Quantum computing has come a long way since its first introduction in the 1980s. Researchers have always been on a lookout for a better way to enhance the ability of quantum computing systems, whether it is in making it cheaper or the quest of making the present quantum computers last longer. With the latest technological advancements in the world of quantum computing which superconducting bits, a new way of improving the world of silicon quantum computing has come to light, making use of the silicon spin qubits for better communication.

Until now, the communication between different qubits was relatively slow. It could be done by passing the messages to the next bit to get the communication over to another chip at a relatively far distance.

Now, researches at Princeton University have explored the idea of two quantum computing silicon components known as silicon spin qubits interacting in a relatively spaced environment, that is with a relatively large distance between them. The study was presented in the journal Nature on December 25, 2019.

The silicon quantum spin qubits give the ability to the quantum hardware to interact and transmit messages across a certain distance which will provide the hardware new capabilities. With transmitting signals over a distance, multiple quantum bits can be arranged in two-dimensional grids that can perform more complex calculations than the existing hardware of quantum computers can do. This study will help in better communications of qubits not only on a chip but also from one to another, which will have a massive impact on the speed.

The computers require as many qubits as possible to communicate effectively with each other to take the full advantage of quantum computings capabilities. The quantum computer that is used by Google and IBM contains around 50 qubits which make use of superconducting circuits. Many researchers believe that silicon-based qubit chips are the future in quantum computing in the long run.

The quantum state of silicon spin qubits lasts longer than the superconducting qubits, which is one of their significant disadvantages (around five years). In addition to lasting longer, silicon which has a lot of application in everyday computers is cheaper, another advantage over the superconducting qubits because these cost a ton of money. Single qubit will cost around $10,000, and thats before you consider research and development costs. With these costs in mind a universal quantum computer hardware alone will be around at least $10bn.

But, silicon spin cubits have their challenges which are part of the fact that they are incredibly small, and by small we mean, these are made out from a single electron. This problem is a huge factor when it comes to establishing an interconnect between multiple qubits when building a large scale computer.

To counter the problem of interconnecting these extremely small silicon spin qubits, the Princeton team connected these qubits with a wire which are similar to the fibre optic (for internet delivery at houses) wires and these wires carry light. This wire contains photon that picks up a message from a single qubit and transmits it the next qubit. To understand this more accurately, if the qubits are placed at a distance of half-centimetre apart from each other for the communication, in real-world, it would be like these qubits are around 750 miles away.

The next step forward for the study was to establish a way of getting qubits and photons to communicate the same language by tuning both the qubits and the photon to the same frequency. Where previously the devices architecture allowed tuning only one qubit to one photon at a time, the team now succeeded in tuning both the qubits independent from each other while still coupling them to the photon.

You have to balance the qubit energies on both sides of the chip with the photon energy to make all three elements talk to each other,

Felix Borjans, a graduate student and first author on the study on what he describes as the challenging part of the work.

The researchers demonstrated entangling of electrons spins in silicon separated by distances more substantial than the device housing, this was a significant development when it comes to wiring these qubits and how to lay them out in silicon-based quantum microchips.

The communication between the distant silicon-based qubits devices builds on the works of Petta research team in 2010 which shows how to trap s single electron in quantum wells and also from works in the journal Nature from the year 2012 (transfer of quantum information from electron spins)

From the paper in Science 2016 (demonstrated the ability to transmit information from a silicon-based charge qubit to a photon), from Science 2017 (nearest-neighbour trading of information in qubits) and 2018 Nature (silicon spin qubit can exchange information with a photon).

This demonstration of interactions between two silicon spin qubits is essential for the further development of quantum tech. This demonstration will help technologies like modular quantum computers and quantum networks. The team has employed silicon and germanium, which is widely available in the market.

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How This Breakthrough Makes Silicon-Based Qubit Chips The Future of Quantum Computing - Analytics India Magazine

Scientists at the University of Bristol and the Technical University of Denmark have achieved quantum teleportation between two computer chips for the first time. The team managed to send information from one chip to another instantly without them being physically or electronically connected, in a feat that opens the door for quantum computers and quantum internet.

This kind of teleportation is made possible by a phenomenon called quantum entanglement, where two particles become so entwined with each other that they can communicate over long distances. Changing the properties of one particle will cause the other to instantly change too, no matter how much space separates the two of them. In essence, information is being teleported between them.

Hypothetically, theres no limit to the distance over which quantum teleportation can operate and that raises some strange implications that puzzled even Einstein himself. Our current understanding of physics says that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, and yet, with quantum teleportation, information appears to break that speed limit. Einstein dubbed it spooky action at a distance.

Harnessing this phenomenon could clearly be beneficial, and the new study helps bring that closer to reality. The team generated pairs of entangled photons on the chips, and then made a quantum measurement of one. This observation changes the state of the photon, and those changes are then instantly applied to the partner photon in the other chip.

We were able to demonstrate a high-quality entanglement link across two chips in the lab, where photons on either chip share a single quantum state, says Dan Llewellyn, co-author of the study. Each chip was then fully programmed to perform a range of demonstrations which utilize the entanglement. The flagship demonstration was a two-chip teleportation experiment, whereby the individual quantum state of a particle is transmitted across the two chips after a quantum measurement is performed. This measurement utilizes the strange behavior of quantum physics, which simultaneously collapses the entanglement link and transfers the particle state to another particle already on the receiver chip.

The team reported a teleportation success rate of 91 percent, and managed to perform some other functions that will be important for quantum computing. That includes entanglement swapping (where states can be passed between particles that have never directly interacted via a mediator), and entangling as many as four photons together.

Information has been teleported over much longer distances before first across a room, then 25 km (15.5 mi), then 100 km (62 mi), and eventually over 1,200 km (746 mi) via satellite. Its also been done between different parts of a single computer chip before, but teleporting between two different chips is a major breakthrough for quantum computing.

The research was published in the journal Nature Physics.

Source: University of Bristol

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Information teleported between two computer chips for the first time - New Atlas

Its taken a while for the U.S. federal government to fully climb aboard the emerging technology train, but as 2020 approaches it is clear that more agencies are ready to rideand steerthe train toward new digital trends.

Which technologies are likely to attract the most attention? It will certainly vary by agency as each has a unique mission, budget and outlook on the value of various technologies. But generally, in my conversations with government leaders, Im hearing about a few common areas of interest.

These are my federal government technology predictions for 2020:

1. Quantum computing takes a quantum leap.

Its probably the geekiest of technologies, but thats not going to stop the federal government from continuing to explore the possibilities around quantum computing in the coming year.

Whereas traditional computers are built around 1s and 0s, or what we call bits, quantum computers will use subatomic quantum bits or qubits. Its thought this still-developing technology could eventually solve problems in minutes rather than thousands of years. In fact, Google claimed it achieved quantum supremacy in October 2019, with its chip completing a task in 200 seconds that researches estimated would take a current supercomputer 10,000 years or more. This could dramatically accelerate how people create everything from drugs to cars to new food sources.

China sees quantum computing as the next front in its economic battle with the United States and is determined to own this next great technological leap. But the U.S. government is positioning to compete. In late 2018, it signed the National Quantum Initiative Act into law, which committed $1.2 billion to quantum intelligence research. More recently, the Department of Energy said it would provide $40 million for research to develop quantum computing software. And in May, a White House subcommittee issued a request for information seeking outside input on how the U.S. government should further quantum research. Even with this investment, the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world in this field.

In 2020, expect quantum information science momentum to intensify as governments step up their game.

2. Everything-as-a-service goes mainstream.

As workplace technology needs have grown, it doesnt make sense for government agencies to handle many IT operations internally. Take device management, for example. When an organization purchases computers, it tends to buy them all at once, meaning theres a large investment up front. Then, they have to either staff up internally to manage and secure those devices or hire outside maintenance teams to do the job. On top of that, as those devices start showing signs of age, workers often have to hold onto them until the next budgetary window of opportunity allows them to be updated, which can affect worker productivity and job satisfaction.

But with a device-as-a-service (DaaS) approach, computer purchases become a monthly operating expense, so the investment is spread out over time. This system ensures that customers, always have access to the latest devices, which are maintained and secured by outside experts. Agency IT personnel are then free to focus on more strategic matters, such as critical management and operations functions beyond device maintenance. Ive seen that agencies are more open to the XaaS and DaaS model and expect adoption to expand in 2020.

3. Supply chain security becomes critical.

One of the greatest concerns of any supply chain, and especially for technology purchased by the U.S. government from international vendors, is the potential for parts suppliers to be compromised by foreign governments. This is an issue of national security, and one thats been in the headlines for most of 2019.

Its a valid concern, and one that I expect to stay top of mind in 2020. In fact, respected security wonk Bruce Schneier, a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, recently asserted that every part of the supply chain can be attacked, including emerging 5G networks and new information systems.

This is why government technology purchasing decisions are so critical. In the past, many budget-minded government agencies have defaulted to purchasing lowest priced technically acceptable, or LPTA, computers and printers, because thats how theyve always done it. With cyber threats against government institutions increasing in frequency and maliciousness, it implores every agency to consider purchasing equipment from vendors with trustworthy supply chains.

Next year I would expect more progress around government legislation, such as the recently passed House Resolution 2500 and Senate Bill 1790, which aims to bring greater accountability into the nations procurement processes and make agencies smarter buyers.

4. Ambient technology energizes workers.

As the office of the future takes shape and employees increasingly work from multiple locations, the technology underlying physical spaces will adapt for remote employees. It will work in the background to invisibly empower people to communicate and collaborate anytime and anywhere.

This approach called ambient computing isnt entirely new. The idea has been around since the late 1980s when Mark Weiser, a scientist at Xerox PARC, described its precursor, ubiquitous computing, where he imagined people interacting with computers, wherever they might be. Of course, the technology didnt really exist back then to make that happen. Gartners 2020 technology trends refer to it as multiexperience, and frames it as the replacement of technology-literate people with people-literate technology. The rise of mobile and connected devices and technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality, are all ways that ambient technology could become a part of everyday life for government workers.

In the near future technology could help us in every phase of our day, from traffic and direction recommendations, connected devices with our projects and materials fully updated, and even recommendations on where to stop after work for happy hour.

In 2020, dont be surprised to hear about more breakthroughs in ambient technology and how its playing an integral role in every office, including government agencies.

5. AI continues its march on Washington.

At times, artificial intelligence sounds like some magical technology that can cure almost any government ill. The fact is AI algorithms are great at some things and not so good at others. For government agencies, AI will become increasingly important in 2020 because of its ability to automate time-consuming tasks, such as data research, and create efficiencies for government employees. It also presents amazing opportunities for instinctively detecting and guarding against unknown, unforeseen, or zero-day cyberattacks that most IT software wouldnt catch.

Looking ahead to 2020, there are undoubtedly many more trends likely to emerge and influence government spending and use of information technology. One thing is certain, though: the key for every agency in the coming decade will be to ditch the old LPTA procurement model and focus instead on technology delivering better operational efficiency, productivity and security. Most important for government is acquiring the best security.

Tommy Gardner is chief technology officer of HP Federal.

Continue reading here:

The 5 Most Important Federal Government Tech Predictions to Watch in 2020 - Nextgov

IBM's CTO of Open Technology also looks back at the innovations of the past decade.

Open source played a significant role in software development over the past decade from containers to microservices, blockchain and serverless.

Chris Ferris, chief technology officer of Open Technology at IBM, discusses some of the open source trends from the past decade and what to expect in 2020 and beyond.

SEE: Deploying containers: Six critical concepts (TechRepublic)

The concepts of containers and microservices were merely concepts before 2010, Ferris said. Then Docker launched in 2013, planting the early seeds of the container industry.

At the same time, microservices and the technologies to make them possible were borne in open source through the Netflix OSS project.

Docker went on to become one of the most influential technologies of the 2010s, giving rise to a myriad of new open source projects, including Kubernetes, which launched in 2015.

Today, he noted, Kubernetes is the largest open source project on the planet. Companies are using the platform to transform monolithic application architectures, embracing containerized microservices that are supported by service mesh capabilities of projects such as Istio.

"In the next decade, we anticipate that open source projects such as Istio, Kubernetes and OKD will focus on making containers and microservices smaller and faster to serve the needs of cloud-native development and to reduce the container's attack surface," Ferris said.

OKD is the open source version of Red Hat's OpenShift platform. "Keep an eye on unikernels (executable images that contain system libraries, a language runtime, and necessary applications), which may also gain traction thanks to the open source communities around them."

AWS Lambda was released in 2014 and put all the PaaS services on notice. Lambda's release was followed by IBM OpenWhisk (which became Apache OpenWhisk), among others, in 2016. Both open source, distributed serverless platforms execute functions in response to events at any scale, Ferris said.

Kubernetes gained prominence in the latter part of the decade, fueling the desire to extend Kubernetes with capabilities that would enable serverless. This gave rise to Knative in 2018. Now Knative has split into multiple open source projects including Tekton, each with their own set of innovations, he said.

In the next few years, Ferris said we can expect to see containers get smaller, faster. "The potential exists to have an environment that can run containers at very little cost, instantaneously,'' pushing the boundaries of serverless platforms, he said.

IBM Watson made a huge splash when it appeared on "Jeopardy!" in 2011, bringing artificial intelligence into the mainstream. Now, Ferris noted, AI is part of our everyday lives and we interact with Siri and Alexa daily, talk with customer service chatbots regularly, use facial recognition to unlock our gadgets, and are nearing the advent of fully autonomous self-driving cars.

AI and machine learning have powered these innovations and many of the AI advancements came about thanks to open source projects such as TensorFlow and PyTorch, which launched in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

In the next decade, Ferris stressed the importance of not just making AI smarter and more accessible, but also more trustworthy. This will ensure that AI systems make decisions in a fair manner, aren't vulnerable to tampering, and can be explained, he said.

Open source is the key for building this trust into AI. Projects like the Adversarial Robustness 360 Toolkit, AI Fairness 360 Open Source Toolkit, and AI Explainability 360 Open Source Toolkit were created to ensure that trust is built into these systems from the beginning, he said.

Expect to see these projects and others from the Linux Foundation AI such as the ONNX project drive the significant innovation related to trusted AI in the future. The Linux Foundation AI provides a vendor-neutral interchange format for deep learning and machine learning.

In 2008, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto published his now famous paper on bitcoin, which introduced the concept of a blockchain network, whose purpose was to be a decentralized cryptocurrency platform.

That innovation made people start to wonder about different ways that the blockchain concepts and technology might be applied in non-cryptocurrency use cases in asset management, supply chains, healthcare, and identity, among others, Ferris said.

In 2015, IBM contributed its Open Blockchain project to the newly established Hyperledger organization, founded to develop open source blockchain technology for the enterprise. That contribution launched what has arguably become one of the two or three most popular blockchain frameworks: Hyperledger Fabric, he said.

While blockchain's initial uses were confined to cryptocurrency, open source engagement around Hyperledger and Ethereum has expanded the possibilities for how this technology is used.

In the enterprise, different approaches are being explored not only to enhance privacy but also to build a collection of nodes required to achieve confirmation on a transaction with trust almost all in open source, he said.

There has been lots of buzz around the promise of quantum computing, and although an app with a "quantum advantage" hasn't been developed yet, the ability for developers to start using quantum processors is growing and will continue to evolve in the next decade, Ferris said.

IBM's open source Qiskit software framework, released in 2016, lets developers code in Python on real quantum hardware for systems around research, education, business, and even games.

"The possibilities for how quantum computing will solve problems and interact with today's technology seem endless quantum computing could impact a wide range of domains, such as chemistry, finance, artificial intelligence, and others," he said. For that to happen will require a "significant hardware environment," Ferris said.

Open source is the best mechanism to bring about these changes, he maintained. That is what spawned ideas like microsystems, which grew out of the virtualization space, and Knative from Kubernetes.

"That wouldn't have happened in the closed source space, so it's a matter of everyone building up on everyone else's successes and someone coming along and saying, 'Here's a better idea,'" he said.

Working together, developers have the power to change entire industries, Ferris believes. "I can't think of anything that's been developed exclusively in closed source that didn't eventually come out in open source."

You don't want to miss our tips, tutorials, and commentary on the Linux OS and open source applications. Delivered Tuesdays

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5 open source innovation predictions for the 2020s - TechRepublic

The decade thats knocking on our doors now the 2020s is likely to be a time when science fiction manifests itself in our homes and roads and skies as viable, everyday technologies. Cars that can drive themselves. Meat that is derived from plants. Robots that can be fantastic companions both in bed and outside.

Implanting kidneys that can be 3-D printed using your own biomaterial. Using gene editing to eradicate diseases, increase crop yield or fix genetic disorders in human beings. Inserting a swarm of nanobots that can cruise through your blood stream and monitor parameters or unblock arteries. Zipping between Delhi and New York on a hypersonic jet. All of this is likely to become possible or substantially closer to becoming a reality in the next 10 years.

Ideas that have been the staple of science fiction for decades artificial intelligence, universal translators, sex robots, autonomous cars, gene editing and quantum computing are at the cusp of maturity now. Many are ready to move out of labs and enter the mainstream. Expect the next decade to witness breakout years for the world of technology.

Read on:

The 2020s: A new decade promising miraculous tech innovations

Universal translators: End of language barrier

Climate interventions: Clearing the air from carbon

Personalised learning: Pedagogy gets a reboot with AI

Made in a Printer: 3-D printing going to be a new reality

Digital money: End of cash is near, cashless currencies are in vogue

Singularity: An era where machines will out-think human

Mach militaries: Redefining warfare in the 2020

5G & Beyond: Ushering a truly connected world

Technology: Solving the problem of clean water

Quantum computing : Beyond the power of classical computing

Nanotechnology: From science fiction to reality

Power Saver: Energy-storage may be the key to maximise power generation

Secret code: Gene editing could prove to be a game-changer

Love in the time of Robots: The rise of sexbots and artificial human beings

Wheels of the future: Flying cars, hyperloops and e-highways will transform how people travel

New skies, old fears: The good, bad& ugly of drones

Artificial creativity: Computer programs could soon churn out books, movies and music

Meat alternatives: Alternative meat market is expected to grow 10 times by 2029

Intelligent robots & cyborg warriors will lead the charge in battle

Why we first need to focus on the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence

It's time to reflect honestly on our motivations for innovation

India's vital role in new space age

Plastic waste: Environment-friendly packaging technologies will gain traction

Read more:

20 technologies that could change your life in the next decade - Economic Times

December 30, 2019

University of Rochesteralumna Donna Strickland 89 (PhD), who shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, has been appointed to theOrder of Canada.

The award recognizes individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the nation. Strickland was appointed a Companion of the Order, the highest of three levels of the award. There can be no more than 165 living companions at any time.

The professor of physics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, is being recognized for her contributions to optical physics and for her innovative developments in ultra-fast optical science.

I feel so proud and privileged to be Canadian and I am thrilled to receive this recognition from my country, Strickland toldCBC news. It is an exceptional honor for me to be named a companion of the Order of Canada. This award means a great deal to me.

Strickland and Grard Mourou, former engineering professor and scientist at the University of Rochesters Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), were together recognized with the 2018 Nobel Prize for revolutionizing the field of high-intensity laser physics.

Mourou was Stricklands PhD advisor during the time they pioneered chirped-pulse amplification. Known as CPA, this work was the basis of Stricklands PhD in optics dissertation.

Today, CPA has applications in corrective eye surgeries and other surgical procedures, data storage, and quantum computing.

Tags: alumni, announcement, Institute of Optics, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Nobel Prize

Category: University News

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Donna Strickland appointed to Order of Canada - University of Rochester

When Walt Whitman arrived in Washington at the end of 1862 to take up residence in the city and serve as a hospital volunteer, the construction of the Capitol dome was not yet complete. In a dispatch published in the Oct. 4, 1863, edition of The New-York Times, Whitman described this vast eggshell, built of iron and glass, this dome a beauteous bubble that emerges calm and aloft from the hill, out of a dense mass of trees. The poet recounted how a few days ago, poking about there, eastern side he found the yet to be hoisted Statue of Freedom that now crowns the Capitol dome all dismembered, scattered on the ground, by the basement front. In retrospect its a rather on-the-nose metaphor, this personified representation of liberty standing in the mud while the nation immolated itself in civil war, yet still visible to our greatest poet and prophet of democracy, perhaps signifying the incomplete task of the American project.

When the war began, Whitman was despondent, but the violence of those years seemed to strengthen and clarify his faith in democracy, a faith that would take on a transcendent dimension. For the poet, democracy wasnt simply the least bad form of government, it wasnt reducible to dreary policy and endless debate, but it was rather a vital, transformative and regenerative ethos. Even as the survival of what President Abraham Lincoln called the last, best hope of earth was in doubt, Whitmans belief in the philosophical and political foundation of the nation flourished.

If the war against illiberalism takes place on many fronts, including the economic and the cultural, then one domain where the revanchists are clearly gaining power is in the realm of the transcendent. In the delusions of blood and soil there is for many the attraction of a deeper meaning. Authoritarians claim that they offer their nations (or at least a segment of the population) unity and purpose. The 20th-century German philosopher (and victim of the Nazis) Walter Benjamin warned how fascism engages an aestheticization of politics, where spectacle and transcendence provide a type of ecstasy for its adherents. Watch clips of fevered crowds, from today or the past, chanting against enemies of the people; they are malignant scenes, but ones that in no small part mimic religious revivals.

Critics of democracy often claim that it offers no similar sense of transcendence. The 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche castigated democracy as a system of quarantine mechanisms for human desires, and as such they are very boring. If the individual unit of democracy is the citizen, authoritarian societies thrill to the bermensch, the superman promising that I alone can fix it. Yet I would argue that all of the hallmarks of authoritarianism the rallies and crowds, the marching and military parades, the shouting demagogue promising his followers that they are superior are wind and hot air. What fascism offers isnt elevation but cheap transcendence, a counterfeit of meaning rather than the real thing.

More:
Why We Will Need Walt Whitman in 2020 - The New York Times

SMILE, THOUGH YOUR HEART IS ACHIN

For years, weve been relying on the work of psychologists with their fancy Ph.D.s to help us understand the human mind, when we could have just listened to noted singer/comedian/ Frosty the Snowman Jimmy Durante, who sang, Youll find that life is still worthwhile if you just smile. Smiling, even if its forced, causes the brain to release dopamine and serotonin, which are mood boosters and stress reducers. A University of Cardiff study found that patients who were physically unable to frown due to Botox injections reported being happier on average than their Botox-free companions.

To quote legendary nihilist Frederick Nietzsche, Without music, life would be a mistake. A Journal of Positive Psychology study found that participants who listened to upbeat music could improve their mood within two weeks. Unfortunately for us Radiohead lovers, the same did not apply when participants listened to sad music.

This one might not be as fun as listening to happy music, but an article in Medical Hypotheses proposed that cold showers can help stave off depressive symptoms. According to the article, cold exposure activates the sympathetic nervous system and releases noradrenaline and endorphins, which help improve mood.

Pet owners, on average, have lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, and they are less likely to suffer from depression. The physical affection, regular schedule and loving companionship that come with pet ownership all tend to have positive effects on our mental and physical well-being.

RELATED The 'Uber for Snow Removal' Lands in Milwaukee and We're Interested

At this point, everyone has heard that exercise boosts mood and helps fight depression. So Ill just say it again in all caps: EXERCISE BOOSTS MOOD AND HELPS FIGHT DEPRESSION. And guess what? A study from JAMA Psychiatry found that only 15 minutes a day of high-intensity exercise, like running, or even just one hour of moderate-intensity exercise, like a brisk walk, are enough to boost your mood.

The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that people who regularly meet with family and friends are roughly half as likely to report symptoms of depression compared with those who dont. Heres the catch: Phone calls and email dont count. Depression symptoms were mitigated only through frequent face-to-face contact.

Fish, my dudes. You gotta get those omega-3 fatty acids. The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health went through 26 previous studies to see what correlation existed between eating fish and depression, and it found that people who ate lots of fish were less likely to suffer depressive symptoms.

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7 (Semi-Specific) Ways to Beat the Wintertime Blues in Milwaukee - Milwaukee Magazine

BY A.C. GRAYLING PENGUIN PRESS, 2019 704PP.; $35.00

If A.C. Graylings The History of Philosophy were a river, it would be shallow with a strong current. Traveling down it, youd have little to see and little time to see it. Because the water is shallow, your legs would always be bumping up against the debris (a stand-in for academic jargon). Or, to change metaphors, the book is a bullet train rather than a car ride. It offers no moment or incentive to stop, meander, or backtrack, the goal being not to enjoy the journey but to reach the end. Even these metaphors dont really capture the difficulty in reading it. It takes effort. If anything, youre traveling against the rivers current. If anything, youd be working in the trains engine room. A few people will read the book once; I cant imagine anyone will read it twice.

Graylings tome is exactly what it says it is: the history of philosophy. It starts with the pre-Socratic philosophers and ends with todays academic philosophy. Already you can see what the primary dilemma of such a project is: how to make such an expansive history with so many characters orderly in composition yet alive to the reader. Grayling says the book is an invitation and an entrance for the philosophically curious but philosophically ignorant, however, I cant imagine someone vaguely curious about something they vaguely understand as philosophy will get much out of the bookor even get past the first few pages. The writing is encyclopedic rather than engaging. There are a few sections later on that arent badthe ones on Jean Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, and Friedrich Nietzsche, for examplebut the first two hundred pages are flat: uninspired and therefore uninspiring. Many sections read not as summaries of ideas but as summaries of summaries, all with the enthusiasm and lucidity of a morticians report.

The dilemma is that the books intention and its form are at odds. That is, you can either write a book that actually invites and draws people to philosophy (or, more specifically, the philosophical canon; most people are already attracted to philosophy as a practice of deeper thinking) or you can write a history of philosophy that covers all the canonized philosophers (many of whom arent worth covering anyway). Graylings confessed intention is the former, but The History of Philosophy only seems to try for the latter.

To get people interested in the philosophical canon (again, different than philosophy itself), a popularizer would be better off focusing on just a few canonized philosophers (like what Will Durant did in The Story of Philosophy) or taking a subject that almost any reader will be interested in and finding out what the canonized philosophers had to say about it (like what Simon Critchley did with death and dying in The Book of Dead Philosophers). Both these books succeed at being invitations and entrances to the philosophical canon. If neither succeeded at getting anyone to rush out to read Plato and Aristotle, they at least succeeded in getting people excited to think about what Plato and Aristotle thought about.

I dont normally focus on representation, but Im really at a loss trying to understand how Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur each got their own sections but Hannah Arendt gets just a paragraph, and the only mention of Simone Weil is in a list. I didnt know who Gadamer and Ricoeur were before I read The History of Philosophy and still have no idea why Grayling thinks I should after reading it. And why is Simone de Beauvoir not given her own section but instead relegated to sidekick in Jean Paul Sartres? Why am I told that she liked to have sex with students and colleagues but not whats in The Ethics of Ambiguity?If French existentialism has any masterpieces, that has to be one of them. Why is there a section on feminist philosophy that includes no biography or summary of a single feminist philosopher? Graylings handling of representation is the worst of both worlds: pandering yet still exclusionary.

And this exclusion problem isnt just with female philosophers. The History of Philosophy plays it too safe and too conventional with whom it includes. Where are the radicals, the mystics, the Catholics, the Social Darwinists, the Marxists, the wisdom writers? Where is W.E.B. Du Bois or G.K. Chesterton or Ralph Waldo Emerson or George Santayana? Where are the dead who still speak to the living? Grayling introduces Michel Foucault as indispensable to any understanding of modernity, then devotes two whole paragraphs to him; meanwhile Anaximenes, Anaximander, and Thales all get their own sections for basically the same thing: being pre-Socratic philosophers who based their philosophies on experimentation rather than abstract thinking.

Philosophers like to say that the philosophers people actually read arent really philosophers, and histories of philosophy seem written to codify and reinforce who counts as a philosopher and who doesnt. The history of philosophy, Gilles Deleuze said, has always been the agent of power in philosophyA formidable school of intimidationAn image of thought called philosophy has been formed historically and it effectively stops people from thinking. The dilemma of Graylings The History of Philosophy is that most of the philosophers that draw people to philosophy arent in the philosophical canon. The philosophy that invites and entrances is the philosophy that speaks to the egos cry for understanding rather than the minds cry for clarity. In Will Durants words, its the philosophy that speaks on the problems like good and evil, beauty and ugliness, order and freedom, life and death, not the philosophy that leads to sentences like, The rejection of the analytic-synthetic distinction is a consequence of [Willard Van Orman] Quines extensionalism, because the idea of analyticity essentially turns on the intensional notion of meanings.

The History of Philosophy feels like something Grayling wanted not to write but to have written. There is no authorial impulse to it; no sparks of joy or excitement. There are a few attempts at humor; Grayling, for example, repeats the same jokey aside about St. Augustine as he is known in ecclesiastical circles and St. Aquinas as he is known in religious circles.

Much of the philosophical canon is as dull as that joke, and no one should feel discouraged if they arent completely enthralled by Wilhelm Gottfried Leibnizs Monadology or Martin Heideggers Being and Time. As Deleuze said, the philosophical canon seems designed to be a barrier rather than a doorway. For those who read Graylings The History of Philosophy and feel like giving up on the entire subject, please try one of the alternatives mentioned earlier (or DurantsThe Pleasures of Philosophy). And know that, if the philosophical canon doesnt do it for you, theres still plenty of philosophy outside of it.

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The History of Philosophy - The Humanist

England were bundled out for 181 by South Africa as they lost control of a Boxing Day Test which accelerated wildly towards a conclusion with 15 wickets on day two.

Responding to the Proteas 284 all out, the tourists found themselves comprehensively outmatched by the inspired seam duo of Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander as they conceded a 103-run deficit.

On a Centurion pitch that has strongly favoured the bowlers, and which shows no signs of settling down, that could well prove a decisive margin but Englands pacemen did their best to fight fire with fire.

Stuart Broad and James Anderson both struck early before Jofra Archer picked up two, leaving South Africa 175 ahead on 72 for four at stumps.

Archer was involved in late drama, risking removal from the attack with two high full-tosses at nightwatchman Anrich Nortje only being spared when square-leg umpire Paul Reiffel saw his no-ball signal from square-leg over-ruled by Chris Gaffaney.

The decisive contribution belonged to Philander, who barely breached 80mph but instead relied on exemplary skill and constrictive control to pick up four 16 in 14.2 overs.

Wicketkeeper Quinton to De Kock was on course for a world record behind the stumps when he caught each of his sides first four wickets. Only four men have ever taken seven, a milestone that was briefly under threat as edges kept coming. In the end he was only offered two more chances, both taken, to match the South African record of six jointly held by his new head coach Mark Boucher and AB de Villiers.

Sam Curran carried the England attack at times of day one, despite being its youngest member. After closing with four wickets he signed off his post-play press conference with a hope that he would be celebrating a maiden five-for come the morning. Joe Root did start with the left-armer but he only managed six balls before Stuart Broad took the last

Jos Buttler was spotted on the team balcony reading the book Stillness is the Key early in Englands first innings. A New York Times number one bestseller by Ryan Holiday, which claims to harness the teachings of philosophers including Confucius, Seneca and Nietzsche and advocates slowing down to get ahead in life. Buttler was slow, scoring 12 in almost an hour, but fell tamely.

Englands time in South Africa has been beset by an illness bug that has now affected around half the squad. Mark Wood became the last squad member to be laid low and remained back at the team hotel with Ollie Pope, Chris Woakes and Jack Leach. It is not just the playing staff who have been impacted, with security manager Sam Dickason and digital manager Greg Stobart also confined to their quarters on Friday.

Day three of five, though the game now looks highly unlikely to go the distance. All of Englands energies must now go into keeping the chase as low as possible, then hoping for something special.

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England's batsmen under pressure to improve on day three of Boxing Day Test - Isle of Wight County Press