December 2020 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

New Views of Quantum Jumps Challenge Core Tenets of Physics
by coderman 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

"... there is more to the story of discreteness, randomness and predictability in quantum mechanics than commonly thought.” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-views-of-quantum-jumps-chall… New Views of Quantum Jumps Challenge Core Tenets of Physics One of the most basic processes in all of nature—a subatomic particle’s transition between discrete energy states—is surprisingly complex and sometimes predictable, recent work shows - By [Eleni Petrakou](https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/eleni-petrakou/) on December 29, 2020 Quantum mechanics, the theory that describes the physics of the universe at very small scales, is notorious for defying common sense. Consider, for instance, the way that standard interpretations of the theory suggest change occurs in the quantum turf: shifts from one state to another supposedly happen unpredictably and instantaneously. Put another way, if events in our familiar world unfolded similarly to those within atoms, we would expect to routinely see batter becoming a fully baked cake without passing through any intermediate steps. Everyday experience, of course, tells us this is not the case, but for the less accessible microscopic realm, the true nature of such “quantum jumps” has been a major unsolved problem in physics. In recent decades, however, technological advancements have allowed physicists to probe the issue more closely in carefully arranged laboratory settings. The most fundamental breakthrough arguably came in 1986, when researchers for the first time experimentally verified that quantum jumps are actual physical events that can be observed and studied. Ever since, steady technical progress has opened deeper vistas upon the mysterious phenomenon. Notably, [an experiment](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1287-z) published in 2019 overturned the traditional view of quantum jumps by demonstrating that they move predictably and gradually once they start—and can even be stopped midway. That experiment, performed at Yale University, used a setup that let the researchers monitor the transitions with minimal intrusion. Each jump took place between two energy values of a superconducting qubit, a tiny circuit built to mimic the properties of atoms. The research team used measurements of “side activity” taking place in the circuit when the system had the lower energy. This is a bit like knowing which show is playing on a television in another room by only listening for certain key words. This indirect probe evaded one of the top concerns in quantum experiments—namely, how to avoid influencing the very system that one is observing. Known as “clicks” (from the sound that old Geiger counters made when detecting radioactivity), these measurements revealed an important property: jumps to the higher energy were always preceded by a halt in the “key words,” a pause in the side activity. This eventually permitted the team to predict the jumps’ unfolding and even to stop them at will. Now a new theoretical study delves deeper into what can be said about the jumps and when. And it finds that this seemingly simple and fundamental phenomenon is actually quite complex. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN The [new study](https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevResearch…, published in Physical Review Research, models the step-by-step, cradle-to-grave evolution of quantum jumps—from the initial lower-energy state of the system, known as the ground state, then a second one where it has higher energy, called the excited state, and finally the transition back to the ground state. This modeling shows that the predictable, “catchable” quantum jumps must have a noncatchable counterpart, says author Kyrylo Snizhko, a postdoctoral researcher now at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, who was formerly at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where the study was performed. Specifically, by “noncatchable” the researchers mean that the jump back to the ground state will not always be smooth and predictable. Instead the study’s results show that such an event’s evolution depends on how “connected” the measuring device is to the system (another peculiarity of the quantum realm, which, in this case, relates to the timescale of the measurements, compared with that of the transitions). The connection can be weak, in which case a quantum jump can also be predictable through the pause in clicks from the qubit’s side activity, in the way used by the Yale experiment. The system transitions by passing through a mixture of the excited state and ground state, a quantum phenomenon known as superposition. But sometimes, when the connection exceeds a certain threshold, this superposition will shift toward a specific value of the mixture and tend to stay at that state until it moves to the ground unannounced. In that special case, “this probabilistic quantum jump cannot be predicted and reversed midflight,” explains Parveen Kumar, a postdoctoral researcher at the Weizmann Institute and co-author of the most recent study. In other words, even jumps for which timing was initially predictable would be followed by inherently unpredictable ones. But there is yet more nuance when examining the originally catchable jumps. Snizhko says that even these possess an unpredictable element. A catchable quantum jump will always proceed on a “trajectory” through the superposition of the excited and ground states, but there can be no guarantee that the jump will ever finish. “At each point in the trajectory, there is a probability that the jump continues and a probability that it is projected back to the ground state,” Snizhko says. “So the jump may start happening and then abruptly get canceled. The trajectory is totally deterministic—but whether the system will complete the trajectory or not is unpredictable.” This behavior appeared in the Yale experiment’s results. The scientists behind that work called such catchable jumps “islands of predictability in a sea of uncertainty.” Ricardo Gutiérrez-Jáuregui, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University and one of the authors of the corresponding study, notes that “the beauty of that work was to show that in the absence of clicks, the system followed a predetermined path to reach the excited state in a short but nonzero time. The device, however, still has a chance to ‘click’ as the system transitions through this path, thus interrupting its transition.” “QUANTUM PHYSICS IS BROKEN!” Zlatko Minev, a researcher at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and lead author of the earlier Yale study, notes that the new theoretical paper “derives a very nice, simple model and explanation of the quantum jump phenomenon in the context of a qubit as a function of the parameters of the experiment.” Taken together with the experiment at Yale, the results “show that there is more to the story of discreteness, randomness and predictability in quantum mechanics than commonly thought.” Specifically, the surprisingly nuanced behavior of quantum jumps—the way a leap from the ground state to the excited state can be foretold—suggests a degree of predictability inherent to the quantum world that has never before been observed. Some would even consider it forbidden, had it not already been validated by experiment. When Minev first discussed the possibility of predictable quantum jumps with others in his group, a colleague responded by shouting back, “If this is true, then quantum physics is broken!” “In the end, our experiment worked, and from it one can infer that quantum jumps are random and discrete,” Minev says. “Yet on a finer timescale, their evolution is coherent and continuous. These two seemingly opposed viewpoints coexist.” As to whether such processes can apply to the material world at large—for instance, to atoms outside a quantum lab—Kumar is undecided, in large part because of how carefully specific the study’s conditions were. “It would be interesting to generalize our results,” he says. If the results turn out similar for different measurement setups, then this behavior—events that are in some sense both random and predictable, discrete yet continuous—could reflect more general properties of the quantum world. Meanwhile the predictions of the study could get checked soon. According to Serge Rosenblum, a researcher at the Weizmann Institute who did not participate in either study, these effects can be observed with today’s state-of-the-art superconducting quantum systems and are high on the list of experiments for the institute’s new [qubits lab](https://www.weizmann.ac.il/condmat/rosenblum/). “It was quite amazing to me that a deceptively simple system such as a single qubit can still hide such surprises when we measure it,” he adds. For a long time, quantum jumps—the most basic processes underlying everything in nature—were considered nearly impossible to probe. But technological progress is changing that. Kater Murch, an associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis, who did not participate in the two studies, remarks, “I like how the Yale experiment seems to have motivated this theory paper, which is uncovering new aspects of a physics problem that has been studied for decades. In my mind, experiments really help drive the ways that theorists think about things, and this leads to new discoveries.” The mystery might not just be going away, though. As Snizhko says, “I do not think that the quantum jumps problem will be resolved completely any time soon; it is too deeply ingrained in quantum theory. But by playing with different measurements and jumps, we might stumble upon something practically useful.”

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BBC News: Hacked home cams used to livestream police raids in swatting attacks
by jim bell 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

Hacked home cams used to livestream police raids in swatting attacks - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55499164

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A bad man - but a Greek
by professor rat 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

Assassination and the immunity theory Philosophia 33 (1-4): 129-147. 2005. This paper argues for a policy of assassination. Foreign leaders causing unjust wars forfeit their rights against being killed. Killing them also satisfies the conditions on defensive violence that accompany forfeiture (consider, for example, imminence, necessity, and proportionality). Assassination sometimes maximizes the good. In some cases, then, assassination is right and good. https://philpeople.org/profiles/stephen-kershnar/publications?order=viewings

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Michael Bloomberg as Alfred E. Neuman
by professor rat 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

emptywheel - 2h Bloomberg makes the objectively false claim that a Trump pardon for Assange "first gained traction" early last year. Trump has been considering a pardon since at least November 15, 2016, and it's part of his own criminal involvement in 2016. https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-31/possible-trump-pardon-oversh…

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A bad year for anarcho-capitalism
by professor rat 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

Jim Bell's ' Assassination Politics " idea ( APster ) soon placed Mongo under increasing pressure to back up all his pseudo-revolutionary bs he almost called ' Cyber Liberty '. The pressure ratcheted up through 1996 - 7 - 8 -9 and the year 2000 as Jim was attacked by the police and CJ tried to help him. It became apparent Mongo wouldn't risk his own skin and didn't even want his theory sullied with any actual collapse-of-govts, especially in the US. Never mind this made anarcho-capitalism look weak-as-piss and a dilettante's pastime fit only for eunuchs. "... Like an inverse Marxist, Tim May tended to believe that the inexorable expansion of private cryptography made the victory of crypto-anarchism inevitable. A new “balance of power between individuals and larger entities” was already emerging. He predicted with some confidence “the end of governments as we know them”. Another even more extreme cypherpunk of the libertarian Right, Jim Bell, like an inverse Leninist, thought that history might need a push..." https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2011/february/1324596189/robert-manne/c…

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Re: [liberationtech] Intentional Big Tech Leftist Bias in Social and News Media Corrupts Elections and Defrauds Peoples
by grarpamp 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

> one (nameless) political party Censorship games are unnecessary. The reference is 'Republican Party'. And quite clearly there are various elements, including all of those mentioned, within both Left and Right, worldwide. > anti-intellectualism Especially that element and messaging, widely present across Government, .Edu-cation and Media, that all three must serve as the only fonts of knowledge and awarders of paper and rights, as the self-accredited self-perpetuators of selves, and with hardly any mention made by them that independent tooling and seeking for knowledge, including explicitly without them, is an available, encouraged, and valid option. In fact, they steal from and imprison you for peacefully routing around them on your journey. Fortunately education is going both opensource and distributed, thus destroying those old pay to play cabals, and liberating minds to think freely, before being de-intellected by 0~20 years of channeled indoctrination. This will open up a great and needed breadth, from new science to philosophy to enterprise and peace. Also highly unapproved Biased against de-ranked and censored by all those above is "Libertarian Party" which itself seemingly could also have an interest in, or be foundational to, a proper understanding, and deployments of, "liberation-tech"... but is effectively never mentioned here... instead being drowned out by Leftist "scholars", Keynesian "economists", such Socialism clearly forced by them upon threat of death upon harmless peoples, etc. Homework: List some random forms of liberation and technology... https://lp.org/ https://mises.org/ https://anarchapulco.com/ https://bitcoin.com/ https://tox.chat/ https://github.com/openbazaar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism Hundreds of very popular conversation channels have been censored and nuked by the Entities in Subject and text above. Most here would find difficult to name two, let alone ten, nor any followed at times, even as self learning survey... a sad state for supposed liberation. Hardly few convos considering much beyond full support of Left-Social-Democracy-Force-Murder. Preferring to "Zoom" "Vote Dem" and Censor rather than airdrop USB's full of opensource tools and say anarcho libertarian voluntary freedom multimedia around the world. Freedom is the most powerful liberating-technology, and they clearly don't want you to see, think, discuss, speak, develop, have, or use it... freedom *is* the "information" they fear most, as with it, they become irrelevant, thus they "disinfo" de-rank de-monetize and delete it, and propagandize you with their faux authority instead. Freedom is, and needs no fact-check. > change Those legacy models use force, a history of failure. Change that comes from freely understanding, a culture steeping some education and charity... as they say "peace love and anarchy"... hardly needs such force. Expect those trying to continue using those permeated former models of force... to become irrelevant, extinct, and faster than you think.

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The nomad-war-machine is exterior to the state apparatus
by professor rat 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

Hold the Mayo Power concedes nothing without the demand backed by force. Those eunuchs who won't fight want crops without rain and roar of mighty waters. A full year put aside to settle outstanding accounts with all local-bullies and bad-gentry ( Scum like Batshit-crazy, jamesd, Gramps and creeping-Jesus, Zendy Darkness ) sounds fair-enough to me. Even if a Marxist-communist, left-fascist thought of it first. Roll on the global revolution.

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Hacks: Smashing SHA-1 to Shambles for less than 1BTC
by grarpamp 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/014 SHA-1 is a Shambles - First Chosen-Prefix Collision on SHA-1 and Application to the PGP Web of Trust Gaëtan Leurent and Thomas Peyrin Abstract: The SHA-1 hash function was designed in 1995 and has been widely used during two decades. A theoretical collision attack was first proposed in 2004 [WYY05], but due to its high complexity it was only implemented in practice in 2017, using a large GPU cluster [SBK+17]. More recently, an almost practical chosen-prefix collision attack against SHA-1 has been proposed [LP19]. This more powerful attack allows to build colliding messages with two arbitrary prefixes, which is much more threatening for real protocols. In this paper, we report the first practical implementation of this attack, and its impact on real-world security with a PGP/GnuPG impersonation attack. We managed to significantly reduce the complexity of collisions attack against SHA-1: on an Nvidia GTX 970, identical-prefix collisions can now be computed with a complexity of 261.2 rather than 264.7, and chosen-prefix collisions with a complexity of 263.4 rather than 267.1. When renting cheap GPUs, this translates to a cost of 11k US\$ for a collision, and 45k US\$ for a chosen-prefix collision, within the means of academic researchers. Our actual attack required two months of computations using 900 Nvidia GTX 1060 GPUs (we paid 75k US\$ because GPU prices were higher, and we wasted some time preparing the attack). Therefore, the same attacks that have been practical on MD5 since 2009 are now practical on SHA-1. In particular, chosen-prefix collisions can break signature schemes and handshake security in secure channel protocols (TLS, SSH). We strongly advise to remove SHA-1 from those type of applications as soon as possible. We exemplify our cryptanalysis by creating a pair of PGP/GnuPG keys with different identities, but colliding SHA-1 certificates. A SHA-1 certification of the first key can therefore be transferred to the second key, leading to a forgery. This proves that SHA-1 signatures now offers virtually no security in practice. The legacy branch of GnuPG still uses SHA-1 by default for identity certifications, but after notifying the authors, the modern branch now rejects SHA-1 signatures (the issue is tracked as CVE-2019-14855).

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Re: The nomad-war-machine is exterior to the state apparatus
by Zenaan Harkness 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

> Citizens in the United Kingdom must, upon request, give keys for decryption of personal systems to authorities. Failing to do this can result in imprisonment for up to two years, without evidence of other criminal activity. > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-anarchism > > Collapse of the UK is therefore as high a priority as collapse of the ' Big Three "- USA, CCP and Russia. Later for the EU and UN. Cryptoanarchist munitions are similar to a Neutron Bomb, only they leave welfare state structures standing while destroying all the other govt buildings. > > Anarchist victory is already here - its just not evenly distributed yet. Can that system providing no opportunity to truly stand, to actually make a sacrifice for the greater good, be worthy of Soul's journey? (Not that any high aspiration can ever justify the evil of men and politicians...) The opportunity to stand in truth, to put a principle before self, to live a higher ethic no matter the personal cost, is a rare opportunity for most. To be able to do so outside of a years long Bolchevik slaughter festival or the rivers of blood from international trench warfare, is relatively rare. The prisoner's dilemma is to some real degree a false dichotomy, since the stand of one speaks loudly to realms beyond mere physical - even Lot negotiated with Gabriel, from many to merely one (besides Lot and his family of course). The city shall be saved for but one. Do you fight? Or can you stand true, free from spite and anger? Will you be the one?

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Backstab lands
by professor rat 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

@adam3us , @amizi and @lopp on Jan 5th for Origins of the Cypherpunk. https://twitter.com/CasaHODL/status/1344312539698622466

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