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Governments seek ways to avert quantum’s encryption apocalypse

5 points by elsewhen 4y ago

dtagames 4y ago
Quantum computing is a marketing dream that isn't even useful for regular work (like math and dealing with databases). I don't think anyone has to worry about it "undoing" encryption.
- youainti 4y ago
  I would disagree on two points. First, although quantum computing may be bad at running databases it will be used for other workloads that we can hardly imagine. Second, as some frequently used cryptography algorithms (rsa in particular) are known to be weak to quantum algorithms, it is a big deal.
  - dtagames 4y ago
    Not really. The whole point of quantum computing is that it cannot give you a final answer that's reliable. Final, reliable answers involving money and other concrete real-world things are what is necessary to get work done. Alan Turing and Alonso Church both demonstrated that any computer which can ever be built can do the exact same work (and no more) than any other computer which has already been built. In other words, there is no such thing as a "workload we can hardly imagine." All computer work is equivalent and all computers are exactly equivalent to each other. Did you know that quantum computers must be connected to a Turing computer in order to accept an input or provide an output? All of quantum computing is throttled by Turing computing. There is simply no evidence to suggest that quantum computers are going to be useful in real work, including brute force cracking of encryption. When Turing computers were invented, they were immediately used in production for real work purposes. The entire industry around Turing computers came about because of the real work that they were able to do (census stuff, war stuff). This is not the case with quantum computers, which do not do any real work and probably will not ever. This [0] review is fresh and relevant, as is this [1] critique. [0] https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/28/1048355/quantum-computing-has-a-hype-problem/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/28/1048355/quantum-... [1] https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/quantum-computing-qubits-error-correction-no-cloning-theorem/ https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/quantum-computing-qu...

5 points by elsewhen 4y ago

Quantum computing is a marketing dream that isn't even useful for regular work (like math and dealing with databases). I don't think anyone has to worry about it "undoing" encryption.

youainti 4y ago
I would disagree on two points. First, although quantum computing may be bad at running databases it will be used for other workloads that we can hardly imagine. Second, as some frequently used cryptography algorithms (rsa in particular) are known to be weak to quantum algorithms, it is a big deal.
- dtagames 4y ago
  Not really. The whole point of quantum computing is that it cannot give you a final answer that's reliable. Final, reliable answers involving money and other concrete real-world things are what is necessary to get work done. Alan Turing and Alonso Church both demonstrated that any computer which can ever be built can do the exact same work (and no more) than any other computer which has already been built. In other words, there is no such thing as a "workload we can hardly imagine." All computer work is equivalent and all computers are exactly equivalent to each other. Did you know that quantum computers must be connected to a Turing computer in order to accept an input or provide an output? All of quantum computing is throttled by Turing computing. There is simply no evidence to suggest that quantum computers are going to be useful in real work, including brute force cracking of encryption. When Turing computers were invented, they were immediately used in production for real work purposes. The entire industry around Turing computers came about because of the real work that they were able to do (census stuff, war stuff). This is not the case with quantum computers, which do not do any real work and probably will not ever. This [0] review is fresh and relevant, as is this [1] critique. [0] https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/28/1048355/quantum-computing-has-a-hype-problem/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/28/1048355/quantum-... [1] https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/quantum-computing-qubits-error-correction-no-cloning-theorem/ https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/quantum-computing-qu...