WHAT IS QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY?
Quantum technology, also known as quantum information technology, seeks to harness the peculiar laws of quantum mechanics to build more powerful tools for processing information. Scientists are using the technology to develop new kinds of computers and communications networks, and sensors for imaging and measuring things in novel ways.
What is quantum computing?
A quantum computer uses quantum bits, or qubits, to process information in new ways. Qubits, which can be made of atoms or subatomic particles, behave according to the laws of quantum mechanics.
What makes a quantum computer different from a regular computer?
As Nobel laureate Bill Phillips said, quantum computers are as different from today’s digital computers as today’s computers are from an abacus. Existing computers store, process and transmit information by breaking it down into long streams of bits, which are typically electrical or optical pulses representing a zero or one.
Quantum bits, or qubits, can exist as zeros and ones at the same time, or in any position between, a flexibility that gives them the potential to perform many calculations simultaneously. Some physicists compare them to a spinning coin that is simultaneously in a heads and tails state.
Do quantum computers already exist?
Early prototypes do exist — IBM offers access to its online — but they are not yet more powerful than existing computers. Many companies, including Google, Microsoft, Intel, Rigetti and IonQ, are developing quantum computers. Universities and militaries in many countries are also investing in the research.
What hurdles do researchers face in developing a quantum computer?
To get a fully functioning computer — a goal still a decade or more away, most scientists agree — researchers must coax a large number of qubits into working together efficiently. That’s difficult because qubits are finicky and have the propensity to stop functioning at the slightest disturbance, such as a minor change in temperature.
What new feats might quantum computers be able to perform?
A fully functioning quantum computer has the potential to be transformative. The exponentially greater calculation power could help identify new chemical compounds to treat intractable diseases, and eliminate traffic snarls by predicting and managing the flow of vehicles.
However, the machines may also be able to crack all existing forms of encryption, which is a major worry for militaries, governments and businesses that handle sensitive data.
So, using the comparison to a spinning coin that is simultaneously both heads and tails - how the heck do you get data from that?
We don't need faster computers to do that. We just need to get rid of stupid on ramp metering lights and teach people how to properly merge into traffic like we used to 40 years ago.
One of the detractors to jumping to a ‘revolutionary’ technology is the cost of stepping up to it with all the investment in current technology.
The computer has been built around ‘binary’ operations, where everything ultimately comes back to ones and zeros manipulated in hardware by software that also comes back to ones and zeros in its most primitive state.
There was a buzz a many years ago about ‘tri-state’ devices revolutionizing computers (an early form of this quantum concept) where you had not ones and zeros, but minus one, zero, and one. The idea was now with the same number of transistors (memory devices) in a circuit, you could represent larger combinations of data.
One of the challenges was it required an entirely new set of mathematics and software development around ‘base 3’ math, verses binary, octal, hex, and base 10, where all the teaching and development has been forever. Just like old COBAL or Fortran code, nobody wants to start over and throw away code bases with proven heritage. Going to base 3 would be far more difficult than updating a coding language. I have no idea what quantum state mathematics would look like.
Interesting stuff for sure.