Demystifying Quantum Computing
There are a lot of buzzwords in and around Silicon Valley these days – AI, machine learning, blockchain, crypto etc – but there’s one buzzword that could have a lasting impact on technology as a whole – quantum computing. The reason quantum computing is so exciting is because it’s a rare advance in hardware computing. A lot of the focus in recent years has been on optimising software and making software run more efficiently across devices – there hasn’t been as much invention or innovation in the hardware space (apart from making chips smaller and phone screens bigger – which can be seen as a natural progression rather than “eureka” moments of invention)
So great, quantum computing is an advancement in hardware technology – but what exactly is it? And is it just another blockchain – aka an innovative solution still in search of a problem to solve? Or are there actual use cases waiting for a breakthrough such as quantum computing? Let’s find out!
To understand the advantages of quantum computing, we need to first understand the differences between traditional computing and quantum computing. Traditional computing relies on bits and their definitive states – either 1’s or 0’s. Quantum bits, or qubits, also rely on 1’s and 0’s to be read, but can also hold multiple values at the same time – it’s a bit like Schrodinger’s Cat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat – where the cat is simultaneously both dead and alive until someone looks in the box – at which point they confirm that it is either dead or alive. Similarly with qubits – the value of a qubit can be either 1 or 0 – but is only confirmed at the time of reading.
The middle state at which it simultaneously holds two values is called superposition – think of a spinning coin that is both heads and tails while it’s spinning – and think about the consequences of performing a calculation while the coin is in that state. This leads us to the next cool thing about quantum computing – probabilistic answers – https://www.accenture.com/t20170628T011725Z__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/PDF-54/Accenture-807510-Quantum-Computing-RGB-V02.pdf#zoom=50. This essentially means you’re able to calculate different scenarios in the one computation – and when you measure the result of the computation on a superposed state, you get probabilistic answers – which are basically a percentage value of confidence that one of the answers is right. The way you build up confidence that that one answer is right is by running repeated computations.
Again, great, this all sounds fancy and complicated – but what does it actually mean?! It means that we can vastly improve and scale computing power to solve problems we simply couldn’t solve before. This does not mean though that all software and all applications can just be run 10x faster on a quantum computer. They are good at solving a specific problem – that is, problems that rely on probability to determine outcomes – https://singularityhub.com/2017/06/25/6-things-quantum-computers-will-be-incredibly-useful-for/#sm.0000s7zzks1tberywwl27oh0i748j There are several examples in this article – such as it’s use for AI, molecular modelling, cryptography and financial modelling.
While I don’t think we’ll see quantum computing applied to everyday mundane things like Facebook deciding what ads to show you – I think we will see big usage in academia for research, and the medical and pharmaceutical industries for drug discovery and development. Several companies are already doing cool things in the space – like making API’s available for people to test out the capabilities – check out https://www.dwavesys.com/quantum-computing/applications and https://1qbit.com/.
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat
- https://www.accenture.com/t20170628T011725Z__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/PDF-54/Accenture-807510-Quantum-Computing-RGB-V02.pdf#zoom=50
- https://singularityhub.com/2017/06/25/6-things-quantum-computers-will-be-incredibly-useful-for/#sm.0000s7zzks1tberywwl27oh0i748j
- https://www.dwavesys.com/quantum-computing/applications
- https://1qbit.com/
