Surfing the HyperNet -Will There be a Quantum Computer in Your Future?
Quantum computers are so sought after they make the Holy Grail look like an IKEA wineglass. The list of things people expect a quantum computer to do starts with "crack unbreakable codes" and goes up from there, so every small advance on the way gets a lot of attention. The latest such headline comes from Northwestern University, where researchers have built a quantum CNOT gate that can be linked to fiber optics.
That might not blow your socks off, but it's getting attention because the makers are smart enough to use buzzwords like "quantum internet" - which is honestly more exciting-sounding than Angeline Jolie talking about her day at the Jello Wrestling Championships.
The idea is that CNOT gates are a "universal gate", which means you can make any other logical operation if you have enough of them. Fiber optics connect computers together, so conceivably a fiber-optic enabled CNOT gate could herald a global network of quantum megacomputers. Unfortunately, it's in the same way a single brick heralds the Empire State building.
The demonstration so far is only one gate, and it isn't within the fiber - it's just connected to it. The efficiency of the system is very low and you have to do far more work to check if it functioned than the gate actually does, so claims of instantaneous hypercomputation are more premature than a wedding proposal in the 1st grade.
Which isn't to say it's not awesome, of course. The system is a definite stride forward, a demonstration that photons can be shuttled around the place (just like the real world) and still perform quantum calculations, unlike previous demonstrations which were more carefully isolated from reality than an albino baby unicorn. The work done by Professor Kumar and colleagues will be a milestone when we look back on our QuantiMax-9000 computers as we surf the HyperNet. It'll just be a milestone near the start, not the end.
Posted by Luke McKinney.
Related Galaxy posts:
Quest for Identity in the Digital Village -Daily Video Classic
Internet Going Galactic -To & Beyond
Beyond Google 3: Why a Semantic Web Will Be Smarter, Faster & All-Around Better
Quantum Physics & the Quest for the Perfect Internet
IBM "Cell" Tech Driving Emergence of the 3-D Web
Quantum CNOT http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20565/?nlid=1004&a=f
"Unfortunately, it's in the same way a single brick heralds the Empire State building."
I especially loved that statement.
Posted by: Kyle Morgan | August 14, 2008 at 06:04 PM
Luke, did you eat your Analogy-O's this morning, or what? Haha! "make the Holy Grail look like an IKEA wineglass.", "more exciting-sounding than Angeline Jolie talking about her day at the Jello Wrestling Championships.", "it's in the same way a single brick heralds the Empire State building.", "claims of instantaneous hypercomputation are more premature than a wedding proposal in the 1st grade.", "more carefully isolated from reality than an albino baby unicorn."
Posted by: Hollywood Riot | August 15, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Very quotable! I enjoy the analogies.
Posted by: Barrie O'Leary | August 30, 2008 at 01:50 AM
bullshyt
Posted by: hhh | January 29, 2009 at 08:21 AM
one more step towards skynet!!! whooo-hoo!
Posted by: spaceman | March 19, 2009 at 09:05 AM
What we should now fear now is the inevitable MS Quantum Windows(TM)
Posted by: Sisyphus | March 19, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Our actual computers even if NOT based on quanta leaps are enough shitty by themselves....poor digital machines.
With quantum taking the place of normal digital computation (i.e. binary math) the mess will sorround us and them.
Who generated and insisted on this theory that quantum based math can easily replace the actual binary math MUST BE a DREAMER.
What fiber optics connecting supercomputers have to do with quantum theorized computers...NOBODY understands.
FO fibers are only a 'medium for guiding coherent light within pipes' and send information superimposed to laser beams away (i.e. towards an optic receiver)....what HELL these FO links have to do with 'quantum mechanics' ...NOBODY understands...NOT us Anyway.
BY the WAY and this is for the writer of this 'magics article'...Computers are already connected with FO cables that are normally and actually part of our LAN....even at our offices....and allow to operate at some 10Gigabytes/sec our networks....100GigaBytes/sec are under experimental phase.
Don't You know about 'fibers to the desktop' ??
PLEASE advise the writer of this 'article'...or generic 'paper'.
Regards
Posted by: claudio | March 20, 2009 at 11:38 PM