Thinking On Paper

Quantum computing has been five years away forever. In this episode, Infelqtion CTO Pranav Gokhale makes the case that 2028 is the year quantum becomes useful.

He explains what a logical qubit actually is, why 100 of them represents a genuine tipping point for material science and drug discovery, and what the Infleqtion roadmap to 2028 looks like.
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Why does it cost NASA $4.2 billion per launch when SpaceX predicts Starship could do the same job for as little as $10 million?

In the Space to Grow Book Club, Mark and Jeremy learn about the SPAC bubble that wiped out 90% of space start-up valuations. They ask why Virgin Orbit collapsed from a $3.7B valuation to bankruptcy in two years and why Astra went public at $2.1B with zero rockets that had ever reached orbit. 

Mark questions whether both did exactly what crypto did: overpromise, crash, and leave retail investors holding nothing.

Then our intrepid hosts turn to NASA's Artemis program. An agency born in the Cold War, now being outpaced on cost and speed by private companies it used to dwarf. Can it reinvent itself before it becomes irrelevant?

Does humanity have the coordination and trust to do genuinely big things in space? Or will we keep making small bets while China races to the Moon?

We're reading 'Space to Grow' by Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau, the book the whole space industry is reading. 

Please enjoy the show.

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Chapters

(00:00) What is a SPAC? 
(01:30) Why space SPACs failed 
(03:20) Virgin Orbit & Astra: the worst examples 
(06:00) SPACs vs Crypto: same story? 
(08:30) The Stag Hunt: why space needs coordination 
(11:00) NASA Artemis explained 
(13:00) SLS vs Starship cost breakdown 
(17:00) SpaceX & Blue Origin lunar contracts 
(20:00) The Moon Race vs China 
(22:00) Can NASA survive the commercial space era?

Matt Kinsella is the CEO of Infleqtion. His company just put a quantum atomic clock inside a UK military submarine. Before that they put quantum technology on the International Space Station. They are building neutral atom, room temperature quantum computers.In this episode Mark and Jeremy learn how quantum clocks work and why they are more precise than anything else on Earth. They get into why GPS is becoming unreliable and what replaces it. They wonder why Infleqtion have put quantum clocks on UK and not US submarines and why neutral atom quantum computing is pulling ahead of every other modality.

Finally, the ask how quantum and classical computing work together. And why logical qubits mean quantum advantage is closer than most people thinkPlease enjoy the show.
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Email: [email protected]

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Timestamps:
(00:00) Trailer
(01:50) Why coordination matters: From internal strategy to GPS timing
(04:48) What is a quantum clock and how does it link to GPS?
(07:18) Nature's metronome: How atoms keep time with laser precision
(08:14) Room temperature quantum: Why neutral atoms don't need freezers
(12:38) The Rydberg state: Making atoms sensitive to the entire RF spectrum
(14:03) Quantum clock on a UK submarine
(17:06) Quantum in space: Voyager partnership and the International Space Station
(18:48) Hybrid quantum-classical workflows: How QPUs layer above GPUs
(23:18) Software layers: From laser control to developer applications
(25:32) Drug discovery example: GPU, CPU, QPU
(29:03) The bridge between classical and quantum: Memory architecture innovations
(31:54) How Quantum Clocks & Products Lead To Quantum Computers
(33:48) Nvidia
(35:42) Quality or Quantity of Qubits 
(38:00) Quantum mechanics and free will: Does wave collapse prove consciousness?

Love it.

Thanks.

Quantum computing had zero logical qubits. In 2024 that changed. The entire industry crossed a threshold that nobody had managed to cross in three and a half decades. Infleqtion was one of the first companies through.In this episode, Mark and Jeremy learn from Pranav Gokhale, CTO of Infleqtion, and Sam Stanwyck, Group Product Manager for Quantum Computing at Nvidia. They learn how Nvidia built a four microsecond connection between a GPU and a quantum processor and why that number is the difference between theory and reality. They get into why a GPU and a quantum computer are not competitors but the most complementary technologies ever built. They cover how Infleqtion's quantum computers use the same power as ten hairdryers even at 1,600 qubits. They talk through why drug discovery, battery design and material science are the first industries that quantum will actually change. Finally, they find out about a $20 million NASA partnership sending a quantum gravity sensor to space to measure gravity.
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⁠Listen to every podcast⁠

Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠

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Email: [email protected]

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Chapters

(00:00) Why quantum computing matters right now 
(01:20) Why Nvidia is betting big on quantum 
(02:52) NVQ-Link: the bridge between quantum and classical computing
(09:29) Who decides what runs on the quantum computer vs the GPU?
(12:33) AI helping quantum, quantum helping AI 
(16:56) Building a space elevator battery: a real quantum workflow 
(20:09) The quantum algorithm zoo 
(22:04) From noisy qubits to logical qubits 
(24:00) How much energy does a quantum computer actually use? 
(27:05) The no-cloning theorem
(27:20) The biggest unanswered question in quantum computing
(30:47) A $20M NASA program and a telescope for underground 
(33:32) What do we want humans to be?

Glen Martin is an aerospace engineer and CEO of the Extraterrestrial Mining Company. Helium-3 powers quantum computers, fuel fusion reactors, and end energy scarcity on Earth, and almost nobody is talking about it.

There's barely 29 kilograms of it left in the US reserve, and there's 1.1 million tons on the moon. The race to get it has already begun.

Expect to learn what helium-3 is and why it could power civilisation, why quantum computing is already running out of it, how a private company plans to finance a lunar mine, and whether the US can build a cislunar economy before China does.

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📺 Watch on YouTube
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Timestamps

(00:00) Trailer
(02:45) What is Helium-3, and why are we mining the Moon?
(05:29) Why there’s almost no Helium-3 on Earth, and a million tons on the Moon
(09:01) How Helium-3 could be harvested from lunar dust
(10:33) Fusion without fallout: the clean-energy promise of Helium-3
(13:01) Space-based solar power and fusion: two paths to future energy.
(17:56) How private companies plan to finance Moon mining
(21:52) The new space race: U.S., China, and the competition for lunar fuel
(25:03) Can treaties prevent conflict over Moon resources?
(27:37) AI, autonomy, and the machines that will mine the Moon
(29:31) NASA’s commercial lunar payloads and the rise of space infrastructure
(31:08) What lunar regolith tells us about Helium-3 reserves
(33:35) The trillion-dollar question: who profits from space resources?
(36:17) Curiosity, wonder, and the future of human exploration
(40:01) Technology, morality, and the choice to be good

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Other ways to connect with us:
⁠Listen to every podcast⁠

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Email: [email protected]