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by 0xBA5ED 3130 days ago
Do we really think they'll be using radio communication? We're already dabbling with quantum comm ourselves. And if they can travel the stars, they'd have been incentivized to develop something better long ago. One would think...

Hell, maybe the whole galaxy has quantum wifi.
2 comments
yorwba 3130 days ago
"Quantum communication" still uses a conventional communication channel to exchange data, it's only the encryption key that is determined by exchanging single quanta. That's because single quanta are very susceptible to noise, which is very useful to detect eavesdropping but undesirable when you want to exchange large amounts of data.

To reliably send a signal across large distances, it's much better to use a bright light source focused at the target. When you start with trillions of photons, it doesn't harm the signal quality very much if a few of them hit interstellar dust on the way.

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dannyw 3130 days ago
Your message is accurate, but I think you're missing the forest for the trees.

It's like looking for telegraphy systems when everyone else are using radio waves.

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yorwba 3130 days ago
If you have no idea that radio waves exist and no way to build a receiver, looking for telegraph lines is the best you can do. Given our (or rather my) knowledge of physics and engineering, electromagnetic waves are the best medium for long-distance communication and quantum magic isn't going to change that anytime soon. If there really is something that's even better, we can start worrying about it once we can detect it.
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learc83 3130 days ago
What is quantum comm? Quantum entanglement doesn't allow for a conceivable way to transmit information.

Is there something else you're thinking of other than entanglement?

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0xBA5ED 3130 days ago
No, that's what I was thinking. Guess I don't understand it like I thought. There's an overwhelming plethora of misleading articles on this and so many things. More specifically, I was thinking of the recent experiment in China with "quantum teleportation". When I looked it up and kept seeing "transfer of information over long distances" over and over, I apparently drew the wrong conclusions.
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