Defense Intelligence Reference Document Aerospace Applications of Programmable Matter

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Quantum computing is another possibility. Qbits were first demonstrated in 1995 by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, and by the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Because computing power increases
exponentially with the number of qbits (versus linearly with the number of binary bits),
a 64-qbit computer is roughly 18 billion billion times as powerful as a 64-bit binary one.
In a quantum, programmable world, the concept of "operations per second" as a
computing bottleneck may simply vanish.
Opinions vary widely on how smart or intelligent or conscious a machine can ever be,
but as IBM's chess champion Deep Blue demonstrates, even a stupid machine can
appear brilliant if it runs fast enough. This is known in industry as "weak AI," but with
the power of quantum computing behind it, the results could in fact be extremely
powerful.
Scenario for Possible Applications
Imagine a space station in low-Earth orbit. It is in darkness, its running lights blinking,
but as it clears the terminator and swings around into full sunlight, we can see that its
surface is one big, dead-black solar collector. Its exterior drinks in sunlight, taking
some of it as stored heat and pumping the rest into electrical wires, which shuffle it off
into a bank of capacitors. If we could see through the hull, we could watch the
capacitors swelling-literally growing larger as more energy becomes available and
more of the station's mass is allocated to storing it.
But we cannot see through the hull, there are no windows, and the station would be
completely dark inside if not for dim little nightlights glowing here and there, lighting
the way in case someone visits the galley in search of a nighttime snack. Beneath its
layer of solar collectors, the hull is one big, opaque insulator, keeping the cold, bright
"morning" of outer space at bay.
Then, suddenly, the clock strikes 0600 Houston time, and an arrangement of diffusive
portholes and mirrors gradually fades into existence, waking each of the station's
inhabitants with the gentle morning sunlight. These fenestrations are not stationary;
they crawl across the walls as the station moves in its orbit and changes its orientation
to the sun. Greeted by the soft voice of the station's central computer, our astronauts
awaken.
While the astronauts eat their breakfast in a bright little galley, more portholes appear,
looking down at Earth and at points of interest in the black sky above it. However, the
crew's comfort and privacy are not compromised; through the mirrored glass, ground-
based and space-based telescopes cannot see inside the station, and the amount of
reflectivity is constantly controlled, balancing the needs of daylighting, solar heat gain,
and the aesthetics of a good view. In a pinch, the station can even turn "invisible,"
taking light and heat from one side and emitting a matching signal on the other side.
After breakfast, some of the crew settle into office niches to check their email, voice,
and video messages. Almost any surface in the station can serve as a desk, keyboard,
computer screen, video camera, or drafting table. Others proceed to scientific
experiments and routine maintenance activities throughout the station. Portholes and
skylights follow them around, but now they are looking out mainly from the station's
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