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Well that sounds like good news, are there any practical applications for quantum computing other than breaking commonly used encryption that would push the mod

Well that sounds like good news, are there any practical applications for quantum computing other than breaking commonly used encryption that would push the modern world even further towards a complete surveillance state?

firtoz 3y ago
I'm not in the field but in my understanding it's going to make it easier to do parallel competitions and also will allow us to find the inputs that can lead to a particular output in some types of equations. Factoring numbers is only one of the "practical" equations. Materials science and chemistry (e.g. predicting how drugs may behave in our bodies) will benefit, or other computationally heavy "try out many permutations and see which ones fall though" tasks may become a bit easier. Climate modelling, supply chain logistics, financial modelling, and of course AI.
dragontamer 3y ago
The #1 proposed use of quantum computers is... simulating quantum effects. Modern quantum simulators running on supercomputers is an exponential (O(k^n)) kind of operation. But a quantum computer can simulate any quantum effect in just one step, O(1) time. Because ya know... a quantum computer is just a computer that has isolated quantum effects and allows a programmer to control them easily.
- blharr 3y ago
  Isn't O(1) an oversimplification? In comparison wouldn't electrical computers then also be able to simulate all electrical effects in O(1) Time?
  - dragontamer 3y ago
    > In comparison wouldn't electrical computers then also be able to simulate all electrical effects in O(1) Time? Yes and OpAmps / analog electrical circuits were way faster than digital computers for decades because of this. When you know that the current of a diode is related to the exponent of the diode's voltage, you can do silly things like calculate logarithms using OpAmps and diodes in a mere nanosecond or so. Most 1980s synths used OpAmps as the basis of the math / calculations for signal processing, because digital computers just weren't fast enough to compete yet. Those circuits still work today. Alas, digital computers are too cheap, accurate, and fast these days so nearly everything is digital now. ---------- I guess your point though is that maybe a quantum computer (or OpAmp / electrical computer) can only physically simulate the effects that the hardware contains. Ex: an electrical computer cannot simulate BJTs unless it has a BJT somewhere. So it would still come down to the computers physical load out. Similarly, a Quantum simulation on a quantum simulation computer would only have some subset of primitives implemented.

firtoz 3y ago

I'm not in the field but in my understanding it's going to make it easier to do parallel competitions and also will allow us to find the inputs that can lead to a particular output in some types of equations. Factoring numbers is only one of the "practical" equations. Materials science and chemistry (e.g. predicting how drugs may behave in our bodies) will benefit, or other computationally heavy "try out many permutations and see which ones fall though" tasks may become a bit easier. Climate modelling, supply chain logistics, financial modelling, and of course AI.

dragontamer 3y ago

The #1 proposed use of quantum computers is... simulating quantum effects. Modern quantum simulators running on supercomputers is an exponential (O(k^n)) kind of operation. But a quantum computer can simulate any quantum effect in just one step, O(1) time. Because ya know... a quantum computer is just a computer that has isolated quantum effects and allows a programmer to control them easily.

blharr 3y ago
Isn't O(1) an oversimplification? In comparison wouldn't electrical computers then also be able to simulate all electrical effects in O(1) Time?
- dragontamer 3y ago
  > In comparison wouldn't electrical computers then also be able to simulate all electrical effects in O(1) Time? Yes and OpAmps / analog electrical circuits were way faster than digital computers for decades because of this. When you know that the current of a diode is related to the exponent of the diode's voltage, you can do silly things like calculate logarithms using OpAmps and diodes in a mere nanosecond or so. Most 1980s synths used OpAmps as the basis of the math / calculations for signal processing, because digital computers just weren't fast enough to compete yet. Those circuits still work today. Alas, digital computers are too cheap, accurate, and fast these days so nearly everything is digital now. ---------- I guess your point though is that maybe a quantum computer (or OpAmp / electrical computer) can only physically simulate the effects that the hardware contains. Ex: an electrical computer cannot simulate BJTs unless it has a BJT somewhere. So it would still come down to the computers physical load out. Similarly, a Quantum simulation on a quantum simulation computer would only have some subset of primitives implemented.