Learn about counterfactual curiosity; the first entanglement-based quantum network; and Rome’s remarkable Cloaca Maxima. We're morbidly curious to discover what "might have been," even though it can cause regret by Kelsey Donk We Have A Strong Urge To Find Out What Might Have Been — Even When This Leads To Feelings Of Regret. (2021, April 8). Research Digest. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/04/08/we-have-a-strong-urge-to-find-out-what-might-have-been-even-when-this-leads-to-feelings-of-regret/ FitzGibbon, L., Komiya, A., & Murayama, K. (2021). The lure of counterfactual curiosity: People incur a cost to experience regret. Psychological science, 32(2), 241-255. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797620963615 Researchers have created the first entanglement-based quantum network by Briana Brownell Researchers establish the first entanglement-based quantum network. (2021, April 15). Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-entanglement-based-quantum-network.html Castelvecchi, D. (2021). Quantum network is step towards ultrasecure internet. Nature, 590(7847), 540–541. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00420-5 Malewar, A. (2021, April 16). First entanglement-based quantum network established. Tech Explorist. https://www.techexplorist.com/first-entanglement-based-quantum-network-established/38724/ Caddy, B. (2021, April 19). Quantum internet: A revolution in knowledge is almost a reality. Inverse; Inverse. https://www.inverse.com/innovation/quantum-internet-is-coming Neven, H. (2015, December 8). When can Quantum Annealing win? Google AI Blog. https://ai.googleblog.com/2015/12/when-can-quantum-annealing-win.html Dutch researchers establish the first entanglement-based quantum network. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/duot-dre040921.php Pompili, M., Hermans, S. L. N., Baier, S., Beukers, H. K. C., Humphreys, P. C., Schouten, R. N., Vermeulen, R. F. L., Tiggelman, M. J., dos Santos Martins, L., Dirkse, B., Wehner, S., & Hanson, R. (2021). Realization of a multinode quantum network of remote solid-state qubits. Science, 372(6539), 259–264. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg1919 One Of Rome’s Oldest Monuments Is One Of The First Sewer Systems In The World by Reuben Westmaas Squires, N. (2012, November 14). Ancient Rome sewer tunnels “in danger of collapsing.” The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9677683/Ancient-Rome-sewer-tunnels-in-danger-of-collapsing.html Function and Significance. (2021). Cloaca Maxima. https://cloacamaxima.weebly.com/function-and-significance.html Rome, Cloaca Maxima - Livius. (2020). Livius.org. https://www.livius.org/articles/place/rome/rome-photos/rome-cloaca-maxima/ The “Greatest Sewer” of Ancient Rome. (2017, April 11). Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cloaca-maxima Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer — for free!
Learn about counterfactual curiosity; the first entanglement-based quantum network; and Rome’s remarkable Cloaca Maxima.
We're morbidly curious to discover what "might have been," even though it can cause regret by Kelsey Donk
Researchers have created the first entanglement-based quantum network by Briana Brownell
One Of Rome’s Oldest Monuments Is One Of The First Sewer Systems In The World by Reuben Westmaas
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/were-morbidly-curious-about-what-might-have-been
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about a kind of curiosity we can’t resist, even when it makes us feel bad; how researchers created the first-ever entanglement-based quantum network; and how one of Rome’s oldest monuments is still in use today.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Have you ever looked at airfare prices after you already bought your ticket? Or looked up an ex on social media just to see how life would be if you’d stayed together? Finding out what might have been often leads to pain and regret, but it can be hard to resist. And now, a new study published in Psychological Science shows just how common that need really is.
Researchers call the desire to find out what could have been counterfactual curiosity. We come to a fork in the road and have to go down one path or the other, but we’re often curious to know what life would have been like if we’d chosen the other path instead. That’s what researchers wanted to look into for this study — how much sadness and regret were people willing to experience to know what might have been?
In a series of six experiments, participants saw a computer animation of a balloon that they had to pump with air. The more they inflated the balloon, the more money they got as a reward. But if they pumped the balloon past its randomly assigned safe limit and it popped, they got no money at all.
After the task, participants could choose to find out how much more they could have pumped the balloon, and how much more money they could have won.
The researchers focused their analysis on trials where the balloon didn’t pop, so the participants could have earned more money than they did. As you might expect, the participants experienced regret after finding out how much more they could have made. They felt significantly worse after getting the information, and the greater the missed opportunity, the worse they felt.
Despite that cost, people wanted to know what could have been in 46 percent of the cases where they could have earned more. In a replication study that had participants play just one time, that number jumped to 71 percent.
In some studies, people even paid to find out how much more money they could have earned. Counterfactual curiosity is almost irresistible. We want to know, even if we know it’ll cause us pain.
This computer animated balloon test might not exactly translate to real-world regrets. But at least what we can take away from this study is that our FOMO — and the bad feelings we get after learning what could have been — are natural, normal, and pretty unavoidable.
Imagine an internet with unhackable security, complete privacy, and speeds over one hundred million times faster. That’s the potential reality of a quantum internet, and thanks to a team from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, we’re one step closer to that reality. This team recently announced that they’ve created the first three-node network of quantum devices.
Don’t worry, I’ll break it down for you. Quantum devices have a unique way to store and process information based on the behavior quirks of tiny particles. That makes them much faster than the computers we use now.
See, classical computers store information in bits, each of which can be either a zero or a one. But quantum computers can store much more information. Instead, they use quantum bits, or qubits, where the zeros and ones are superimposed. Because of that, a quantum computer is also way faster: it can make calculations simultaneously instead of one-by-one.
Connections between qubits also take advantage of quantum phenomena. Two qubits can be entangled and form a link with one another, which creates a way to send information quickly across great distances.
Several research teams have created these two-node quantum connections. But for a network to scale, even to include a handful of devices, direct one-to-one connections aren’t enough. For any network like the internet as we know it now, you need intermediate nodes that act like routers — network middlemen, if you will.
That’s what this new research is all about. It’s the first time that three nodes were connected in a network using entanglement.
To achieve this breakthrough, the researchers created a synthetic diamond crystal with a specific flaw. In the diamond, one carbon atom of the crystal was replaced with a nitrogen atom. That was the key to creating quantum entanglement between the particles. The researchers could force the nitrogen atom to emit an entangled photon that would travel to a new quantum device and entangle it to this second node. Then, this connection could be stored while the same type of connection between the second and third node was made. Finally, the three nodes were all connected together.
The experiment showed that quantum bits could be both stored and processed in a three-node network with a protocol similar to the internet protocols we use now.
As promising as the research is, there is still a lot of work to do. Quantum devices are more fragile than classical computers, and so building them relies on new advanced materials. Still, the work represents an important step in the very exciting future of quantum computing.
One of Rome’s oldest monuments is known as the Cloaca Maxima [clo-AY-cah MAH-xi-mah] . As you might guess by the name, it’s not as romantic as the Acropolis, and it’s not as legendary as the Colosseum. This engineering marvel is several centuries older than both of these monuments, and smellier by far. The Cloaca Maxima, which translates to “Great Sewer,” is Rome’s ancient sewer system. It predates the empire itself, and it’s still in use today.
Archaeologists date the Cloaca Maxima to about 600 B.C.E., meaning it was around for roughly six centuries when Julius Caesar declared himself emperor. The central 100-meter-long pipeline dates back to the fifth king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus [LOO-see-uss tarr-KWIN-ee-uss PRISS-kuss]. Its original purpose was not to flush out the ancient Romans’ latrines, but to drain the nearby swamps.
But the open-air channel that Tarquinius had constructed was only the beginning of the Cloaca Maxima’s history. 300 years after the original project, the Cloaca’s open drain was covered and the flow was connected to the Roman citizens’ latrines and baths. Then under Julius’s grand-nephew Augustus Caesar in the first century C.E., the sewer system was thoroughly scrubbed and expanded to include the flow of no less than 11 aqueducts. That was a mightily impressive feat — and though the flow has slowed to a trickle today, it does continue to flow.
But not all is well in this ancient sewage system. In the early 20th century, modern building projects were connected to the Cloaca and the system was put to use for drainage once again—despite the fact that it still hasn’t been fully mapped. As it turns out, that could have been bad news for the sewers. So in 2012, a local archeological authority commissioned an investigation of the Cloaca Maxima’s infrastructure. What they found was not heartening. Blockages and structural damage could lead to a collapse, which could cause irreparable damage to the structure — or worse, a backup of flood waters that would put lives at risk. Repairs have begun, but until they’ve been completed, I wouldn’t recommend any urban spelunking in the historic tunnels.
Let’s recap today’s takeaways
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ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Kelsey Donk, Briana Brownell, and Reuben Westmaas.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer.
ASHLEY: Our producer and audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: Block your ex on social media so you’re not tempted to check out their pics. It was THEIR loss when you broke up, anyway. Then, join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!