed by UK (17%), Canada (14%), and China (6%).

In 2021, the global quantum computing market witnessed an investment of around $3 billion, out of which $1.9 billion came in the second of the year. All this investment is coming from both private and public domain to feast on the upcoming opportunity of generating around $41 billion revenue by the year 2040 at a CAGR of more than 30%. The market is projected to experience a significant surge in the demand for quantum sensing and Quantum communication in the years to come. As a result, investors have started pouring money to take advantage of rapidly expanding field. For instance, in 2021 alone, $1.1 billion out of $3 billion were invested in these two technologies. To be precise, $400 million and $700 million respectively.

SkyQuest has done deep study on public and private investment coming into global quantum computing market. This will help the market participants in understanding who are the major investors, what is their area of interest, what makes them to invest in the technology, investors profile analysis, investment pockets, among others.

IonQ, Rigetti, and D-Wave are Emerging Players in Global Quantum Computing Market

As quantum computing market becomes more mainstream, companies like IonQ, Rigetti and D-Wave are quickly proving they are the top emerging players in the field. IonQ is has been working on developing ionic quantum computer technology for several years now. IonQs flagship product is the IonQ One, which is a single-core quantum computer that can process quantum information.

The IonQ One has already been deployed at a number of institutions around the global quantum computing market including NASA.

Rigetti is another company that has been making significant strides in the development of quantum computing technology. Rigettis flagship product is the Rigetti Quilter, which is a scalable two-qubit quantum computer. The Rigetti Quilter is currently undergoing Phase II testing at NASAs Ames Research Center. D-Wave has also been making significant progress in the development of quantum computing technology. D-Waves flagship product is the D-Wave Two, which is a five-qubit quantum computer. The D-Wave Two was recently deployed at Google physicists to help accelerate the discovery of new phenomena in physics.

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Regetti has secured a total funding of around $298 million through 11 rounds until 2022 in the global quantum computing market. As per our analysis, the company has secured its last funding through post IPO equity. Wherein, Bessemer Venture Partners and Franklin Templeton Investments are the major investor in the company.

As per SkyQuests findings, these three organizations have collectively generated revenue of around $32 million in 2021 with market cap of more than $3 billion. However, at the same time, they are facing heavy loss. For instance, in 2021, they faced collective loss of over $150 million. Our observation also noticed that billions of dollars are poured into building the quantum computers, but most of the market players are not earning much in revenue in terms of ROI.

SkyQuest has published a report on global quantum computing market and have tracked all the current developments, market revenue, companys growth plans and strategies, their ROI, SWOT analysis, and value chain analysis. Apart from this, the provides insights about market dynamics, competitive landscape, market share analysis, opportunities, trends, among others.

Machine Learning Generated Revenue of Over $189 Million in 2021

Today, machine learning is heavily used for training artificial intelligence systems using data. Quantum computing market can help to speed up the process of training these systems by vastly increasing the amount of data that can be processed. This potential advantage of quantum computing is the ability to perform Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) calculations millions of times faster than classical computers. This is important for tasks like image processing and machine learning, which rely on fast FFT algorithms for comparing data sets.

A huge potential of quantum computing market has led to the development of several machine learning applications that use quantum computers. Some of these applications include fraud detection, drug discovery, and speech recognition. As per SkyQuest, fraud detection and drug discovery market were valued at around $25.1 billion and $75 billion, respectively. This represents a huge revenue opportunity for quantum computing market.

This technology has been used for a variety of purposes, including predicting the stock market and automating tasks such as decision making and recommendations. In machine learning, generating revenue is a major challenge through traditional processing. Wherein, traditional computer processing can only handle a small amount of data at a time. This limits how much data can be used in machine learning projects, which in turn limits the accuracy of the predictions made by the ANNs.

Quantum computing solves this problem by allowing computers to perform multiple calculations at the same time. This makes it possible to process vast amounts of data and make accurate predictions. As a result, quantum computing has already begun to revolutionize machine learning market.

SkyQuest has prepared a report on global quantum computing market. The report has segmented the market by application and done in-depth analysis of each application in revenue generation, market forecast, factors responsible for growth, and top players by applications, among others. The report would help to understand the potential of global market by application and understand how other players performing and generating revenue in each segment.

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Quantum Computing Market to Expand by 500% by 2028 | 86% of Investments in Quantum Computing Comes from 4 countries - GlobeNewswire

Whos News: Management Updates at Q-CTRL, Zapata, Kipu Quantum, and the U.S. National Quantum Coordination Office

Q-CTRL has named Alex Shih as Head of Product. His responsibilities will include leading the companys Product Management team to help the company deliver its technology to the broadest range of end users. Prior to joining Q-CTRL, Shih was a principal of technical products at Slack and has other previous experience at Airbnb, Planet, Twitter, Google, and Raytheon. Q-CTRLs news release announcing his appointment is available here.

Zapata Computing has appointed Jay Liu as Head of Product. He will be responsible for product strategy and platform expansion for Zapatas technology and clients. Prior to joining Zapata, Liu was the Vice President of Product Strategy at NS1 and earlier held leadership roles at Dell EMC, Turbonomic, Brightcove, Cisco Systems, and other organizations. A news release from Zapata announcing his joining the company can be seen here.

Daniel Volz has joined Kipu Quantum as Co-founder and CEO. The company is working on application specific quantum computing for early industrial usefulness with a goal of providing industrial quantum advantage sooner than competing approaches. Prior to joining Kipu Quantum, Volz was a Project Manager at BASF where he led the effort to develop a strategy and pilot usage of quantum computing within BASF. And before that he was a Senior Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company where he helped to build up McKinsey global quantum computing activities across several core industries and geographies. A LinkedIn posting announcing that he has joined the company can be accessed here.

Dr. Gretchen Campbell is now the new Deputy Director of the U.S. National Quantum Coordination Office (NQCO). This office carries out the daily activities needed for coordinating and supporting the U.S. National Quantum Initiative. Like other NQCO employees who are on assignment from other federal agencies, Dr. Campbell will be on a detail assignment for this role from her current position at Joint Quantum Institute, NIST/University of Maryland where she has been leading a group studying laser cooling and trapping. A Tweet from Charles Tahan, Director of the NQCO, announcing her appointment can be found here.

September 3, 2022

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Who's News: Management Updates at Q-CTRL, Zapata, Kipu Quantum, and the U.S. National Quantum Coordination Office - Quantum Computing Report

Fujitsu and Japans Riken research institution will team to deliver Japan-made quantum computing starting next April, according to an article on the Nikkei Asia news site.The story states that Fujitsus quantum system is expected to have 64 qubits, more than the 53 qubits in Googles 2019 machine and second to IBMs 127 qubits developed in 2021, Nikkei reported, adding that Fujitsu hopes to deliver a machine with more than 1,000 qubits in 2026.

Last April, Fujitsu and Riken built a base in Saitama, Japan for joint quantum computing development, the Nikkei story stated, with approximately 20 researchers on site. The system is expected to be used for financial forecasting, new materials and medical workloads.

Fujitsu will now use technology and know-how from Riken to become the first Japanese company to build quantum computers, the story said. Like Google and IBM, Fujitsu will adopt a method of computing with a superconductive circuit that is cooled to extremely low temperatures to eliminate electrical resistance.

In other quantum, Chinese AI company Baidu announced last week its first superconducting quantum computer that fully integrates hardware, software, and applications, according to the company.

Baidu also introduced the worlds first all-platform quantum hardware-software integration solution that provides access to various quantum chips via mobile app, PC, and cloud, the company said.

Located at Baidus Quantum Computing Hardware Lab in Beijing, Qian Shi is Baidus first industry-level superconducting quantum computer. Baidu said the system incorporates its hardware platform with Baidus home-grown software stack.

Qian Shi offers high-fidelity 10 quantum bits (qubits) of power, the company said. In addition, Baidu has recently completed the design of a 36-qubit superconducting quantum chip with couplers, which demonstrates promising simulation results across key metrics.

Baidu also highlighted development of Liang Xi, which the company said is the first all-platform quantum hardware-software integration that offers quantum services through private deployment, cloud services, and hardware access. Liang Xi plugs into Qian Shi and other third-party quantum computers, including a 10-qubit superconducting quantum device and a trapped ion quantum device developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Users can visit these quantum computational resources via mobile app, PC, and cloud, Baidu said.

With Qian Shi and Liang Xi, users can create quantum algorithms and use quantum computing power without developing their own quantum hardware, control systems, or programming languages, said Dr. Runyao Duan, Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at Baidu Research. Baidus innovations make it possible to access quantum computing anytime and anywhere, even via smartphone. Baidus platform is also instantly compatible with a wide range of quantum chips, meaning plug-and-play access is now a reality.

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Fujitsu, Riken Partner to Deliver Quantum Computing in Japan Next Year - High-Performance Computing News Analysis | insideHPC - insideHPC

September 2, 2022• Physics 15, 135

A new optical device measures photon indistinguishabilityan important property for future light-based quantum computers.

L. Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1871), illustrated by J. Tenniel; adapted by A. Crespi/Polytechnic University of Milan

L. Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1871), illustrated by J. Tenniel; adapted by A. Crespi/Polytechnic University of Milan

Photons can be used to perform complex computations, but they must be identical or close to identical. A new device can determine the extent to which several photons emitted by a source are indistinguishable [1]. Previous methods only gave a rough estimate of the indistinguishability, but the new method offers a precise measurement. The devicewhich is essentially an arrangement of interconnected waveguidescould work as a diagnostic tool in a quantum optics laboratory.

In optical quantum computing, sequences of photons are made to interact with each other in complex optical circuits (see Synopsis: Quantum Computers Approach Milestone for Boson Sampling). For these computations to work, the photons must have the same frequency, the same polarization, and the same time of arrival in the device. Researchers can easily check if two photons are indistinguishable by sending them through a type of interferometer in which two waveguidesone for each photoncome close enough that one photon can hop into the neighboring waveguide. If the two photons are perfectly indistinguishable, then they always end up together in the same waveguide.

For larger sets of photons, this kind of pairwise testing becomes impractical, as it has to be repeated for all possible two-photon combinations. Researchers have devised approximate methods, but they only give upper and lower bounds on the indistinguishability. When you have more than two photons, it is not so easy to assess whether they are identical, says Andrea Crespi from the Polytechnic University of Milan.

Crespi and his colleagues have come up with a simple method to determine the indistinguishability of multiple photons by letting them interact in a highly coordinated array of waveguides. As a first demonstration, the team constructed a system for four photons. They started with a glass slab and used a laser-writing technique to imprint eight high-density tubes for guiding photons through the slab. These waveguides are like an eight-lane freeway for photon drivers who can change lanes at specific points where neighboring lanes touch. For example, lane 2 touches lanes 1 and 3 at specific locations. A similar bridge also connects lanes 1 and 8, so that every lane touches two neighbors.

Using a semiconductor source called a quantum dot, the team repeatedly fed four photons into the odd lanes (1, 3, 5, 7) and recorded which lanes were occupied with a photon at the end of the freeway. Many final lane arrangements were observed, such as (1, 3, 5, 6) and (2, 4, 6, 8). Next the researchers heated one of the lanes with a laser to gradually change its index of refraction, which induced an oscillation in the probabilities for some of the final lane arrangements. These oscillations implied that interference effects were influencing the lane changes.

The team showed theoretically that the amplitude of the oscillations gives the so-called genuine indistinguishability, which is a number from 0 to 1, where 1 corresponds to perfectly identical photons. They found an indistinguishability of 0.8, meaning their system had some imperfections. The researchers also showed that they could make the oscillations disappear by rotating the polarization of one input photonthus making it distinguishable from the others.

The technique can conceivably work with more photons, but the number of measurements needed to see the lane-arrangement variation grows exponentially with the number of photons. So Crespi admits that it would be impractical for future optical computers dealing with 100 photons or more. Still, he foresees their device as a way to troubleshoot a quantum optics experiment when there is some doubt about the indistinguishability of the input photons. Our experiment adds a tool to the toolbox of the quantum optics experimenter, he says.

This paper reports a useful method to diagnose photonic quantum circuits by measuring the multiphoton indistinguishability, an important metric that is very sensitive to experimental imperfections, says quantum information specialist Chao-Yang Lu from the University of Science and Technology of China. Its a very clever interferometer design, says quantum optics expert Wolfgang Lffler from Leiden University in the Netherlands. He is also impressed by the optical system that generates and separates the photon sequence. Getting everything to work together is a major effort, Lffler says.

Michael Schirber

Michael Schirber is a Corresponding Editor forPhysics Magazine based in Lyon, France.

Mathias Pont, Riccardo Albiero, Sarah E. Thomas, Nicol Spagnolo, Francesco Ceccarelli, Giacomo Corrielli, Alexandre Brieussel, Niccolo Somaschi, Hlio Huet, Abdelmounaim Harouri, Aristide Lematre, Isabelle Sagnes, Nadia Belabas, Fabio Sciarrino, Roberto Osellame, Pascale Senellart, and Andrea Crespi

Phys. Rev. X 12, 031033 (2022)

Published September 2, 2022

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Physics - Measuring the Similarity of Photons - Physics

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Quantum science and engineering can help save energy, speed up computation, enhance national security and defense and innovate health care. With a grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers from Purdue University, Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame will work to develop industry- and government-relevant quantum technologies as part of the Center for Quantum Technologies. Purdue will serve as the lead site. IUPUI, a joint campus of Purdue and Indiana universities in Indianapolis, will also contribute.

This collaboration allows us to leverage our collective research expertise to address the many challenges facing multiple industries using quantum technology, said Sabre Kais, center director and distinguished professor of chemical physics in Purdues College of Science. As a university with world-leading engineering and science programs, and faculty members whose work focuses on many areas of quantum research, Purdue is a natural leader for this center.

Given the wide applicability of quantum technologies, the new Center for Quantum Technologies (CQT) will team with member organizations from a variety of industries, including computing, defense, chemical, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and materials. The CQT researchers will develop foundational knowledge into industry-friendly quantum devices, systems and algorithms with enhanced functionality and performance.

Through critical partnerships and collaboration with experts from across the state of Indiana, government and leading industries nationwide, the CQT will accelerate innovation and advance revolutionary research and technologies, said Theresa Mayer, Purdues executive vice president for research and partnerships. Purdue is thrilled to lead the CQT and further Indianas efforts to cultivate the quantum ecosystem.

Committed industry and government partners include Accenture, the Air Force Research Laboratory, BASF, Cummins, D-Wave, Eli Lilly, Entanglement Inc., General Atomics, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM Quantum, Intel, Northrup Grumman, NSWC Crane, Quantum Computing Inc., Qrypt and SkyWater Technology.

Additionally, the CQT will train future quantum scientists and engineers to fill the need for a robust quantum workforce. Students engaged with the center will take on many of the responsibilities of principal investigators, including drafting proposals, presenting research updates to members and planning meetings and workshops.

At Purdue, faculty from a variety of departments will participate, including Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Science, Materials Engineering, and the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The center will also be supported by the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute.

The CQT is funded for an initial five years through the NSFs Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) program, which generates breakthrough research by enabling close and sustained engagement between industry innovators, world-class academic teams and government agencies. Through the IUCRC program, center members fund and guide the direction of the center research through active involvement and mentoring. Other academic collaborators include Gerardo Ortiz, Indiana University site director, scientific director of the IU Quantum Science and Engineering Center and professor of physics; Peter Kogge, the University of Notre Dame site director and the Ted H. McCourtney Professor of Computer Science and Engineering; Ricardo Decca, IUPUI campus director, co-director of the IUPUI Nanoscale Imaging Center, and professor and department chair of physics; and David Stewart, CQT industry liaison officer and managing director of the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute.

To learn more about the CQT, including membership, please visit http://www.purdue.edu/cqt.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last four years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap athttps://stories.purdue.edu

Writer: Rhianna Wisniewski, rmwisnie@purdue.edu

Media contact: Mary Martialay, mmartial@purdue.edu

Source: David Stewart, davidstewart@purdue.edu

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Three Indiana research universities to collaborate with industry and government to develop quantum technologies in new NSF-funded center - Purdue...

Silicon Valley owes its success to the invention of a computer chip that is now made almost exclusively overseas.

Can $52.7 billion lure the chip, the electronic heart of everything from cell phones to F-15 fighter jets, back home?

The CHIPS and Science Act, signed by President Biden in August, aims to inspire a manufacturing revival that is crucial to our national defense, economic security and future technical innovation.

Already, the domestic semiconductor industry is on a tear, with new megafactory construction underway in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and soon Ohio reflecting manufacturers confidence that the U.S. will help pay for them.

Yet none of the planned megafabs will be built here in the birthplace of the integrated circuit, or chip, where in 1959 legendary entrepreneur Robert Noyce strung transistors together on sheets of silicon in a two-story warehouse built of tilt-up concrete slabs in Mountain View.

To be sure, California remains a leader in more sophisticated parts of the chip supply chain, such as research, design, manufacturing tools and the sophisticated automation devices that analyze chip performance. And those chip-related businesses could get a funding boost too.

Three of the five top chip equipment manufacturers Lam Research, Applied Materials and KLA Corporation are based in the Bay Area. So are powerful chip designers, such as Nvidia, Apple and Google. Synopsis and other companies provide the software to design the chips. Stanford, UC Berkeley and San Jose State conduct world-class research.

Were very well-positioned to accelerate the research and development around microelectronics and apply them to new technologies. On those two bases, California is well positioned to compete for a portion of these federal funds, said Peter Leroe-Muoz, who specializes in tech policy for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Our strength will be growing the footprint that we already have.

Historically, Silicon Valley was where you built the fab, the factory that crafts chips out of silicon, said Michael Hochberg, president of Luminous Computing, which hopes to use CHIPS Act funding to build the worlds most powerful, scalable Artificial Intelligence-based supercomputer at the companys facility in Santa Clara.

Now, he said, if you want to do stuff thats best in class, you have to work with companies from overseas.

Fifty years ago, offshoring in Asia made sense. It reduced costs and helped U.S. companies stay competitive against international rivals. Those Asian countries invested in their factories. According to Micron, it is 35% to 45% cheaper to build a fab in a low-cost Asian nation than in the U.S., primarily because of government support.

Now, the most advanced chips are all made by the behemoth Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC. Its the exclusive supplier of Apples silicon processors for iPhones and Mac PCs, as well as the manufacturing partner of other major U.S. companies like AMD, Broadcom and Qualcomm.

The U.S. is the largest consumer of chips in the world. But we make only 12% of what we use.

With growing U.S.-China tensions, government officials are worried. If taken by force, Taiwans factory would be rendered inoperable and wed lose the chips that power our economy and defense, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit policy research organization that studies the future of national security.

The pandemic-related supply chain disruptions revealed the vulnerability, causing a chip shortage that adversely affected at least 170 industries, especially automakers.

Rebooting the American supply chain will also protect our future innovation, said electrical engineering professor H.-S. Philip Wong, director of Stanfords Nanofabrication Facility. Manufacturers need research so they can build the best new product. Researchers need manufacturers to realize their ideas.

The semiconductor is foundational to many of the technologies that we are counting on going forward, including Artificial Intelligence, quantum computing, 5G and so on, said Wong.

So to have American leadership, he said, you need to have leadership in semiconductors.

According to the Department of Defense, early-stage research cant be proven in the facilities that we have here at home instead, U.S. engineers must go to Asia to test and prove an idea.

Similarly, startups are bedeviled by a chicken-and-egg problem. Without access to a factory, they cant prove commercial promise. Without proof, they cant get into a factory.

The CHIPS and Science Act aims to create a new world order. The $280 billion package includes $39 billion to help with the financing of semiconductor fabrication, assembly, testing and advanced packaging, as well as $13.2 billion toward research and workforce development. It also provides a 25% investment tax credit for capital costs of manufacturing equipment.

Its not yet known how the funds will be spent. Its up to the departments of Commerce, State and Defense to craft the details and decide how the money will be awarded.

Building a factory where billions of microscopic transistors are squeezed onto ever-smaller computer chips is a complex project.

And its expensive. Construction of a new factory takes about three to five years and costs a stunning $10 billion to $12 billion per site, about seven times as much as sports facilities such as Levis Stadium or Chase Center.

The CHIPS Act is likely to boost manufacturing in regions where land and energy are cheap. Theres a specific provision of the Act that directs some spending to places that arent coastal research hubs.

This past week, Micron Technology announced it will build a $15 billion chip factory near its headquarters in Boise, Idaho, and is considering a plan to spend as much as $160 billion on a new factory in central Texas. Two new Intel factories will soon be under construction near Columbus, Ohio, each costing $10 billion. In Arizona, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is investing $12 billion in an advanced-manufacturing center. Texas is the site of Samsungs new $17 billion chip factory. Indiana was selected by SkyWater for a $1.8 billion facility.

To attract Intel, Ohio offered the company about $2 billion worth of incentives, including $700 million for roadwork and water infrastructure upgrades. In Phoenix, where Taiwans TSMC is building its new plant, the city government promised to spend $205 million in public infrastructure improvements. In the small Texas town of Taylor, Samsung will pay no corporate income tax.

Californias welcome is more modest. Officials say they are recruiting but the states support is currently limited to tax credits through the California Competes Program, which offers up to $180 million to qualified applicants. Startups complain thats less useful than other incentives because they dont yet have profits to deduct against.

We have already begun and will continue working with companies to locate their CHIPS-eligible projects here in California, said Heather Purcell of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development. We are the state that is known for innovation, home to the most high-quality, diverse workforce in the nation.

But experts say that new plants are unlikely to be erected here. Manufacturing is stifled by several factors: high real-estate costs, unreliable water, expensive electric bills and stiff regulations. In general, manufacturing has plummeted in California. Since 1990, the state has lost a third of its factory jobs.

A semiconductor fab needs a lot of land, a lot of water and a lot of electricity, said electrical engineering professor Hiu Yung Wong of San Jose State University. We might not be as competitive as other states.

But the biggest challenge is finding people with the right skill sets, he said. Many of the most-talented students go to computer science, where it is much easier to earn a higher income. They go to Google, they go to Facebook.

Silicon Valley became Software Valley, said Dan Hutcheson of TechInsights in San Jose. California is not oriented toward manufacturing. Politicians have this attitude, We dont care. We dont have to.'

Furthermore, some California cities are unlikely to want factories, infamous for their toxic chemicals, he said. Officials may fear fire risk or a repeat of Fairchild Semiconductors massive 1981 pollution of a cancer-causing solvent TCE in drinking-water wells in San Jose.

California may never again return to its industrial heyday, said experts.But federal funding could help turbocharge our many other strengths.

While awaiting the chance to apply for CHIPS funding, Santa Claras Luminous is already readying a production line that will produce its initial supercomputers.

Were building as many of our wafers as we can here in the U.S., said Hochberg, and were planning to do all of this packaging, testing and assembly here in Silicon Valley.

Anything is possible, he said, with enough focus and desire.

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The U.S. is bringing chip-making home. Is California ready? - The Mercury News

The Skillbridge program is a win-win for retiring Service members looking to seamlessly transition to meaningful post-military careers and employers looking to hire highly skilled and motivated new talent, said Jen Sovada, President of SandboxAQ Public Sector.

PALO ALTO, Calif. (PRWEB) September 02, 2022

SandboxAQ, an enterprise SaaS company delivering the compound effects of AI and Quantum technology (AQ), today announced it is an authorized partner for the Department of Defense (DoD) Skillbridge program. The SkillBridge program enables Service members to gain valuable civilian work experience through specific industry training, apprenticeships, or internships during the last 180 days of service. SkillBridge connects Service members with industry partners in real-world job experiences.

Through Skillbridge, SandboxAQ will tap into a growing pool of talented and dedicated workers looking to apply their advanced degrees and military experience in fields such as cryptography, cybersecurity, AI, advanced mathematics, program management, natural and applied sciences and other disciplines to develop AQ solutions that solve some of the worlds toughest challenges.

The Skillbridge program is a win-win for retiring Service members looking to seamlessly transition to meaningful post-military careers and employers looking to hire highly skilled and motivated new talent, said Jen Sovada, President of SandboxAQ Public Sector. The quantum ecosystems tremendous growth creates incredible opportunities for Skillbridge participants to apply their advanced degrees and military training towards careers that will deliver groundbreaking technology solutions, protect our national security and improve our way of life.

For Service members SkillBridge provides an invaluable chance to work and learn in civilian career areas. For industry partners, SkillBridge is an opportunity to access and leverage the worlds most highly trained and motivated workforce at no cost. Service members participating in SkillBridge receive their military compensation and benefits, and industry partners provide the training and work experience.

For more information about our exciting career opportunities and employee benefits, please visit our careers page at https://www.sandboxaq.com/careers. To join SandboxAQ via Skillbridge visit https://skillbridge.osd.mil/program-overview.htm and apply today.

About SandboxAQSandboxAQ is an enterprise SaaS company providing solutions at the nexus of AI and Quantum technology (AQ) to address some of the worlds most challenging problems. We leverage the power of classical computing architecture to deliver AQ solutions and technologies today years before fault-tolerant, error-corrected quantum computers become available. Our core team and inspiration formed at Alphabet Inc. in 2016, and SandboxAQ emerged as an independent, venture-backed company in 2022. For more information, please visit https://www.sandboxaq.com.

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SandboxAQ Joins the Department of Defense Skillbridge Program to Place Military Community Members in Exciting Quantum Tech Careers - PR Web

As a humanist who writes about the impact of digital technology on our lives, I am often mistaken for a futurist. The people most interested in hiring me for my opinions about technology are usually less concerned with building tools that help people live better lives in the present than they are in identifying the Next Big Thing through which to dominate them in the future. I dont usually respond to their inquiries. Why help these guys ruin whats left of the internet, much less civilisation?

Still, sometimes a combination of morbid curiosity and cold hard cash is enough to get me on a stage in front of the tech elite, where I try to talk some sense into them about how their businesses are affecting our lives out here in the real world. Thats how I found myself accepting an invitation to address a group mysteriously described as ultra-wealthy stakeholders, out in the middle of the desert.

A limo was waiting for me at the airport. As the sun began to dip over the horizon, I realised I had been in the car for three hours. What sort of wealthy hedge-fund types would drive this far from the airport for a conference? Then I saw it. On a parallel path next to the highway, as if racing against us, a small jet was coming in for a landing on a private airfield. Of course.

The next morning, two men in matching Patagonia fleeces came for me in a golf cart and conveyed me through rocks and underbrush to a meeting hall. They left me to drink coffee and prepare in what I figured was serving as my green room. But instead of me being wired with a microphone or taken to a stage, my audience was brought in to me. They sat around the table and introduced themselves: five super-wealthy guys yes, all men from the upper echelon of the tech investing and hedge-fund world. At least two of them were billionaires. After a bit of small talk, I realised they had no interest in the speech I had prepared about the future of technology. They had come to ask questions.

They started out innocuously and predictably enough. Bitcoin or ethereum? Virtual reality or augmented reality? Who will get quantum computing first, China or Google? Eventually, they edged into their real topic of concern: New Zealand or Alaska? Which region would be less affected by the coming climate crisis? It only got worse from there. Which was the greater threat: global warming or biological warfare? How long should one plan to be able to survive with no outside help? Should a shelter have its own air supply? What was the likelihood of groundwater contamination? Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked: How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event? The event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.

This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from raiders as well as angry mobs. One had already secured a dozen Navy Seals to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue. But how would he pay the guards once even his crypto was worthless? What would stop the guards from eventually choosing their own leader?

The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers if that technology could be developed in time.

I tried to reason with them. I made pro-social arguments for partnership and solidarity as the best approaches to our collective, long-term challenges. The way to get your guards to exhibit loyalty in the future was to treat them like friends right now, I explained. Dont just invest in ammo and electric fences, invest in people and relationships. They rolled their eyes at what must have sounded to them like hippy philosophy.

This was probably the wealthiest, most powerful group I had ever encountered. Yet here they were, asking a Marxist media theorist for advice on where and how to configure their doomsday bunkers. Thats when it hit me: at least as far as these gentlemen were concerned, this was a talk about the future of technology.

Taking their cue from Tesla founder Elon Musk colonising Mars, Palantirs Peter Thiel reversing the ageing process, or artificial intelligence developers Sam Altman and Ray Kurzweil uploading their minds into supercomputers, they were preparing for a digital future that had less to do with making the world a better place than it did with transcending the human condition altogether. Their extreme wealth and privilege served only to make them obsessed with insulating themselves from the very real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic and resource depletion. For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us.

These people once showered the world with madly optimistic business plans for how technology might benefit human society. Now theyve reduced technological progress to a video game that one of them wins by finding the escape hatch. Will it be Jeff Bezos migrating to space, Thiel to his New Zealand compound, or Mark Zuckerberg to his virtual metaverse? And these catastrophising billionaires are the presumptive winners of the digital economy the supposed champions of the survival-of-the-fittest business landscape thats fuelling most of this speculation to begin with.

What I came to realise was that these men are actually the losers. The billionaires who called me out to the desert to evaluate their bunker strategies are not the victors of the economic game so much as the victims of its perversely limited rules. More than anything, they have succumbed to a mindset where winning means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way. Its as if they want to build a car that goes fast enough to escape from its own exhaust.

Yet this Silicon Valley escapism lets call it The Mindset encourages its adherents to believe that the winners can somehow leave the rest of us behind.

Never before have our societys most powerful players assumed that the primary impact of their own conquests would be to render the world itself unliveable for everyone else. Nor have they ever before had the technologies through which to programme their sensibilities into the very fabric of our society. The landscape is alive with algorithms and intelligences actively encouraging these selfish and isolationist outlooks. Those sociopathic enough to embrace them are rewarded with cash and control over the rest of us. Its a self-reinforcing feedback loop. This is new.

Amplified by digital technologies and the unprecedented wealth disparity they afford, The Mindset allows for the easy externalisation of harm to others, and inspires a corresponding longing for transcendence and separation from the people and places that have been abused.

Instead of just lording over us for ever, however, the billionaires at the top of these virtual pyramids actively seek the endgame. In fact, like the plot of a Marvel blockbuster, the very structure of The Mindset requires an endgame. Everything must resolve to a one or a zero, a winner or loser, the saved or the damned. Actual, imminent catastrophes from the climate emergency to mass migrations support the mythology, offering these would-be superheroes the opportunity to play out the finale in their own lifetimes. For The Mindset also includes a faith-based Silicon Valley certainty that they can develop a technology that will somehow break the laws of physics, economics and morality to offer them something even better than a way of saving the world: a means of escape from the apocalypse of their own making.

By the time I boarded my return flight to New York, my mind was reeling with the implications of The Mindset. What were its main tenets? Who were its true believers? What, if anything, could we do to resist it? Before I had even landed, I posted an article about my strange encounter to surprising effect.

Almost immediately, I began receiving inquiries from businesses catering to the billionaire prepper, all hoping I would make some introductions on their behalf to the five men I had written about. I heard from a real estate agent who specialises in disaster-proof listings, a company taking reservations for its third underground dwellings project, and a security firm offering various forms of risk management.

But the message that got my attention came from a former president of the American chamber of commerce in Latvia. JC Cole had witnessed the fall of the Soviet empire, as well as what it took to rebuild a working society almost from scratch. He had also served as landlord for the American and European Union embassies, and learned a whole lot about security systems and evacuation plans. You certainly stirred up a bees nest, he began his first email to me. Its quite accurate the wealthy hiding in their bunkers will have a problem with their security teams I believe you are correct with your advice to treat those people really well, right now, but also the concept may be expanded and I believe there is a better system that would give much better results.

He felt certain that the event a grey swan, or predictable catastrophe triggered by our enemies, Mother Nature, or just by accident was inevitable. He had done a Swot analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and concluded that preparing for calamity required us to take the very same measures as trying to prevent one. By coincidence, he explained, I am setting up a series of safe haven farms in the NYC area. These are designed to best handle an event and also benefit society as semi-organic farms. Both within three hours drive from the city close enough to get there when it happens.

Here was a prepper with security clearance, field experience and food sustainability expertise. He believed the best way to cope with the impending disaster was to change the way we treat one another, the economy, and the planet right now while also developing a network of secret, totally self-sufficient residential farm communities for millionaires, guarded by Navy Seals armed to the teeth.

JC is currently developing two farms as part of his safe haven project. Farm one, outside Princeton, is his show model and works well as long as the thin blue line is working. The second one, somewhere in the Poconos, has to remain a secret. The fewer people who know the locations, the better, he explained, along with a link to the Twilight Zone episode in which panicked neighbours break into a familys bomb shelter during a nuclear scare. The primary value of safe haven is operational security, nicknamed OpSec by the military. If/when the supply chain breaks, the people will have no food delivered. Covid-19 gave us the wake-up call as people started fighting over toilet paper. When it comes to a shortage of food it will be vicious. That is why those intelligent enough to invest have to be stealthy.

JC invited me down to New Jersey to see the real thing. Wear boots, he said. The ground is still wet. Then he asked: Do you shoot?

The farm itself was serving as an equestrian centre and tactical training facility in addition to raising goats and chickens. JC showed me how to hold and shoot a Glock at a series of outdoor targets shaped like bad guys, while he grumbled about the way Senator Dianne Feinstein had limited the number of rounds one could legally fit in a magazine for the handgun. JC knew his stuff. I asked him about various combat scenarios. The only way to protect your family is with a group, he said. That was really the whole point of his project to gather a team capable of sheltering in place for a year or more, while also defending itself from those who hadnt prepared. JC was also hoping to train young farmers in sustainable agriculture, and to secure at least one doctor and dentist for each location.

On the way back to the main building, JC showed me the layered security protocols he had learned designing embassy properties: a fence, no trespassing signs, guard dogs, surveillance cameras all meant to discourage violent confrontation. He paused for a minute as he stared down the drive. Honestly, I am less concerned about gangs with guns than the woman at the end of the driveway holding a baby and asking for food. He paused, and sighed, I dont want to be in that moral dilemma.

Thats why JCs real passion wasnt just to build a few isolated, militarised retreat facilities for millionaires, but to prototype locally owned sustainable farms that can be modelled by others and ultimately help restore regional food security in America. The just-in-time delivery system preferred by agricultural conglomerates renders most of the nation vulnerable to a crisis as minor as a power outage or transportation shutdown. Meanwhile, the centralisation of the agricultural industry has left most farms utterly dependent on the same long supply chains as urban consumers. Most egg farmers cant even raise chickens, JC explained as he showed me his henhouses. They buy chicks. Ive got roosters.

JC is no hippy environmentalist but his business model is based in the same communitarian spirit I tried to convey to the billionaires: the way to keep the hungry hordes from storming the gates is by getting them food security now. So for $3m, investors not only get a maximum security compound in which to ride out the coming plague, solar storm, or electric grid collapse. They also get a stake in a potentially profitable network of local farm franchises that could reduce the probability of a catastrophic event in the first place. His business would do its best to ensure there are as few hungry children at the gate as possible when the time comes to lock down.

So far, JC Cole has been unable to convince anyone to invest in American Heritage Farms. That doesnt mean no one is investing in such schemes. Its just that the ones that attract more attention and cash dont generally have these cooperative components. Theyre more for people who want to go it alone. Most billionaire preppers dont want to have to learn to get along with a community of farmers or, worse, spend their winnings funding a national food resilience programme. The mindset that requires safe havens is less concerned with preventing moral dilemmas than simply keeping them out of sight.

Many of those seriously seeking a safe haven simply hire one of several prepper construction companies to bury a prefab steel-lined bunker somewhere on one of their existing properties. Rising S Company in Texas builds and installs bunkers and tornado shelters for as little as $40,000 for an 8ft by 12ft emergency hideout all the way up to the $8.3m luxury series Aristocrat, complete with pool and bowling lane. The enterprise originally catered to families seeking temporary storm shelters, before it went into the long-term apocalypse business. The company logo, complete with three crucifixes, suggests their services are geared more toward Christian evangelist preppers in red-state America than billionaire tech bros playing out sci-fi scenarios.

Theres something much more whimsical about the facilities in which most of the billionaires or, more accurately, aspiring billionaires actually invest. A company called Vivos is selling luxury underground apartments in converted cold war munitions storage facilities, missile silos, and other fortified locations around the world. Like miniature Club Med resorts, they offer private suites for individuals or families, and larger common areas with pools, games, movies and dining. Ultra-elite shelters such as the Oppidum in the Czech Republic claim to cater to the billionaire class, and pay more attention to the long-term psychological health of residents. They provide imitation of natural light, such as a pool with a simulated sunlit garden area, a wine vault, and other amenities to make the wealthy feel at home.

On closer analysis, however, the probability of a fortified bunker actually protecting its occupants from the reality of, well, reality, is very slim. For one, the closed ecosystems of underground facilities are preposterously brittle. For example, an indoor, sealed hydroponic garden is vulnerable to contamination. Vertical farms with moisture sensors and computer-controlled irrigation systems look great in business plans and on the rooftops of Bay Area startups; when a palette of topsoil or a row of crops goes wrong, it can simply be pulled and replaced. The hermetically sealed apocalypse grow room doesnt allow for such do-overs.

Just the known unknowns are enough to dash any reasonable hope of survival. But this doesnt seem to stop wealthy preppers from trying. The New York Times reported that real estate agents specialising in private islands were overwhelmed with inquiries during the Covid-19 pandemic. Prospective clients were even asking about whether there was enough land to do some agriculture in addition to installing a helicopter landing pad. But while a private island may be a good place to wait out a temporary plague, turning it into a self-sufficient, defensible ocean fortress is harder than it sounds. Small islands are utterly dependent on air and sea deliveries for basic staples. Solar panels and water filtration equipment need to be replaced and serviced at regular intervals. The billionaires who reside in such locales are more, not less, dependent on complex supply chains than those of us embedded in industrial civilisation.

Surely the billionaires who brought me out for advice on their exit strategies were aware of these limitations. Could it have all been some sort of game? Five men sitting around a poker table, each wagering his escape plan was best?

But if they were in it just for fun, they wouldnt have called for me. They would have flown out the author of a zombie apocalypse comic book. If they wanted to test their bunker plans, theyd have hired a security expert from Blackwater or the Pentagon. They seemed to want something more. Their language went far beyond questions of disaster preparedness and verged on politics and philosophy: words such as individuality, sovereignty, governance and autonomy.

Thats because it wasnt their actual bunker strategies I had been brought out to evaluate so much as the philosophy and mathematics they were using to justify their commitment to escape. They were working out what Ive come to call the insulation equation: could they earn enough money to insulate themselves from the reality they were creating by earning money in this way? Was there any valid justification for striving to be so successful that they could simply leave the rest of us behind apocalypse or not?

Or was this really their intention all along? Maybe the apocalypse is less something theyre trying to escape than an excuse to realise The Mindsets true goal: to rise above mere mortals and execute the ultimate exit strategy.

This is an edited extract from Survival of the Richest by Douglas Rushkoff, published by Scribe (20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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The super-rich preppers planning to save themselves from the apocalypse - The Guardian