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This is a great technical achievement. It gives me some hope to see that the various companies are able to invest into what is still very basic science, even if

This is a great technical achievement. It gives me some hope to see that the various companies are able to invest into what is still very basic science, even if it were mostly as vanity projects for advertising purposes. Quantum computing will surely have amazing applications that we cannot even conceive of right now. The earliest and maybe most useful applications might be in material science and medicine. I'm somewhat disappointed that most discussions here focus on cryptography or even cryptocurrencies. People will just switch to post-quantum algorithms and most likely still have decades left to do so. Almost all data we have isn't important enough that intercept-now-decrypt-later really matters, and if you think you have such data, switch now... Breaking cryptography is the most boring and useless application (among actual applications) of quantum computing. It's purely adversarial, merely an inconsequential step in a pointless arms race that we'd love to stop, if only we could learn to trust each other. To focus on this really betrays a lack of imagination.

rgmerk 2y ago
“Quantum computing will surely have amazing applications that we cannot even conceive of right now…” As best I understand, it’s not clear yet whether quantum computing will ever have any practical applications. Furthermore, there has already been a great deal of work identifying potential applications for a quantum computer, so I’d say we’ve got a fair idea of what you could do with one if it ever exists.
- gauge_field 2y ago
  The first (and important enough) practical application (apart from breaking RSA) seems to be simulation of quantum systems. But, this has some problems since alot of quantum models can be simulated with Deep Learning methods (getting better) to a good approximation. Probably, some quantum systems wont be good for (classical) Deep Learning, those might be the first candidates for application of quantum computers.

rgmerk 2y ago

“Quantum computing will surely have amazing applications that we cannot even conceive of right now…” As best I understand, it’s not clear yet whether quantum computing will ever have any practical applications. Furthermore, there has already been a great deal of work identifying potential applications for a quantum computer, so I’d say we’ve got a fair idea of what you could do with one if it ever exists.

gauge_field 2y ago
The first (and important enough) practical application (apart from breaking RSA) seems to be simulation of quantum systems. But, this has some problems since alot of quantum models can be simulated with Deep Learning methods (getting better) to a good approximation. Probably, some quantum systems wont be good for (classical) Deep Learning, those might be the first candidates for application of quantum computers.