Quantum Computing, is it a Pipe Dream?

I can not help but wonder that once these things start to become commercially available just how fast they will improve in both processing power and speed.

Hopefully this will be the first of many new developments in the Computer Industry that is moving far faster than the current Major Software Developers are capable of moving at and will put them back to the fringe community where they belong.

Col

about what os they are using and what efforts if any they are putting into getting any open source os working on it.

Lucky me, they are a short trip on public transit from here. :D

Their second public display is also local so I might get to attend in person.
[ I'm seriously concidering applying to attend, the cost is the issue ]

In order to achieve any computing at all, (*1) variables in a state have to be introduced. Hense; the Dead or alive little kittie.
For example: 1 Automoble, It is in Motion, You want to determine, compute, it's speed. (at a particular point and time) A speed measuring device, such as a Radar Speed Gun could be used. As with the Cat, the observation would 'catch' the car in a 'State' that neither at rest or in motion. That done twice, could then determine speed. (*2 & 3)
Catching the light, somewhere along the intended path, or at various points in the path would then observed as a means of computing.
:^0 -d
(*1 in the absence of unknown, or presence of only known factors, computing would un-necessary.)
(*2 you know the time, distance, calulation, to determine the speed)
(*3 the actuall state of the Auto is irrealevent, it of course would be in motion, however, it will be observed at rest, at least twice. Schr?dinger's Car)

"Outside the Box" thinking.
Computing and the related, including software as been still in the '30's/'40's mentality. That is the old Babbage machine gears and pawls, now gates, used by transitors, 1's and 0's.
A seemless flow of light state.... hummmmm
The future might be getting interesting. -d

edited to add:
Jaqui, your "Pipe Dream" might just be very fitting to this whole idea.

So, what is happening in essence, is that we can never know if the data being observed is the "correct" data?

into a discrete value.

In the case of the quantum spin of an electron, there are only 2 possible values, up or down; i.e., the observed value will be base 2, or binary. There can be no intermediate results.

Hence the name "quantum bit," or "qubit."

I haven't read, or thought of that book in years..... over 30 years ago ?:|
Was at one time, required reading. but then it was the 60's too. :p weeeeeeeeeeeeeee
(hey, wait, that means......... 40 years ago :_| I need more coffee.!. )

This will, of course, require rewriting software to recognize trinary, rather than binary logic: Yes, True and Maybe.

Or not.

Quantum Computing was a key component of Michael Chriton's, Timeline novel. It being a requirement for high speed, hyper-parellel processing and data storage to basically record an entire person's body's state for transmission to the earlier time. May understanding was the recording process actually destroyed the person's body, and a completly new one was constructed based on the recorded information. Don't ask me if the 'soul' made the jump, or a new one was created with the new body, or if consciousness or sense of self is just an artifact of our brains.

Come to think of it. Quantum computing would be necessary for Star Trek style transporters to operate too.

No! Its neither Here nor There

Doesn't that mean you only have a 50% chance of observing the correct data on a specific atom?

Would the correctness/incorrectness cascade to the other atoms as an effect?

Business' will now expect their employees to be Tritask or Quadtask vs Multitaskable. ;)

With-a-do... many skeptics thought flying or traveling to the moon was a "Pipe Dream". Maybe so: we've bent that pipe too many times to realize we we're counting.

The quantum spin of charged particles or atomic nuclei can be both controlled and observed.

In superconductors, electrons of opposite spins pair up, into what are called Cooper pairs. In so-called high-temperature superconductors, many electrons, of opposite spins, travel about as quasiparticles, equivalent to broken Cooper pairs.

Quasiparticle are, because of the ambiguities of quantum mechanics, 50/50 mixture of particle and non-particle, which is called a hole.

These quasiparticles will, under certain conditions, congregate into clouds of of up-spin and down-spin electrons, with slighty different energies.

The greatest problem currently facing the advancement of quantum computing is how to interact with the qubits so a to be able to both load the initial conditions and read the results without destroying their quantum phase.