💡 A light-based computer solving “impossible” problems
Optimizing a 50-stop delivery route? Brute force would outlive the universe. Even quantum machines struggle.
Researchers built an optical Ising machine that uses pulses of light instead of transistors or qubits. Light on = 1, light off = 0. The pulses interact in a fiber loop and naturally settle into the lowest-energy — optimal — solution.
Built from off-the-shelf lasers and modulators, it handles 256 spins at room temperature. Internet hardware, repurposed for next-gen computing.