4 ms·
Schrodinger's cat in unopened box is 1 qubit = it's alive and dead at the same time. When the box is opened to observe the result, the quantum state "decoheres"
by rini17 7y ago
Schrodinger's cat in unopened box is 1 qubit = it's alive and dead at the same time. When the box is opened to observe the result, the quantum state "decoheres" - decays to 1 bit result.
Now imagine 53 such boxes, interconnected by quantum gates. The 53 qubits combined are in all of 2^53 states at once. The gates can be set up such that some combinations like "cat 1 alive", "cat 2 dead", etc. are much more likely result than others, after the boxes are opened. And all this computation is done in one step, whereby the classical computer must do 2^53 steps to get the same result.
To have 53 cats all undisturbed in these dead/alive states so that computation is done without errors is very technically challenging :)
- drdeca 7y agoI don’t think the cat thing helps to explain this, especially with the finality association of “dead”.
- rini17 7y agoIt can't really be explained, we kind of accept it works like it has been in both states at once until the box was opened. Similarly, we don't really know how to explain how particles travel by both slits at once in the double-slit experiment.
- buboard 7y agoHere .. finding the circuit that saves more cats from death is already a useful thing. Of course, i dont see an obvious algorithm to search for that circuit so it would have to be brute force. but now this computer makes even brute force possible