3 ms·

OK, but let's paint a picture and see where it goes: QC's become several orders of magnitude better at a few very specific calculations. We work out to frame

OK, but let's paint a picture and see where it goes: QC's become several orders of magnitude better at a few very specific calculations. We work out to frame some set of algorithms that are currently slow on conventional computers so that they're fast on QC's. Some genius works out how to frame some currently-obscure method of (for example) AI research into the new subset of QC-friendly algorithms. Some other geniuses work out how to train this new breed of fast AIs how to interact with users in a meaningful way. The next mobile revolution happens, everyone carries an AI in their pocket, the Culture looms nearer :) My point being that if we make the hardware faster, we'll find an application for it. No-one could have predicted that the humble graphics card (solely intended to make the specific vector calculations of 3d gaming faster) would power a financial speculation industry worth trillions of dollars. Make it fast and some genius will work out how to make it useful.

unishark 6y ago
Or a genius could discover some killer application for one of 1000 different competing technologies that are not quantum computing but replace current technology instead. This giant ramp up of something that is still long-term high-risk is kind of strange to watch. Surely all that funding would be better spent doing fundamental research on hardware, rather than developing the IT layers. I guess at least the stupid software patents will expire sooner once it finally becomes real.
- marcus_holmes 6y ago
  I lived in University accomodation with a researcher who was working on transistors for optical computers, and predicted them taking over from silicon in "10 years, tops". That was in 1989. The relationship between funding and hype is always weird. But it must be really hard having to decide which of several projects to fund, and "what people are talking about" is obviously one of the metrics.

unishark 6y ago

Or a genius could discover some killer application for one of 1000 different competing technologies that are not quantum computing but replace current technology instead. This giant ramp up of something that is still long-term high-risk is kind of strange to watch. Surely all that funding would be better spent doing fundamental research on hardware, rather than developing the IT layers. I guess at least the stupid software patents will expire sooner once it finally becomes real.

marcus_holmes 6y ago
I lived in University accomodation with a researcher who was working on transistors for optical computers, and predicted them taking over from silicon in "10 years, tops". That was in 1989. The relationship between funding and hype is always weird. But it must be really hard having to decide which of several projects to fund, and "what people are talking about" is obviously one of the metrics.