Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for October 2, 2019

More details about Google's Quantum Supremacy; An essay on the nature of fake news; SpaceX unveils rocket that's intended to carry passengers to Mars; Windows Virtual Desktop is now available to users around the world; and a Steem creation of a simulated fantasy world

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Paper leaks showing a quantum computer doing something a supercomputer can’t - Basically, Google's 53 qubit quantum computer (54 qubits, with one failed) was able to measure the state of a quantum system of such a size that no existing classical computer could have calculated it. It's an important milestone, but it's also a highly specialized problem. In practical terms, the problem they solved boils down to generating verified random numbers, and the architecture still suffers from a high error rate. Apparently, Google is still a good distance from a general-purpose quantum computer. The paper that was withdrawn from NASA's web site is expected to be published in an upcoming issue of a more prestigious journal.

Vice Epistemology of the Internet - In this article, Robin K. Hill discusses the epistemology - nature of information - that can be found on the Internet. Acknowledging the valuable nature of the communication that the Internet provides, Hill adds that it also has a dark side ranging from gossip to the intentional spread of blatantly false and inflammatory information. As background, Hill suggests that in traditional epistemology, accepted sources of knowledge are perception and reasoning, and also that knowledge is commonly defined as justified true belief. In contrast, virtue epistemology values knowledge as information that makes a person better, as-in a better person and also better off. A true belief is only valued insofar is it improves the believer. Noting that fake news comes from testimony, not from perception or reason, Hill suggests that a concept of vice epistomology should be applied to it, dividing people (and bots) who participate in the spread of fake news into groups called the gullible, and the culpable. In virtue epistomology, the essay argues that knowledge is often dominated by trusted central sources, but in vice epistomology the central sources betray and exploit that trust. Here is the closing: "We might observe that character is revealed under stress, and, we hope, strengthened. Confrontation of novel and frightening things in the info-world let loose epistemological vices. The facilities of the Internet are new to us, and untamed. We are still impressed by inflated approval counts and false testimony because we have not yet formed the virtues to manage them. This is the bleak period of epidemic, until society develops immunity to the disease. We need virtuous intellects to attend to this problem."

SpaceX has unveiled the rocket it hopes will one day carry humans to Mars - The 165 foot rocket with three reusable Raptor engines weighs about 1,400 tons when fully fueled. Musk announced it on the 11th anniversary of when the company first launched a liquid fueled rocket into orbit. Musk says the rocket will be tested in coming months and it will carry passengers next year.

Windows Virtual Desktop is now generally available worldwide - Worldwide users can now use the Windows Virtual Desktop product in Microsoft's Azure cloud. By default, the platform uses Windows 10 and optimizations for Office365, but users can also use Windows 7 desktops with free security updates up until 2023. h/t OS news

STEEM A Random World History Simulator Part 2 - In this post, @jd4e describes the author's progress learning to program a random world simulator through the use of the Excel VBA programming language on their way to programming it again later, in Python. The post offers an image showing the simulation of the spread of agriculture, then adds another showing the spread of independent polities, and finally produces a ten minute Youtube video with the full production. (A 10% beneficiary setting has been applied to this post for @jd4e.)

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