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Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by Areading314 on Friday December 04, 2020 @12:46AM (#25299420)
Why are we claiming this was achieved by "China" rather than the responsible scientists? Science is a global cooperative effort, rather than a national competition. Also, link to the actual article:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/12/02/scie...

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by cambalache on Friday December 04, 2020 @01:05AM (#25299510)
The same way we claim "the USSR" launched Sputnik, and "America" put a man on the moon.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by stonogo on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:21AM (#25299860)
A Chinese citizen, who happens to be the Vice Chair of a Chinese political party, working for the University of Science and Technology of China, using money entirely from the Chinese government, led a team consisting entirely of other Chinese citizens working for Chinese institutions, and you're wondering why we're claiming this was achieved by "China"?

Science might be a global cooperative effort, but this paper comes from China.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by throwaway4good on Friday December 04, 2020 @04:17AM (#25300467)
One of the things that is interesting about the Chinese political system is the large number of engineers and scientists who also have high political positions.

Maybe it is a sign of a society still focused on building stuff rather than redistributing and administrating what is already there.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by lucian1900 on Friday December 04, 2020 @04:22AM (#25300499)
There’s also a tendency for scientists to be Marxists, since dialectical materialism is the philosophy of all science in general.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by xenihn on Friday December 04, 2020 @04:07AM (#25300429)
It feels like anyone who is getting heated over this link and the subsequent discussion didn't even read Scott's post to begin with.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by rkangel on Friday December 04, 2020 @04:59AM (#25300705)
For roughly the same reason that the first example of quantum supremacy we attribute to Google rather than individual scientists. I actually know the names of the Chinese responsible, I couldn't tell you the names of anyone on the Google team.

I also wonder how the Google result was reported in China. I wouldn't be surprised if it was reported as "Americans have done X".

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by thefounder on Friday December 04, 2020 @12:57AM (#25299477)
>> Why are we claiming this was achieved by "China" rather than the responsible scientists?

Because China(chinese people) funded the science? It may also hint that the governance system is productive.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by wly_cdgr on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:46AM (#25300011)
Crazy as it may seem, it's because it was done by Chinese scientists working and living in China
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by telaelit on Friday December 04, 2020 @03:24AM (#25300232)
The US always has to propagandize news from China since they are an economic rival. Did they run the headline “America achieves quantum supremacy” when Google supposedly achieved quantum supremacy? Nope.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by knolax on Friday December 04, 2020 @04:15AM (#25300459)
And yet nobody ever brings up this objection when it's negative press.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by pmoriarty on Friday December 04, 2020 @01:55AM (#25299742)
That's funny. Somehow I've never in my life heard this objection regarding American research.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by adventured on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:43AM (#25299984)
Objection is common when the US is used to represent its accomplishments. The objectors usually counter that it's a win for humanity, as a way to debase something positive for the US. Happens in every major thread on HN that involves the US doing something great.

See: every significant accomplishment by SpaceX or NASA for a repeating case.

If you really want to see objectors get triggered, check out the past threads that tangent off about SpaceX employees chanting USA USA USA on video, that's always quite amusing.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by Melting_Harps on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:42AM (#25299981)
> Science is a global cooperative effort, rather than a national competition.

Haha... that's not at all the case; academics are petty people with fragile egos who are often under the thumb of lab directors with even worse egos and often come into that role with an ax to grind. Racism, be it veiled or otherwise, is also no stranger to the realms of Science. Much less the dregs called the peer-reviewed system. Consider the plight of Dr. He Jiankui who many researchers in the West lauded in private, but scorned in public when the 'evil Chinese Scientist' revealed his results to the Public because grant money and political standing were at risk.

Collaborations are limited in so far as their personal utility for more grants or prestige, lets not elevate researchers and their horrible practices to places they do not belong.

I think you would find the process entirely sad and depressing, as most of us did in our undergrad, when you see it for what it really is.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by luc4sdreyer on Friday December 04, 2020 @05:50AM (#25300989)
>who many researchers in the West lauded in private

I've only heard universal condemnation from scientists, where can I learn more about this private support for him? Or am I going to take your word for it?

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by Melting_Harps on Friday December 04, 2020 @04:16PM (#25308124)
> Or am I going to take your word for it?

Not necessary, but I'm just going to assume you aren't a biologist nor do you follow the Bio-hacker culture, right?

Start with Josiah Zayner's talks from the time of that event. I think it was in the conference ahead of the trailer release of 'Code of the Wild' that stands out. But he's on record talking about it as well, I think Dr. Church also touched on it as well. The Bio Hack the Planet conference talks might also have more details, as I recall him talking about the events leading up to Dr. Doudna's misplaced/misunderstood role in CRISPR that eventually got her a Nobel Prize and it segued into that discussion, too.

Back on PC Edit: This piece [0] is also worth a read, here is an excerpt from Science:

> Yet opposition was not unanimous. A few months before He met the couples, a committee convened by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) concluded in a well-publicized report that human trials of germline editing "might be permitted" if strict criteria were met. The group of scientists, lawyers, bioethicists, and patient advocates spelled out a regulatory framework but cautioned that "these criteria are necessarily vague" because various societies, caregivers, and patients would view them differently. The committee notably did not call for an international ban, arguing instead for governmental regulation as each country deemed appropriate and "voluntary self-regulation pursuant to professional guidelines."

>> That circle included leading scientists—among them a Nobel laureate—in China and the United States, business executives, an entrepreneur connected to venture capitalists, authors of the NASEM report, a controversial U.S. IVF specialist who discussed opening a gene-editing clinic with He, and at least one Chinese politician. "He had an awful lot of company to be called a ‘rogue,’" says geneticist George Church, a CRISPR pioneer at Harvard University who was not in the circle of trust and is one of the few scientists to defend at least some aspects of He's experiment.

The questionable stance, and reluctance comes when academic researchers know that their grants and good standing with a chosen University (and the prestige and clout they garner) comes under threat. Maybe its because I've seen this kind of thing play out in real time when I was in School and then entered the Industry that I'm not all surprised by it... but it's also a sense of remorse mixed with dread and despair as a person who was on track to be a lab Clinical Lab Scientist but what disgusted at what 'really happens' internally that shaped my view(s) and made me leave the Industry entirely.

0: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/untold-story-circle-...

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by luc4sdreyer on Saturday December 05, 2020 @05:25AM (#25313372)
Thanks for the link
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by thraway12 on Friday December 04, 2020 @01:58AM (#25299759)
Because China achieves a comparative security advantage?
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by ngokevin on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:29AM (#25299911)
I guess "China" triggers Americans with negative sentiments with as the media always does with us v. them cold war mentality, which gets more clicks. May I ask what alternative title do you suggest, to name the individuals?
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by oefrha on Friday December 04, 2020 @05:57AM (#25301036)
> May I ask what alternative title do you suggest

Easy, the original title of TFA, "Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling".

Editorializing breaks site guidelines.

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Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by krageon on Friday December 04, 2020 @06:42AM (#25301270)
The US oppresses and murders differently (though you could look to Cuba and say with gusto "this is a crime and needs to get someone in front of the international tribunal") than China. For examples of the US being an absolute ass, you may for example look towards the middle east. Or I suppose right next door, to south america.

Edit: Note that these are enormous swathes of land where the US has been perpetrating war crimes for so long most people living there don't even remember differently anymore.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by GoblinSlayer on Friday December 04, 2020 @05:24AM (#25300855)
Cuba and EU.
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Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by dang on Friday December 04, 2020 @12:45PM (#25305375)
Please keep nationalistic flamewar off this site. It's not what HN is for, and destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: it looks like you've been using this account primarily for political battle. That's one of the criteria we use for banning accounts, as I've explained here: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme.... If you'd please review the site guidelines and stick to them from now on, we'd appreciate it.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by porpoise on Friday December 04, 2020 @04:01AM (#25300390)
"a country that has explicitly set out to usurp the US is useful"

Can you provide some evidence for saying that China "explicitly" set out to do this? The Chinese government has been consistently "explicit" that it does not aim to replace or supplant the US [1][2][3]. Perhaps you mean "actions speak louder than words" and that this intention is evident from the actions they've undertaken, in which case it would be nice to know what actions you have in mind, as well as how you ruled out boring explanations of those actions that China's leaders would have given themselves.

[1] https://amp.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3030717/ch...

[2] https://apnews.com/article/1c5193f5eb936b99b740b758da8efad3

[3] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wionews.com/world/not-tryin...

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Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by dragonelite on Friday December 04, 2020 @05:21AM (#25300832)
To be fair that document number 9 doesn't really shows me anything special. A observable person might see how the west do exactly that same by containing Chinese influences in the anglo-sphere. You had pompeo calling for a Clean network initiative(potential for western variant of the Great fire wall) banning hardware from "outsiders". Then you have the formation of the Democracies-10 group you would almost say a modern rendition of the eight nation alliance.

But yeah lets be honest China will usurp the US in Asia, and most probably in central and west Asia with the help from Russia and Iran. Its kinda hard to hide your strength and bide your time when your building multiple carrier fleets, Can't really unsee that.

Its not for Taiwan to say its a sovereign state, nobody maybe except some in the Anglo-sphere will risk their trade relations with China. If that is possible for region to proclaim itself as a sovereign state, it will unleash some chaos in the west giving precedence for Scotland, Catalonia, the donbas region etc to also seperate from their current configuration.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by porpoise on Friday December 04, 2020 @05:29AM (#25300879)
1. The document you linked to is about domestic, not foreign policy. If that isn't clear from the nature of the document itself, see in particular these quotes:

> The document is critical of "extremely malicious" ideals spreading in the Chinese society, such as ideas of (Western) constitutional democracy, civil society, universal values (freedom, democracy, and human rights), neo-liberalism, and freedom of the press (described as the "Western news values").[1][2][13] The document warns that such subjects undermine the Chinese Communist Party's control over Chinese society.[2]

> According to news analysis by a reporter at The New York Times, the emphasis on political discipline is intended to forestall leftist, or Maoist, opposition to needed economic reforms avoiding the split which resulted in the Soviet Union during Gorbachev's reform efforts when media freedom resulted in publishing of a great deal of critical historical material and alienation of the mass of party workers.[7]

The document shows that China's leaders were worried that the spread of western values within Chinese society could turn China into the next Soviet Union and were acting to prevent that from happening. I don't see how this could be read as proving any claim about their foreign policy aims, much less the extremely strong claim that China aims to usurp or replace the US.

2. I agree Taiwan "feels that way [i.e. like a sovereign country]": they have their own elections, passports, currency, … But I'm not seeing how the question about Taiwan bears on the claim (to the extent that clear empirical meaning can be attached to it) that China "explicitly set out" to usurp US's place.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by machinelabo on Friday December 04, 2020 @01:20AM (#25299583)
Just today, US/UK had a small exchange over who is best at vaccine approval process: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/03/world/covid-19-coron...

Any time, any one who brings up their nation as being the best - I've got no room for you in my life. I despise nationalism and national pride in all forms. It only breeds hatred and unproductive relationships, and creates echo chambers. This goes for all countries.

We're tiny blobs of muttering meat in the universe. Temporarily here.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by arvinsim on Friday December 04, 2020 @01:23AM (#25299603)
It's natural human instinct to seek tribes.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by Quekid5 on Friday December 04, 2020 @01:26AM (#25299621)
True, but that doesn't mean that it's a good thing or that it shouldn't be resisted.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by zpeti on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:09AM (#25299807)
To just throw out the evolutionary workings of not only humans, but many of our animal ancestors is extremely naive.

You are suggesting you know better than a system that millions of years of evolution have created. You are also assuming that you know all the risks of NOT organising in tribes, that somehow if all humans were some untribal lonely individual entities, the world would work better. Many many billions of people and animals seem to disagree.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by sgift on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:15AM (#25299833)
We know better than evolution all the time. Else: No medicine, no operations, no science (random list of things, more can be added). Doesn't sound like a very good world to me.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by elbear on Friday December 04, 2020 @05:03AM (#25300727)
If we know better than evolution then why are most people unhappy? Because we've created environments unlike those we evolved in. We live lives at odds with our evolutionary instincts.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by TeMPOraL on Friday December 04, 2020 @05:08AM (#25300757)
Why would we be happy in our ancestral environment? Evolution doesn't optimize for happiness, but for reproductive fitness.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by elbear on Friday December 04, 2020 @12:04PM (#25304777)
Fair enough. Well, the birth rate in developed countries is decreasing.

In any case, I think we have managed the counter the forces of natural selection that affect our physical health, but not those that affect our mental health.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by remarkEon on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:39AM (#25299963)
No we don’t.

All of these thing you mention are simply attempts to attenuate evolution, not conquer it. Moreover, all of the things you mention are a new feature set developed from evidence given to us by evolution.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by TeMPOraL on Friday December 04, 2020 @03:52AM (#25300350)
Evolution is already conquered. Done. Defeated. We've left it behind when we invented language and writing.

About the only area where biological evolution is relevant now is pathogens, because these evolve on timescales comparable to technological development of humans.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by remarkEon on Friday December 04, 2020 @04:22AM (#25300498)
The arrogance in this response is palpable.

Humans managed to create a means to communicate with each other. End of evolution right there. We figured out germ theory and then vaccines. The DEATH of human evolution. We have the Internet now so that must mean human evolution just stops, because integrated circuits or something.

We look back on proto-humans, who had many tools, with the same arrogance. There’s no reason our species won’t evolve further to look back on the “internet” and laugh.

Timescales, huh.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by TeMPOraL on Friday December 04, 2020 @05:02AM (#25300719)
Yup, it's all about timescales. Fact: in large animals like humans, with long lifespans and low reproduction rates, evolution takes thousands of years to fixate any change in the population. That's about the time human civilization existed. In those few thousand years, we went from primitive tools to germ theory, vaccines, rocketry, etc. (and most of interesting developments happened in the last few hundred years; we're riding an exponent here).

Evolution for humans just doesn't matter, because at this point, we're doing meaningful changes to ourselves and our environment at a rate faster than it takes for a human to reach reproductive age. We didn't wait for evolution to adapt us to colder climate, fix our eyesight or change melanin levels; we just developed clothes, glasses and sunscreen - which also made these features not influenceable by natural selection pressures. And whatever mutation happens that doesn't kill a person, we work around it socially or technologically - which means its impact on reproductive fitness is usually close to zero. Biological evolution is no longer the force driving the shape of our species.

There is an evolution of humans happening, but it's social and technological, not biological.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by zpeti on Friday December 04, 2020 @06:21AM (#25301147)
You're missing the point though. Your built in emotions, hormones, drives, are still from your evolution. Yes, forwards humans might not evolve biologically. But you still evolved from systems dating hundreds of millions of years back.

You simply can't just say these don't matter any more, because it's ignoring reality. Every time you're turned on by someone attractive, its evolution thats doing that. And good luck thinking rationally when you are truly in love. (or to take a different example, when your body has a temperature in reaction to a disease. Good luck overriding your absolutely terrible mental state with rational human thought).

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by Quekid5 on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @08:58PM (#25451438)
> You simply can't just say these don't matter any more,

I think what you're missing is that... nobody in this thread is saying that.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by Quekid5 on Friday December 04, 2020 @08:50AM (#25302174)
That's not at all what I'm suggesting. My point is merely that you cannot derive an ought from an is. (I suspect most of us agree about what is, but we probably agree a lot less about what ought to be.)

I'm suggesting that it might be wise to try to keep our baser instincts at bay -- as well as we can, at least. Sure, we'll fail from time to time (or often even), but that doesn't mean we should give up that struggle.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by ScottBurson on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:58AM (#25300075)
I feel a tribal connection with all the other people in this thread who agree with you.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by mklarmann on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:16AM (#25299836)
I feel a tribal connection with all the people that do good.
Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by machinelabo on Friday December 04, 2020 @01:29AM (#25299635)
Definitely. Sports in a benign way and through wars in a catastrophic way.

The internet has created other strongly bonded echo-chambers. Elon Musk lovers/haters for example.

Re:Quantum supremacy, now with BosonSampling by dis-sys on Friday December 04, 2020 @03:59AM (#25300382)
> We're tiny blobs of muttering meat in the universe. Temporarily here.

can not agree more on this