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D-Wave systems quantum computing: What's the big deal?


vailixi

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I was kinda curious about the whole quantum computing thing. I had read about it in Michael Crichton's Timeline 1999. I hadn't really paid it much thought after that. But it's been in the news a bit lately. D-Wave systems is the only known manufacturer of quantum computers. From what I read the chip is only 340GFlops (a little bit more juice than Invidia's Tegra K-1 Development board) but the entire machine cost's about $10 million.

They are in the process of developing better quantum chips and the main problem that I'm seeing with it is that the chips themselves have to be operated at 0.1Kelvin which is just a smidgen above absolute zero. (no molecular motion). And that's how you get the unique quantum properties that allow the processor to work. But it takes a lot of cooling equipment to make this happen it takes up a lot of space. I realize this technology is quite new and we'll probably see a lot of further development in the field of quantum computing. But I really don't see what all of the fuss is about.

There were some articles and posts talking about how the NSA is worried about quantum computers being able to crack encryption but at the current state of quantum computing I don't see it doing anything like that.

My question is: What's the big deal?

Am I missing something? I'm sure some of you are way better a physics and also computing and someone will have something intelligent to say on the subject.

Edited by vailixi
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I was kinda curious about the whole quantum computing thing. I had read about it in Michael Crichton's Timeline 1999. I hadn't really paid it much thought after that. But it's been in the news a bit lately. D-Wave systems is the only known manufacturer of quantum computers. From what I read the chip is only 340GFlops (a little bit more juice than Invidia's Tegra K-1 Development board) but the entire machine cost's about $10 million.

They are in the process of developing better quantum chips and the main problem that I'm seeing with it is that the chips themselves have to be operated at 0.1Kelvin which is just a smidgen above absolute zero. (no molecular motion). And that's how you get the unique quantum properties that allow the processor to work. But it takes a lot of cooling equipment to make this happen it takes up a lot of space. I realize this technology is quite new and we'll probably see a lot of further development in the field of quantum computing. But I really don't see what all of the fuss is about.

There were some articles and posts talking about how the NSA is worried about quantum computers being able to crack encryption but at the current state of quantum computing I don't see it doing anything like that.

My question is: What's the big deal?

Am I missing something? I'm sure some of you are way better a physics and also computing and someone will have something intelligent to say on the subject.

Theres a couple like new to the subject books on quantum physics by john gribbins worth reading about the schrodinger cat problem https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=john+gribbin+quantum+physics

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A timeline of the state of Quantum Computing starts at 21:07 and D-Wave is mentioned starting at 22:07.

The big deal is that quantum computing can solve certain types of currently really hard cryptographic math relatively in the blink of an eye, which worries the NSA (themz can haz our SECRETS!). Just a few years ago scientists made a quantum computer that was stable for over half an hour at room temperature (it's in the bit about the timeline if you're impatient) which would mean that you don't need a 10 million dollar machine with a metric shit-ton of cooling applied to it. The previous record for this was 2 seconds so you can easily tell the pace of developing new technology in this field is ferocious. It won't be very long until something practical gets made here and also don't be surprised if we, in our lifetime, end up with consumer devices that contain this tech. Knowing this and the fact that the NSA's adversaries include nation states to whom even that 10 million dollar machine is but a drop in the ocean, are you really surprised they're worried about this?

Edited by Cooper
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Yeah, if they come up with some of kind stable high temperature superconductor it drive down the cost significantly and also bring the computer down to a more managable size.

Thanks for the video Cooper I'll have a watch when I get home this evening.

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What the crap?! They can quantum teleport data. This is pretty big because conciousness happens on a quantum level. If you can teleport data you can basically intercept or even transplant data directly to someone's conciousness. I know telepathy works. I understand the there's a whole psychic internet where people are connected. I didn't think that we were anywhere near having machines that could interact with that. It's going to be like children playing with matches.

So if they can teleport data and we know how to create anti-matter give the computer we can quantum tunnel data back time. So a computation that takes x amount of time could actually be answered in zero time because you are creating a matter collision to actually tunnel the data backward in time so cracking any cyptography with a known algorithm would be absolutely trivial at that point. Brings up a whole lot of questions about the nature of space time and existance in general.

So really if you could send data back in time and target a person. If anyone is reading this 300 years from now: Send me everything. I want to know. kek.

The whole thing about lattice cryptography is interesting. Lots of concepts here.

Edited by vailixi
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