Qbit

I’m recording this on the run. Some five or six dark suits with ties broke into my house this morning. They look out of place in Alaska. When I saw the guns, I climbed out a window and fled into the woods. They yelled and fired a short burst, but I was into the trees down a steep hill, and it’s still dark. I’m betting they won’t be able to follow me with their street shoes through the rain, the thick spruce and the moose marsh – certainly not through Bidarki Creek without boots. Everyone here on the coast wears rubber boots this time of year.

There is no way I could escape by car. They would easily overtake me or block the single road north. I don’t dare use my ear-phone. They will surely watch the airport, but I know most of the pilots on Beluga Lake. I can’t count on the local police; they would be overwhelmed, and besides I don’ know who these guys are. I saw two of them with Uzis, whatever that means.

I’ve got the only two working models in my pocket. Thank God they are small. Fortunately there is nothing critical left in the lab. The patent came through two days ago. That may be what put them on to me. If there was a working model outside, I could call for help. My Silicon Valley investors have yet to see them.

This sloshing through the muck is not for 70 year olds. It’s at least four miles to the lake, downhill fortunately. I can cover nearly all of it in the woods and along the creek bed, just one road to cross. If they know where I’m going they could easily spot me.

I’ve always attracted trouble. My name is Schroder. I recall my first research project while I was in my second year of medical school. I was collecting fresh thyroid tissue for electrophoresis. Unfortunately the surgeon wanted a frozen section on the nodule he had just removed in the OR. The thyroid was already in the blender when they caught up with me. That’s why I switched to physics.

I’ve long since retired from academic research, but I putter in the lab. That’s where I got interested in spin qbits. Actually, quantum-jump-spectroscopy was used back in 2010 in an ion clock. I’ve been playing around with diamond crystals, much like crystal radio over a century ago. What I found was simplicity itself. Distance didn’t matter. I was able to maintain undisrupted entanglement at seemingly any temperature along any distance. Physicists still disagree but this “spooky behavior” in effect breaks the light barrier. There are other things: like measuring the spin along three axes instead of two and an algorithm to overcome uncertainty.

I’ve been trying to convince my Silicon Valley supporters to build this out as a communication system not just another clunky quantum computer. The Qbit -- That’s a good name. It should catch on. -- will once and for all defeat the telephone/wireless monopoly. The government will no longer be able to auction off band width as though photons were private property. Imagine free information and unlimited band width.

Wow, I’m getting overheated. I should have walked along the beach. Maybe this is safer. Where was I? Ah, this device I have in my pocket, actually these two can store enough IP addresses to go around and communicate instantly to any place on Earth and beyond. This would have been great for the Mars Mission. This Qbit will replace the telephone, the cell phone and the Internet. As best as I can tell, shielding will not block the signal, and the message can’t be intercepted or even detected. There is no carrier, no frequency and no photons. Suffice it to say that zillions of particles in each diamond crystal are individually entangled with like particles in all other network crystals. Intriguingly, the device works otherwise something like a crystal radio.

The Qbit’s greatest merit, however, will be its effect on the economy. In looking back, historians suggest that the telephone monopoly engineered the recession in order to gain control of the Internet which indeed they have. Ironically, the Qbit may soon replace that cartel with the ultimate free exploitable resource like in the early days of the Internet. – My investors agree.

I don’t know if it’s the Chinese or the phone company that broke into my house this morning. We have a patent, but that does not matter to the military, theirs or ours. If our military gets it they will classify it and deny civilian use. If they are forced to let it go, they will give it to the telephone companies. In any case, I’ve got to get these prototypes to my supporters down below.

I’m crossing the tidal slew along the beach where I don’t think I can be seen from the road. Oh oh, there goes the black SUV. Do they see me? They are slowing down, letting one man off. They must have seen the number of floatplanes on the lake. I’m almost in the trees. I’ve got to be careful.

This thing is patented in the name of the American people. I’m not sure what good that will do considering this kind of aggressive response. I had hoped that a public patent would prevent restrictive use. Our economy needs a running start. The depression has lasted too long.

There’s Jon by his Beaver, no passengers. I may be in luck.

I've got to move with care. I don’t see the guy. Now if Jon can just get me out of here, I’ll s-mail this and pick my way south.-- [Click]