If you’re like me, your first reaction to the topic “quantum computing” doesn’t have anything to do with AI, cryptography, molecular analysis, or any other of the VERY interesting applications quantum computing aspires to solve according to headlines. If you’re like me, your first reaction takes you back to an earlier period of life when computers weren’t as big of a deal, and dreams were inspired by shows like Star Trek™ The Next Generation™ (TNG) and The Last Starfighter™. Inertia could be dampened, light speed was possible, things like that.
Eventually college came around and computers WERE a big deal, as was learning how to build them…with transistors of course. It was all about 0’s and 1’s. Other than a token class in modern physics (where I still remember being stunned by Einstein’s proof of E = mc2), subatomic particle theory was the future, maybe even fantasy, Does time really dilate? Could we someday travel at warp speed like the Enterprise? That was all fantasy too. However, these were fascinating questions, and they required imagination of all that was possible or could be true in the universe. But who had the time or justification to spend on that? Oh, and by the way, it required the intelligence of an Einstein to even participate in a well-informed conversation. If you were like me or most other IT professionals over the last 10-20 years, you went on to study the 0’s and 1’s and probably have had a great career in the digital age, fueled by advancements such as multi-core processors, virtualization, and cloud computing.
Enter quantum computing: Read an article on quantum computing from the past year and you’ve probably run into terms like “quantum entanglement”, “superposition”, and “qubits”, and you’ve probably run back into Einstein as well (his theories, anyway). Those concepts that once seemed futuristic sound like they may be becoming a reality, and THAT IS EXCITING.
Problem 1: We’ve spent the last 20/30/more years learning how to build computers with transistors, not qubits. With logic, not superpositioning. The concept of 0’s and 1’s are relatively straightforward. Binary if you will:
- 0+0 = 0
- 0+1=1.
- 1+1 = 10. (You get that joke if you’ve read this far.)
We’ve learned that given enough 0’s & 1’s, enough transistors, you can build a processor. And with enough of those, you can build some cool computers or wireless gadgets or robots and solve some really hard problems.
Which leads to the first question we ask ourselves – what does a quantum computer do that is so different? Or perhaps you prefer “WTF is a Quantum Computer?” This is where the journey begins. To get to that answer today requires a PhD in theoretical physics, and I don’t have one, nor do many of my peers who have been in the IT industry for decades now.
Problem 2: Many of the people trying to explain quantum computing today to the general population ARE PhD’s in theoretical physics….and explain like it. There have many articles that try to explain quantum computing in a simple way. Here’s an example: Entanglement Made Simple. However, I still end with a feeling of “Cool, but I still don’t get it.” How exactly can I, say, calculate prime factorization using a qubit? Or for that matter, how do I add 0+1. Should I? Why or why not? There’s frustration simply with having the word ‘bit’ in the term ‘qubit’ but not still understanding how quantum computing relates to a classical computing ‘bit’.
This is where the journey begins. In this series of blog posts, I’m going to document my learning about quantum computing and do so in a way that is understandable by the average person, or at least the average person with a basic knowledge of current day computing. I hope you’ll join. I hope we’ll learn a practical understanding of quantum computing, open our mind to future problems that could be solved, and maybe even get a step closer to the future reality we watched on TV when we were kids. Please feel free to post questions or challenge any conclusions made – I’m not an expert…yet.
In the next post, I’ll walk through a sample article and begin documenting terms, context, and the questions that remain. Thanks to wordpress.com for the following picture and quote which seemed rather appropriate.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Quantum Journey Blog 