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None actually. If the NSA or anyone had managed to find a use for the sort of Quantum computers that are floating around the world would be very different. How

None actually. If the NSA or anyone had managed to find a use for the sort of Quantum computers that are floating around the world would be very different. However currently these computers are constrained by classical memory and read write operations are still classical. I'm willing to bet it'll be a century more at this rate before quantum computing comes of age. Since the 40s people have been hyping them without any sort of clear understanding.

symlinkk 9y ago
How would the world be different? Presumably they’d keep it a secret.
bartread 9y ago
> Since the 40s people have been hyping them without any sort of clear understanding. Groan: it's going to be Cloud/Big Data/ML/Blockchain hype all over again except possibly worse. I don't mind the technology, but the tsunami of vapid content (and conversation) that comes with it wears me out.
andybak 9y ago
> If the NSA or anyone had managed to find a use for the sort of Quantum computers that are floating around the world would be very different. Remember how much effort the British put into making it hard for the Axis to realise that Engima had been cracked. To the extent that they allowed ships to be sunk and sailors to die. If a 3 letter agency does have anything then they are probably hoping to keep that edge for as long as possible. (This doesn't mean that I believe they do - merely that I don't think it would be immediately obvious if they did)
- OscarCunningham 9y ago
  Information regularly leaks out of the NSA. It doesn't seem like they'd be able to keep this a secret. It could be that they have some super secret projects which are protected by much better security, but I doubt it. If they could be that competent for one project, why not use the same protocols everywhere?
  - spacehome 9y ago
    That's what they want you to think.
  - mannykannot 9y ago
    > If they could be that competent for one project, why not use the same protocols everywhere? For exactly the reason set out in the post you are replying to, I would think, at least for a while. Though that approach to security does not always last. The USA almost gave away that it had broken the Japanese navy's most important cyphers through its interception of Admiral Yamamoto.
OscarCunningham 9y ago
>40s This is a typo, surely? Quantum computers were first proposed in the 80s.
- HaoZeke 9y ago
  Yup, sorry, typed that on an alphanumeric. But tech-hype has always existed, side by side with those claiming tech has maxed out... It's disappointing to see the media even try TBH.
- ianai 9y ago
  I think you’re right: “In 1982, the Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman thought up the idea of a 'quantum computer', a computer that uses the effects of quantum mechanics to its advantage” https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_97/journal/vol4/spb3/ https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_97/journal/vol4/spb3/

symlinkk 9y ago

How would the world be different? Presumably they’d keep it a secret.

bartread 9y ago

> Since the 40s people have been hyping them without any sort of clear understanding. Groan: it's going to be Cloud/Big Data/ML/Blockchain hype all over again except possibly worse. I don't mind the technology, but the tsunami of vapid content (and conversation) that comes with it wears me out.

andybak 9y ago

> If the NSA or anyone had managed to find a use for the sort of Quantum computers that are floating around the world would be very different. Remember how much effort the British put into making it hard for the Axis to realise that Engima had been cracked. To the extent that they allowed ships to be sunk and sailors to die. If a 3 letter agency does have anything then they are probably hoping to keep that edge for as long as possible. (This doesn't mean that I believe they do - merely that I don't think it would be immediately obvious if they did)

OscarCunningham 9y ago
Information regularly leaks out of the NSA. It doesn't seem like they'd be able to keep this a secret. It could be that they have some super secret projects which are protected by much better security, but I doubt it. If they could be that competent for one project, why not use the same protocols everywhere?
- spacehome 9y ago
  That's what they want you to think.
- mannykannot 9y ago
  > If they could be that competent for one project, why not use the same protocols everywhere? For exactly the reason set out in the post you are replying to, I would think, at least for a while. Though that approach to security does not always last. The USA almost gave away that it had broken the Japanese navy's most important cyphers through its interception of Admiral Yamamoto.

OscarCunningham 9y ago

>40s This is a typo, surely? Quantum computers were first proposed in the 80s.

HaoZeke 9y ago
Yup, sorry, typed that on an alphanumeric. But tech-hype has always existed, side by side with those claiming tech has maxed out... It's disappointing to see the media even try TBH.
ianai 9y ago
I think you’re right: “In 1982, the Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman thought up the idea of a 'quantum computer', a computer that uses the effects of quantum mechanics to its advantage” https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_97/journal/vol4/spb3/ https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_97/journal/vol4/spb3/