• FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Specifically, scientists have worked out how to teleport information almost instantly and over any distance – without needing any future technology

    Either this is a world changing discovery that breaks everything that I’m hearing about only in… checks… the BBC Science Magazine

    Or… it’s complete wank clickbait nonsense

    OH WHICH IS IT GOING TO BE?!

    • Limonene@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      TLDR: They sent information through a fiber-optic cable using fewer photons per bit than before.

      They only transmitted information, not any non-photon particles. They didn’t exceed the speed of light, or exceed the speed of light through fiber-optic cable.

    • ilmagico@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The second one, of course:

      the new research proposes that the breakthrough could make these communications super secure and nearly instantaneous – limited only by the speed of light.

      (enphasis mine)

      So, yeah, we didn’t break any laws of physics.

      • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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        1 day ago

        Well… I think the idea is once you can reliably send a photon, you can start sending entangled photos. Then you can use those to build networking hardware that transmits bits instantly.

        • ilmagico@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to transmit bits “instantly” i.e. faster than light under the current quantum theory or relativity theory, you can’t transmit information faster than the speed of light. If somebody found a way to do that, we’d be rewriting the laws of physics, and that would be a big deal for sure.

          • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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            17 hours ago

            Quantum mechanics do “bypass” the speed of light from my understanding.

            It’s not that you’re moving anything or actually bypass the speed of light. You just have basically a value that’s “entangled” so when it’s changed in one place it’s instantly changed in the other; it’s really freaky.