Quantum Computers

[DominusNovus]

Lets say someone figures out how to build a practical Quantum Computer.

What do we do with the insane ammount of processing power we've got on our hands now?

[Cockroach]

Computer Games with an AI which would have an IQ over 1x10^-99999999999 :D :D :D

[swamphen]

Stick one in a Trans Am... :D :cool:

[Grey Wolf]

I guess the reason there are few answers is because the background information is lacking - what do people do with the largest and most powerful computers on Earth at the moment ? Some vague sorts of scientific research one cannot get one's mind around ? Weather patterns ? Butterflies ? I really haven't a clue, and not having a clue I can't project forward

Grey Wolf

[Michael]

Maybe they could use it for working out pie to the 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 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as that's all these things seem to be used for, or maybe it could map the stars, work out a cure for cancer, map the human genome (or that thing they are workign on now) what ever happens, 18 months later something will come about 2 times faster

[tom]

Michael:
As of 1999 the most accurate version of pi went to 206,158,430,000 places. AFAIK, no message was found ala Sagan's Contact.

[Justin Pickard]

Get it to run a total simulation of the entire world and project our future...

[Alayta]

What did one of the Bosses of IBM say in the sixties:"I dont believe that anybody would have something to do for a 64kb Computer"

[Straha]

use it to DL all the porn on the internet. Oh and pirate every movie in existence.

[American_Samurai]

Isn't there the idea that for every choice that one can make there is a universe where each action took place. If the computer ran on that idea than couldn't one talk to people from other realities and ATLs

[chrispi]

Isn't there the idea that for every choice that one can make there is a universe where each action took place. If the computer ran on that idea than couldn't one talk to people from other realities and ATLs
First of all, it appears that one cannot "communicate" with a parallel universe, in the sense that a signal can be transmitted from you to "you." Nevertheless there is a sort of connection exhibited by Bell's Theorem (no signals, but not random either.) But a quantum computer has been proposed by David Deutsch as a proof of parallel universes; if the computer is operating on more bits of information than there is possible in our universe, then it must work on bits in other universes...

[chrispi]

I gave an allusion to quantum computers in my short story Rapt.

[DominusNovus]

What did one of the Bosses of IBM say in the sixties:"I dont believe that anybody would have something to do for a 64kb Computer"
Didn't Bill Gates say something like that?

[ljofa]

Michael:
As of 1999 the most accurate version of pi went to 206,158,430,000 places. AFAIK, no message was found ala Sagan's Contact.


Mmmmm, pie....

[Straha]

dingleberry pie

[ljofa]

There's a vivid thought.

[czarist]

Didn't Bill Gates say something like that?
bill gates said "640k ought to be enough for anybody"

i have no idea why this is a big deal unless it's to show how much progress we've made in the past 20 years because it's not like the comment was stupid at the time, imo it's the dumbest oft repeated quote ever except as a reminder that your shiny new computer is gonna get obsolete real fast but it rarely seems to be used in that context

[Straha]

There's a vivid thought.
thanks............

[WngMasterD]

Physcohistory? (Like in 'The Foundation')

[chrispi]

Physcohistory? (Like in 'The Foundation')
Not even quantum mechanics can untangle chaos; it is found at all scales.

[The Man]

Hi, I'm bringing this back.


I think that we will use quantum computers pretty much the same way we use computers now. Just with better everything.

[Tielhard]

No quantum computing is likely to have very different applications. Number crunching as such is not going to get any faster. Inference might.

[fortyseven]

Not even quantum mechanics can untangle chaos; it is found at all scales.

When Seldon suggests a flat tax to the Emperor, even I'd know that the chances of bad things happening because of it would be 99.999%

[monkey]

The main use for quantum computing will be same as for all the other advances in computer processing power ie: Creating better 3d graphics and physics for video games and movies! While scientists will use them for climate models, genome sequencing, and stuff.

[BGMan]

I wonder, is a quantum computer a realistic prospect at this moment, or just a physicist's speculative dream?

They'd better watch out for the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Just today I learned that it's why the Sun can do nuclear fusion. :eek:

[fortyseven]

rudimentary quantum computers exist iirc

[Floid]

rudimentary quantum computers exist iircThey do, but only a few qubits as I recall.

[Tony Jones]

Number crunching as such is not going to get any faster.

Yes it is! For example to do the massive amounts of work required to factor prime numbers required to decrypt modern encryption schemes, which would take longer than the age of the universe to do on conventional machines...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computer#The_power_of_quantum_computers

[Alayta]

The other day I read an article about very wiered two-dimensional particles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anyon) that do exist in some complex enviroment like certain metals. If the movement of these particles could be entangeled - that would lead to a quantum computer-like machine.
Thats the most likely way to get such a machine I heard of. You get around the interference problem quite easily.

[Jesse]

Some people have the wrong idea about quantum computers, I think. Quantum computers don't have a general-purpose ability to take any classical program and speed it up exponentially, so far there are only a limited number of problems for which it has been proven that they would offer any significant advantages over existing algorithms for classical computers. As the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Computing) says: This dramatic advantage of quantum computers is currently known to exist for only those three problems: factoring, discrete logarithm, and quantum physics simulations. However, there is no proof that the advantage is real: an equally fast classical algorithm may still be discovered (though some consider this unlikely). There is one other problem where quantum computers have a smaller, though significant (quadratic) advantage. It is quantum database search, and can be solved by Grover's algorithm. In this case the advantage is provable. This establishes beyond doubt that (ideal) quantum computers are superior to classical computers for at least one problem. Also, a quantum computer is not just any computer which goes beyond the limits of miniaturization possible with silicon-based integrated circuits, getting down to the atomic scale--for example, a computer with circuits made out of carbon nanotubes (http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/09.21/nanotubes.html) could someday offer huge increases in processing power compared with today's technology, but it wouldn't be a quantum computer unless it took advantage of the uniquely quantum-mechanical phenomenon called entanglement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement). It's very hard to maintain a system with a lot of components in an entangled state because random thermal interactions with the environment tend to cause decoherence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_decoherence) which destroys it (this is why the parts of a quantum computer would probably have to be kept near absolute zero), so quantum computers would probably always lag far behind the best classical computers in terms of the number of bits (or the quantum-mechanical analogue, known as qubits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qubit)) they could store and manipulate during the course of a computation. So any future application that involved a huge number of bits, like running a detailed simulation of a human brain for an uploaded (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qubit) human mind, probably would not make use of quantum computers.

[monkey]

So does anyone know how much these advantages at solving these 4 problems would be used in most software?

[Mike Stearns]

Computer Games with an AI which would have an IQ over 1x10^-99999999999 :D :D :D

In which case, the computer will beat your ass all the time and you will never EVER win.