Quantum computing is showing how beneficial it can be to society. From healthcare where it can be used in drug development, to online security and ways to design better data encryption. Or even financial services where institutions can create more efficient investment portfolios to moving Sci-fi style emerging technology forward.
What is quantum computing?
Quantum computers are based on quantum mechanics which unlike traditional mechanics that state objects can be in one place or another but not both at the same time, relates to subatomic particles which CAN. In fact they can be in several places at once in what is known as quantum superposition. Quantum computing uses quantum bits or qubits that enable the subatomic particles to exist in more than one state at the same time. In theory when qubits link they can perform calculations faster and more efficiently. Classical computing uses a binary system which is and adding more bits increases power linearly only, with quantum computing the addition of qubits grows power exponentially. This exponential power comes from entanglement. Entangling two qubits allows them to exist in a single state where changing one directly affects the other. This means quantum computing can plow through huge numbers of possibilities and find potential solutions to problems and challenges faster. Imagine cloning yourself several times while growing your energy and efficiency!
The cons of quantum computing
⦁ Decoherence happens when qubits decay and occurs when changes in vibration and temperature occur. Superposition is compromised and errors occur. The solution is supercooling
⦁ Retrieving computational results can corrupt the data
⦁ Cybersecurity is a concern since quantum computers are far more intelligent than traditional computers and able to navigate the security systems of today rendering them obsolete
⦁ Qubits are not digital bits so traditional computer methods cannot be applied to them when correcting errors during the computing stage
How do quantum and traditional computers differ?
⦁ They process information differently, with quantum qubits run multidimensional algorithms and the power increase exponentially as stated previously. Traditional use linear bits and have less power
⦁ Quantum have a basic structure and have no memory or processor and uses a set of superconducting qubits
⦁ Quantum computers can carry out more complex tasks but can have high error rates, while traditional computers are better at less complex tasks and have a low error rate
⦁ Traditional machines are low fuss and hardy needing simple care such as not overheating, quantum are susceptible to decoherence and need to be spared vibrations and kept super cold via super-cooled superfluids
⦁ Expense is another key differentiator with quantum computers being more expensive and harder to build
Who is developing what?
IBM plans to have a 1,000-qubit quantum computer functioning by 2023. Google’s Google AI campus plans to build its quantum computer Sycamore, by 2029. Microsoft already has an Azure Quantum platform with access to quantum technology. The financial services industry is also getting in on the game with the likes of JP Morgan and Visa taking interest in quantum computing.
Quantum physics and Schrödinger’s cat in particular have been debated for decades but not so brilliantly as by Cecil Adams columnist at The Straight Dope in reply to a reader…
Dear Cecil:
Cecil, you’re my final hope
Of finding out the true Straight Dope
For I have been reading of Schrödinger’s cat
But none of my cats are at all like that.
This unusual animal (so it is said)
Is simultaneously live and dead!
What I don’t understand is just why he
Can’t be one or other, unquestionably.
My future now hangs in between eigenstates.
In one I’m enlightened, the other I ain’t.
If you understand, Cecil, then show me the way
And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.
But if this queer thing has perplexed even you,
Then I will and won’t see you in Schrödinger’s zoo.
-Randy F., Chicago
Schrödinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!
Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics!
(Not bad, eh? Don’t worry. This part of the verse
Starts off pretty good, but it gets a lot worse.)
He saw that the theory that Newton’d invented
By Einstein’s discov’ries had been badly dented.
“What now?” wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, “Don’t panic,
No grease monkey I, but a Quantum mechanic.
Consider electrons. Now these teeny articles
Are sometimes like waves, and sometimes like particles.
“If that’s not confusing, the nuclear dance
Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!
No sweat though – my theory permits us to judge
Where some of ’em is and the rest of them was.”
Not everyone bought this; it threatened to wreck
The comforting linkage of cause and effect.
E’en Einstein had doubts, and so Schrödinger tried
To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.
Said Win to Al, “Brother, suppose we’ve a cat,
And inside a tube we have put that cat at,
“Along with a solitare deck and some Fritos,
A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes
(Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got ’em,
One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom
Or attom – whatever – but when it emits,
A trigger device blasts the vial into bits
Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime
Are 50 to 50 per hour each time.
The cylinder’s sealed. The hour’s passed away. Is
Our pussy still purring – or pushing up daisies?
“Now, you’d say the cat either lives or it don’t,
But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won’t.
Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke),
Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.
To some this may seem a ridiculous split,
But quantum mechanics must answer to wit:
We may not know much, but one thing’s fo’ sho’:
There’s things in the cosmos that we cannot know.
Shine light on electrons – You’ll cause them to swerve.
The act of observing disturbs the observed –
Which ruins your test! But if there’s no testing
To see if a particle’s moving or resting,
Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor!
We know probability – certainty, never.
The effect of this notion? I very much fear
’Twill make doubtful all things that were formerly clear.
Till soon the cat doctors will say in reports,
’We’ve just flipped a coin and we’ve learned he’s a corpse.’”
So said Herr Erwin. Quoth Albert, “You’re nuts.
God doesn’t play dice with the universe, clutz!
I’ll prove it!” he said, and the Lord knows he tried –
In vain – until fin’ly he more or less died.
Win spoke at the funeral: “Listen, dear friends,
Sweet Al was my buddy. I must make amends.
Though he doubted my theory, I’ll say this of the saint:
Ten-to-one he’s in heaven – but five bucks says he ain’t.”