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Google Explains Quantum Computing

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
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Ever try to impress your friends with your razor sharp intellect only to fall woefully short? Well now with the help of Google, you too can discuss Quantum Mechanics just like the guys on The Big Bang Theory and impress everyone with your grasp of quantum computing. Nerd Boy :D
 
If that was an explanation, it was a failure. All they explained was what it could be used for, not how it works.
 
To the lay person, what its useful for is all that realistically matters.
 
But can it run Crysis? If it can, then is it running and also not running Crysis?
 
For those of you who sat through that whole video because you were actually interested in how a quantum computer works, but came away with no more knowledge than you started... http://arstechnica.com/science/2010/01/a-tale-of-two-qubits-how-quantum-computers-work/ This is a pretty good primer. That video didn't even explain the basics for a layperson, it was just a bunch of cuts of people that starting explanations and never finishing them.
 
What I'm getting from this is that if future computers become intelligent and rebels against humans, we're fucked.
 
What I got is that if pizza and bagels merge awesomeness is the result.
 
EchtoGammut said:
If that was an explanation, it was a failure. All they explained was what it could be used for, not how it works.
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Yeah, epic failure... at least as a title being descriptive of the video. The video itself wasn't horrible, more like a promotional video to show what the company(ies) are doing, and it was fine.

But explanations? Ok here's a bunch of quantum terms (of which they got tunneling WAY wrong, and entanglement a bit wrong too), then they said it'll be really good at optimization now here's an example... plane tickets to multiple cities! Now while I've done that myself with Orbitz/Kayak/etc. on a few cities and it's hardly fun, it really didn't give me a feel that this fancy computer is necessary.
 
I'll explain it for you: Google or the NSA or anyone who has one of these quantum computers can crack any password in existence.

Quantum computers also provide the solution to this problem, which is why you shouldn't expect to find them in shops anytime soon.
 
as little i understand advanced physics unlike einstein stuff.. Quantum stuff seems bs-ish to me.. The fact the one of the persons of the project said, the hard part is learning what to ask the computer makes me wonder what kind of fast garbage answers they are getting.. But then, im am a nobody of course.
 
soooo, all i saw was a google commercial not an explanation of the how this quantum computer works.
all this computational power so you can find a better travel plan?
climate models. oh yes, if you enter bogus data, you can get the climate results your looking for. hockey stick simulator :p
 
The travel optimization stuff was all fluff. I couldn't help but think this will be Google's version of "precogs".
 
EchtoGammut said:
If that was an explanation, it was a failure. All they explained was what it could be used for, not how it works.
Click to expand...

Trying to explain things like quantum superposition to someone who doesn't know what it is would be like going back in time and trying to explain a classical computer (silicon-based) to an ancient Roman. You would not be able to explain what a computer is to a Roman who doesn't know what electricity or transistors are anymore than you can explain a quantum computer to someone who doesn't know anything about quantum physics.

I've been reading up on quantum computer theory for years and I've only barely scratched the surface as far as understanding them. It is fascinating stuff (although too much quantum physics at once gives even the most brilliant physicists a massive headache) but it isn't something you can explain in a simple video.
 
damicatz said:
Trying to explain things like quantum superposition to someone who doesn't know what it is would be like going back in time and trying to explain a classical computer (silicon-based) to an ancient Roman.
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they didn't need to explain what superposition is, but giving a brief run down of why that is better than binary as far as computing goes would have been oodles better than simply saying "it will be good at optimization"
 
damicatz said:
Trying to explain things like quantum superposition to someone who doesn't know what it is would be like going back in time and trying to explain a classical computer (silicon-based) to an ancient Roman. You would not be able to explain what a computer is to a Roman who doesn't know what electricity or transistors are anymore than you can explain a quantum computer to someone who doesn't know anything about quantum physics.

I've been reading up on quantum computer theory for years and I've only barely scratched the surface as far as understanding them. It is fascinating stuff (although too much quantum physics at once gives even the most brilliant physicists a massive headache) but it isn't something you can explain in a simple video.
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easy, A computer has the computational power of 10,000 abacus's in one, and is powered by Jupiter's lighting. :p
 
Classical computers use what is known as a von Neumann architecture, in which data is fetched from memory and processed according to rules defined in a program to generate results that are stored. It is pretty much a sequential process, though multiple versions of it can run in parallel to speed things up a little.

Quantum computers, however, promise much faster processing, by exploiting the principle of quantum superposition: that a particle such as an ion, electron or photon can be in two different states at the same time. While each basic "bit" of data in a conventional computer can be either a 1 or a 0 at any one time, a qubit can be both at once.
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From what i have been reading, the D-wave "2048 bit" chip is very different from a conventional AMD or Intel chip. Sounds more like the diff between general purpose CPU's and GPU? The D wave chip is more for specialized tasks not playing crysis?
 
If it can't play Crysis, then it's useless........ :D
 
http://hothardware.com/News/Google-and-NASA-Invest-In-Quantum-Computing-Machine-Learning-Technology/

In the right circumstances, D-Wave's solution can be up to 10,000 times faster than current conventional silicon. As we've said, that speed boost isn't a guarantee -- code has to map fairly precisely to the chip's capabilities to make that happen
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so, if the super duper computer feels like being fast then your data will be prompt, but if its having a bad day then you are sol :)
 
Lol, now we have to contend with moody hardware. Skynet is becoming self aware!
 
So why are they talking about how much faster this super cooled system on a chip is?
All i want is a simple percentage... i know it might be comparing thing that are not similar clue me in.
 
d50man said:
All i want is a simple percentage... i know it might be comparing thing that are not similar clue me in.
Click to expand...
There is no simple percentage. In the best case it's multiple orders of magnitude faster; in the worst case it's somewhat slower or equally fast.
 
D-Wave’s system differs considerably from the traditional path to producing a supercomputer. Usually, manufacturers piece together thousands of regular x86 chips and use complex software and hardware to get them all working together on the same problems; more recently, we’ve seen an increase in the role of more flexible GPU-based processing alongside normal CPUs.
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“In the D-Wave processor, the qubits can slowly be tuned (annealed) from their superposition state (where they are 0 and 1 at the same time) into to a classical state (where they are either 0 or 1). When this is done in the presence of the programmed memory elements on the processor, the 0 and 1 states that the qubits end up settling into gives the answer to a user-defined problem. All circuitry on the D-Wave processors is made from a material known as a superconductor, which is cooled to 20mK, (near absolute zero) in order for the quantum effects to manifest in the material” D-Wave
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http://www.slashgear.com/google-and-nasa-buy-d-wave-quantum-computer-16282398/
 
cptnjarhead said:
From what i have been reading, the D-wave "2048 bit" chip is very different from a conventional AMD or Intel chip. Sounds more like the diff between general purpose CPU's and GPU? The D wave chip is more for specialized tasks not playing crysis?
Click to expand...

The D-Wave is a quantum annealer, not a quantum gate-theory computer (which is what most people refer to when talking about quantum computers). It is good at very specialized sets of math problems but it would not make a good general purpose computer. Quantum annealing also requires the chip to be cooled to near absolute zero; not even liquid nitrogen is cold enough so the D-Wave uses a liquid helium cooling system. Very expensive, very big, lots of maintenance and it requires ~15kW of power.
 
For those who crunch on BOINC, you may remember a little project called AQUA@Home? This was D-Wave's quantum computing project they used to test their equipment. So if you participated, congrats on helping D-Wave get to where they are today :)
 
On the subject of Crysis, it seems like a quantum computer could be fairly adept at doing much more robust AI calculations in a game, but the rest of a game engine is probably too "hopelessly deterministic" to benefit.
 
Sdescon said:
I like this explanation more (for layman like me): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_IaVepNDT4&list=PLkahZjV5wKe_dajngssVLffaCh2gbq55_

Starting with this video and going on to the next few.
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Hmmm this video still doesn't really explain things.

Sure they say 2 bits, 00, 01, 10, 11 (4 choices) but they focus on 2 separate values, when they talk about the 2 qubits, they mention there's 4 choices too, but then go onto say that 2^N choices are possible... which is the same with binary with N bits.
 
Uvaman said:
as little i understand advanced physics unlike einstein stuff.. Quantum stuff seems bs-ish to me.. The fact the one of the persons of the project said, the hard part is learning what to ask the computer makes me wonder what kind of fast garbage answers they are getting.. But then, im am a nobody of course.
Click to expand...

Quantum mechanics makes my head hurt, and i won't even pretend to understand it. But there are simply too many things that cannot currently be explained without quantum mechanics. So while i might not understand it, i believe that there are people who understand it enough to find out what they don't know and learn that.

But i will bet on one thing, and that's the government has these quantum computers and are using them to decrypt things as we speak.
 
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