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From: barry@ames.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Faster-than-light computer?
Message-ID: <1085@ames.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 21:39:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames.1085
Posted: Wed Aug 14 21:39:35 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 05:15:53 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 22

[]
	Some time back, I read about (or perhaps saw on TV) how it might be
possible to build a computer that operated literally faster-than-light by
making use of quantum effects. It stated that, under supercool conditions,
macroscopic sized chunks of some superconducting materials would behave as a
single quantum, and state changes (spin or charge or something; don't
remember) would occur *simultaneously* in all parts of these "chunks", without
regard to lightspeed limitations. These state changes then could be used to
send information through a machine using such macroscopic quanta at velocities
greater than light.
	My problem is this: I don't recall where I heard about this, and even
though I have a general impression that it was a respectable source, the whole
thing sounds dubious to me.
	Has anyone else heard of this? And if not, are there any physicists
out there who could tell this layman if such a thing is theoretically
possible? It sure *sounds* like a violation of special relativity.

-  From the Crow's Nest  -                      Kenn Barry
                                                NASA-Ames Research Center
                                                Moffett Field, CA
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