Science post: Quantum Computers explained for laymen · 9:05pm Jan 30th, 2015
Been a while since one of these posts, huh?
The voice over is a bit dryly performed, but the rest of the video and the info is solid.
Only thing I didn't like is that they glossed over why quantum computers are a big, big deal.
Traditional bit computing using transistors are linear. You put one transistor more down on a CPU, and you get one more 1 or 0 per calculation.
Qubits are exponential. Since they can out-put both a 1 and a zero, you basically end up with a positive feedback loop, where the more qubits you use the greater the computational power becomes.
In numbers of possible positions, it looks like this:
Bit: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14...
Qubits: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128...
As you can see, this is huge. The only reason transistors haven't gone the way of vacuum-tubes is that qubits are a bi
ch and a half to maintain since they need to keep that quantum-superposition to work.
And qubits does, sadly, have that 'black-box' problem as with many things in quantum-physics. Sure, you know it works, but not quite why. Still, that is just how the world works on that scale, so you just have to try wrap your head around that, and deal with how 'fuzzy' such things can be.
Still, I hope that was interesting to most of you, and made it clear I'm not just slapping 'quantum' in front of a future computer to make it more 'science-y' in Sufficiently Advanced. I know a lot of bad sci-fi just loves 'the q-word,' especially in the speculative fiction cancer known as techno-babble, but it really is a fascinating field that might allow many great things in the future. 
And since the question will come up, the next chapter of SA is about 98-99% done. I've got all the last tweaks that needs to be done figured out in my head now, and as soon as I've had time to actually put 'em down on paper, off to the editors' it will go.
cool
Status on Dark Horse and Horse Feathers?...If you don't mind that is...
Also, thanks! That video was actually great!!! ANOTHER!!!
As far as I can understand a quantum computer would be odd because you couldn't do things you'd expect a normal computer to do. Like running an operating system, or a game, or anything that follows a series of sequential/parallel steps.
It'd be useful for doing things like calculating prime numbers (and thus can break public/private key encryptions that rely on that). Beyond that? What would you do with a process for which each individual step cannot be known, only the end result? Could you even calculated hashes with a quantum computer? What would it be useful for besides encryption breaking?
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Glad you liked it!
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Horse Feathers is at about 90-95% right now (plus a new editor) but is a bit stalled. I've run into heavy writer's block on the next-next chapter, believe it or not, and since that will effect the ending of the actully next chapter...
Yeah.
Irritating, I know, but I simply can't do much until my rather flighty muse decides to flutter over to Horse Feathers again.
Dark Horse is coming along far better, however, so not only gloom and doom!
I wrote about it in the previous blog. Chapter 05 is currently sitting at 3151 words slash 'only' about 25-33% done...
But I got inspired, and chapter 06 is actually sitting at a whooping 11522 words and is about 95% done!
So a bit more wait for Dark Horse, but once 05 is done there will be two updates in a row.
2758490 *GASP!!!* I Saw, I Read, I Came.
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Actually, from what I understand quantum applications are theoretically fully possible...
But since traditional programming commonly uses 'And just how did you do this?' as a de-bugging and error detection tool, we're going to have to re-think and re-invent quite a few tools to make them work on this new type of hardware; let alone with what we'd consider any type of accuracy.
So almost, but a bit more in-dept, like how a load of the older programming languages have functions for example switching out hole-cards or letting the vacuum-tubes warm; you try to code like that in 2015 on a modern machine and you'll just get error messages, but coding itself is still quite alive an art.
Of course, since right now it's a challenge and a half to get that type of hardware to work even in the lab... Well, it will simply be quite a few years more before we start seeing more practical —pun unintended, applications for the tech.
Quantum computation was always something that I had trouble grasping. That actually helped!
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Glad to have helped.
Can't wait. My body is ready. I can't remember, is the ship-whose-name-is-long going to launch yet?
The Phidipedis? That doesn't look right to me. I guess I'll remember when you post.
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Still at 'getting the band back together' for quite a while yet, —for good and ill, I'm afraid.
Pheidippides.
I like the reference, but I'll freely admit even I have some problem remembering how to spell it.
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Boss? I accidentally got the Quantum computer addicted to cheese.
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Is the BFT enabled? Things should be alright as long as the BFT is enabled.
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That is annoyingly connected to its fear of cats, and some idiot lost his Heisenberg Box in it. We have a 50% chance of running normally, and another at the thing freakin out at the cat.
;~; When is my crack updating?