Quantum Dots

Quantum dots are an invention that escaped MIT labs in the 2000’s, that ended up in Sony QD-OLED TVs, which changed the industry completely. They are crystals of almost anything that are extremely small and uniform. Small enough to have quantum effects which allow very precise control over how they absorb energy and emit light. In Sony’s TV, blue LED light is absorbed by millions of tiny crystals which are tuned to then emit very bright red, green and blue light using a tiny amount of electricity, creating brilliant images that require very little power. They also had become remarkably cheap to produce.

Dominic was interested in them because you could make the crystals of semi-conductors.

He was sure you could print them at nano scale to make electronic circuits that used light inside the circuit which was much faster than electrons. He hoped they could be made without needing a bunch of 100 million dollar machines in multi-billion dollar hyper-clean foundries.

In your garage.

Producing computer circuits that used almost no electricity, that were blazingly fast, tiny and extremely capable. The fact that they could also convert light into electricity, in his imagination, meant you could possibly make fantastic devices that would not need to be charged. No batteries.

This idea and the joy of life with his wife and kids filled his every moment, waking or sleeping.

Then the world ended. They began living underground. Now he was spending his days working to survive. Inventing life in a Trona mine. The people he was working with were a great blessing. They were engineers, scientists, farmers, artists and entrepreneurs. All of them smart and highly motivated. Each day a whole new set of problems. But at the end of the day, there were solutions. Often things he’d never thought of.

But the world outside was not getting better. Even as their little underground outpost was advancing, the snow was piling up around them and the sky was always… always gray. Sometimes very dark gray. He often climbed up the wind turbine to observe the state of the world. It was always heartbreaking.

It was becoming clear that his children and likely his grand children might still be living here, in the tunnels they were now calling Little America.

But his dreams of building the future with quantum dots were becoming true, just not like he had imagined.

Dominic was wondering if other outposts were springing up. Maybe in sheltered micro environments. Maybe other mines. Maybe under water. In the ocean. There were lots of big underground mines around the world. They had sent drones out to reconnoiter. Lots of drones. But they had found nothing.

He and René had built a powerful radio transmitter. They were constantly C-Qing across many bands. They got back a lot static interference and a few annoyingly intriguing responses that never led to a conversation.

Adrian thought that it was possible that other outposts might be very paranoid about who was seeking them out.

What they needed, Dominic thought, was some way to communicate that didn’t depend on radio or wires or satellites, and which you could verify who was on the other end. Secure, uninterruptible, jam-proof communication instantly over any distance. Quantum communication.