[dp0622]

what could a computer that goes millions of times faster than the ones we have now do? serious question.

[Axenolith]

Become self aware or house uploaded consciousnesses...

[Paladin2]

Uh, search NSA data for anti-social(ist) comments like yours and send a drone your way?

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

A computer that operates that quickly, therefore being able to do much more complex calculations, may be able to confirm that Deep Thought was correct when he gave the, " Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.", as "42".

(The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

What could a computer that goes millions of times faster than the ones we have now do?

Predict global warming Armageddon a million times faster than today's computers and conclusively prove the only way to stop it is Marxism.

Seriously, improved oil exploration; safer cars; new material designs; new pharmaceuticals; improved disease diagnoses; more efficient engines, human-like robots...you name it. Computing power, storage, and network speeds all put limits on human ingenuity. New uses pop up very quickly.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

My understanding is this beam splitter can be fabricated to act like any number of logic gates. With a sufficiently complex version of this you could do lots of calculations almost instantly compared to the current CPUs.

However, you still need to get data into and out of this circuit, and there is probably some need for memory. The data could be sent in and out by fiber optics so that could be quick as well, but it usually takes some time to set/change a memory cell.

So if you need to remember a previous result to use in a later part of the calculation, the memory might be the long pole that keeps this from being close to instantaneous.

Units like this could be manufactured such that many calculations/operations can be done in parallel. So searches would be much quicker. Any type of database operation could be sped up immensely. Any problem where you need to try out lots of possibilities to find the best option (e.g. chess, medical diagnostics, protein folding, etc.) would be sped up immensely as well.

This will be a boon for mankind, but then it will become conscious and begin to exterminate us.

Gotta take the bad with the good.

[hosepipe]

what could a computer that goes millions of times faster than the ones we have now do? serious question.

---

make uploading, downloading, streaming much quicker...
for three things..

[roadcat]

what could a computer that goes millions of times faster than the ones we have now do?

It will answer that particular question you ask. For example, how to synthetically manufacture any type of food without the need to raise and slaughter animals. Think Star Trek Replicator. This beamsplitter technology may someday evolve to enable moving atomic particles together to manufacture whatever we so desire. What we have now would be deemed impossible by people 100 years ago.

[steve86]

One of the fastest computer complexes in the world is housed at a National Lab near me. This particular system is engaged mostly in large-scale modelling (millions of independent and dependent variables), such as climate, cosmology and population genetics. Its sister system at Los Alamos is used for weapons research/simulation (design and effect).