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Not trolling: is there really a need to train a cohort of quantum programmers? Can these computers actually do something better than their classical counterpart

Not trolling: is there really a need to train a cohort of quantum programmers? Can these computers actually do something better than their classical counterparts, right now?

samstave 4y ago
I, for one, welcome any learning. So even if I am never actually to program a quantum computer, Why would I not like to know how to do such? Why should the ability/knowledge be hidden from any body. But you'll never know, until you look at me.
- rusticpenn 4y ago
  You can program a quantum computer today, ibm quantum computing cloud provides all 5qubit computing for free.
  - dr_dshiv 4y ago
    Also see Quantum Inspire for free, accessible quantum computing on the cloud: https://www.quantum-inspire.com/ https://www.quantum-inspire.com/
dr_dshiv 4y ago
> Can these computers actually do something better than their classical counterparts, right now? You could say quantum computers do something better than classical computers, but you cannot say they can do something useful better than classical computers. At present, “Quantum supremacy” only applies to toy problems. Your other question is not so easily answered.
gobengo 4y ago
> Can these computers actually do something better than their classical counterparts, right now? The answer is yes. Sometimes this is referred to as 'quantum supremacy' and some researchers at Google declared it in 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1666-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1666-5 https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/10/quantum-supremacy-using-programmable.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/10/quantum-supremacy-using-pr...
- isoprophlex 4y ago
  Thanks, interesting idea but it seems the practical applicability is still far away. > One of the most celebrated results in quantum computing is the development of a quantum algorithm for factorization that works in time polynomial in n. This algorithm, due to Peter Shor and known as Shor’s algorithm, runs in O (n3 log n) time and uses O (n2 log n log log n) gates. The first experimental implementation of this algorithm on a quantum computer was reported in 2001, when the number 15 was factored. The largest integer factored by Shor’s algorithm so far is 21.
- YakBizzarro 4y ago
  Quantum supremacy, while a very interesting experiment and a milestone in quantum computing, proves hardly anything about usefulness of quantum computers. It "only" proves that quantum computers are the best quantum computers, and classic ones can't efficiently simulate them. It say nothing about useful operations.
  - s1dev 4y ago
    From a theoretical point of view, this is evidence that quantum computing is a more powerful model of computation. I think it would be hard to argue that a model of computation that can solve more problems is any less useful. Applications like quantum simulation do appear to be difficult on a classical computer yet efficiently computable on a quantum computer
    - kbelder 4y ago
      Basketball is hard to simulate on a classical computer, but easy to simulate by playing a game of basketball.
- oldgradstudent 4y ago
  In what sense the result describes a computation? And it what sense the device describes is a computer? The only thing it can do faster is to run itself. It's as if I called a Boeing airliner an aerodynamic computer and each flight a computaion.

Not trolling: is there really a need to train a cohort of quantum programmers? Can these computers actually do something better than their classical counterparts, right now?

samstave 4y ago

I, for one, welcome any learning. So even if I am never actually to program a quantum computer, Why would I not like to know how to do such? Why should the ability/knowledge be hidden from any body. But you'll never know, until you look at me.

rusticpenn 4y ago
You can program a quantum computer today, ibm quantum computing cloud provides all 5qubit computing for free.
- dr_dshiv 4y ago
  Also see Quantum Inspire for free, accessible quantum computing on the cloud: https://www.quantum-inspire.com/ https://www.quantum-inspire.com/

dr_dshiv 4y ago

> Can these computers actually do something better than their classical counterparts, right now? You could say quantum computers do something better than classical computers, but you cannot say they can do something useful better than classical computers. At present, “Quantum supremacy” only applies to toy problems. Your other question is not so easily answered.

gobengo 4y ago

> Can these computers actually do something better than their classical counterparts, right now? The answer is yes. Sometimes this is referred to as 'quantum supremacy' and some researchers at Google declared it in 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1666-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1666-5 https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/10/quantum-supremacy-using-programmable.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/10/quantum-supremacy-using-pr...

isoprophlex 4y ago
Thanks, interesting idea but it seems the practical applicability is still far away. > One of the most celebrated results in quantum computing is the development of a quantum algorithm for factorization that works in time polynomial in n. This algorithm, due to Peter Shor and known as Shor’s algorithm, runs in O (n3 log n) time and uses O (n2 log n log log n) gates. The first experimental implementation of this algorithm on a quantum computer was reported in 2001, when the number 15 was factored. The largest integer factored by Shor’s algorithm so far is 21.
YakBizzarro 4y ago
Quantum supremacy, while a very interesting experiment and a milestone in quantum computing, proves hardly anything about usefulness of quantum computers. It "only" proves that quantum computers are the best quantum computers, and classic ones can't efficiently simulate them. It say nothing about useful operations.
- s1dev 4y ago
  From a theoretical point of view, this is evidence that quantum computing is a more powerful model of computation. I think it would be hard to argue that a model of computation that can solve more problems is any less useful. Applications like quantum simulation do appear to be difficult on a classical computer yet efficiently computable on a quantum computer
  - kbelder 4y ago
    Basketball is hard to simulate on a classical computer, but easy to simulate by playing a game of basketball.
oldgradstudent 4y ago
In what sense the result describes a computation? And it what sense the device describes is a computer? The only thing it can do faster is to run itself. It's as if I called a Boeing airliner an aerodynamic computer and each flight a computaion.