Not content with a single bank transaction, The New Scientist is reporting that there’s a quantum cryptography network now running between Harvard and BBN Technologies. The two are connected with 10 Km of fiber optic cable and employ custom servers, making it very expensive. However, BBN is the company that created the use of @, among other things, so I expect the current Qnet will grow, and we’ll wonder how we ever lived without it.
Is it just me, or does every futuristic technology that appears in the real world actually come from Star Trek?
“ In Qnet, software-controlled optical switches made of lithium niobate crystals steer photons down the correct optical fibre.”
“Lithium niobat crystals”??? Exactly how many steps between these and the “dilithium crystals” that power Kirk and Spock and crew on their voyages?
“I canna send your packets past Harvard and all the way to MIT, Captain! She’ll no take it!”