http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0807/Scientists-develop-new-form-of-light Photonic circuits can be used to power quantum simulators or applied to solid-state quantum memory systems, which are an essential component in quantum computers.
The European robin has hacked micro-nature, in particular Quantum Mechanics, to navigate. This is one of the most astonishing finds imo in modern times. What if, human beings instead of hacking Quantum Mechanics to navigate, hack it to achieve consciousness? Metaphorically to the chemical reactions in free radicals in the European robin interplay of electrons and magnetic fields, I wonder if consciousness is not something that exists in the brain, but is instead the result of also some "free radicals" that allow the brain to be aided in search by nature.
Something that has fascinated me ever since I understood logic was, why are computers based on traditional logic, or even logic at all? I thought to myself, hmmm, I am able to walk around, eat, avoid objects, sleep, drink, dance, listen to music etc, and yet, nowhere in my body and soul AFAIK is there a NAND gate. It is many years later when I learned about the Principle of Computational Equivalence that I understood that it need not be so! Digging deeper, it turns out that computer scientists have been influenced immensely by one of the greatest undertaking in western culture, Principia Mathematica. But is truth necessarily tied to logic, or at least, to propositional logic? Principia Mathematica uses a system of discovery using the rules of predicate logic and set theory - a far richer system than propositional logic. Today we know that even this is not rich enough, and we seek Topos and Category Theory. As computers reach the molecular level, will they ultimately have to change from this antiquated logic to quantum logic? Does this magically give you consciousness as a side effect?