Fake Drugs

I can't tell if this is news or not, but it seems like Prince overdosed on fake drugs. It might be news because it seems like it was recently confirmed. It's not news because he isn't the first victim of the scourge of fake everything that has spread over our collective commercial enterprise.

The amount of fake things out there can be quite surprising at times. I was recently watching a documentary on Shenzen, one of the fastest growing cities in the world with a huge tech economy known for its innovation, as well as its shanzai, or counterfeit goods. And what I learned is that if you can name a thing, there is a fake version of it, and it might come from Shenzen, but it's definitely called shanzai.

There are some instances where it's hard to differentiate between fake and real, made evident by the fake board game - wait, yes apparently there is a fake board game crisis, but I'm talking about a real board game the purpose of which is to emphasize the ambiguous designation of a thing's realness (can't find a single reference to this online). A garbage can or a digital image of a garbage can that we all know as the Recycling Bin on our desktop. Sailor Moon or a person dressed up as Sailor Moon. See? When you live half in the real world and half in the virtual, it becomes hard to differentiate which one is the "real" one.

Clippy, the Microsoft digital assistant who was more annoying than helpful and totally dates me because half the people reading this (nobody reads this) are too young to remember, Clippy does not exist in the real world; Clippy is a bunch of lines of code and a two-dimensional pixel pattern. (I think I'm just a bunch of lines of genetic code and a 3-D molecule pattern.)

But this isn't the kind of real-fake distinction we're talking about here. This is instead about commercial products, particularly drugs, that can be counterfeited and passed off as the real thing, and if you get duped, you don't just feel stupid, you feel like you're going to die, because if you're a type 1 diabetic and take fake insulin, it's life-threatening. And this really happens, in America, and to anyone including celebrities and powerful politicians alike.

When you get a fake flash drive or a fake phone charger, you're pissed. When you get fake gasoline, you're pissed, but you also might be stranded, and that sucks. But when you get fake drugs, you're dead.

Up to this point I have posted ad infinitum about fake stuff from China, because of a genuine interest in the phenomenon, and because it's kind of funny. But this is when the fake-thing gets serious, and I don't mean to make a joke of it. The only thing I can think of as a way to get a handle on this is for us to get our own word, not fake or counterfeit or fraudulent or  forgery but something else that really fits this phenomenon. Oh, or is this the point when the world's two biggest laguages start to combine; there's already a word for it.

Post Script

Shanzai
Chinese style of innovation with a peasant mindset. I think in the US we call it bootleg, which sometimes has a derogatory connotation and sometimes not. I prefer the word ghettovative, which I just made up, but which has quite a positive connotation, because innovation is usually a good thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai

Quantum Quackery

Real-world intercontinental quantum communications enabled by the Micius satellite
Jan 2018, phys.org

Previously, the quantum communication distance has been limited to a few hundred kilometers due to optical channel losses of fibers or terrestrial free space. A promising solution to this problem exploits satellite and space-based links, which can conveniently connect two remote points on the Earth with greatly reduced channel loss, as most of the photons' propagation path is through empty space with negligible loss and decoherence. -phys.org

If you thought quantum  mechanics itself was crazy, how about when we start using it to make an internet?


But wait, there's more:
Artificial agent designs quantum experiments
Jan 2018, phys.org

I'm just going to copy most of this article, because the entire thing is absolutely nuts:

On the way to an intelligent laboratory, physicists from Innsbruck and Vienna present an artificial agent that autonomously designs quantum experiments. In initial experiments, the system has independently (re)discovered experimental techniques that are standard in modern quantum optical laboratories. This shows how machines could play a more creative role in research in the future.

The researchers wondered to what extent machines can carry out research autonomously. They used a projective simulation model for artificial intelligence to enable a machine to learn and act creatively. This autonomous machine stores many individual fragments of experience in memory, which are networked together.

The machine builds up and adapts its memories while learning from both successful and unsuccessful attempts. The scientists from Innsbruck teamed up with the group of Anton Zeilinger, who previously demonstrated the usefulness of automated procedures in the design of quantum experiments with a search algorithm called Melvin. Some of these computer-inspired experiments have already been performed in the lab of Zeilinger. Together, the physicists determined that quantum experiments are an ideal environment to test the applicability of AI to research. Therefore, they used the projective simulation model to investigate the potential of artificial learning agents in this test bed. They have published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.