We are in a new age of computing
Every year, computers are getting more and more powerful. In fact, computers are getting exponentially more powerful every year. If you’ve ever heard of Moore’s law, you will be familiar with this concept.
So what is Moore’s law? Well, it describes how the number of transistors on computer chips will double in the next two years. Since 1965, when this idea was first created, Moore’s law has remained mostly true.
But now, we are reaching a barrier in the capabilities of computers. Soon, we cannot afford for these transistors to become any smaller, because when they reach the size of atomic particles, weird things start to happen.
Transistors are basically electrical switches that control the flow of electrons. So, if a transistor at the atomic level is blocking a flow of electrons, all the electrons need to do to get to the other side is, get this, teleport. The electrons are able to do this because of a quirky part of physics called, Quantum Physics. So if the electrons are able to teleport that destroys the whole point of transistors. This is a real problem for the advancement of computers. So what do we do?
Remember the old adage, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
So why not make computers that run off of the quantum physics that make advancement of the technology so hard? And that my friends, is how we are introduced to the crazy powerful, quantum computers.
Quantum computers are one of the biggest exponential technologies today. These computers are some of the most powerful in the world, making fools of regular computers in terms of processing and computation power. How powerful? Well, let’s find out.
But first, we must understand how Quantum Computers work
Alright, I won’t subject you too much to the mind-bending horror that is quantum physics, but I will give you a basic overview of some of the quantum principles that help power Quantum Computers. (Seriously though, check out quantum physics. It is super cool!)
And I promise to keep this as simple as I can, because it takes some time to fully understand what a quantum computer does and if you can even understand half what comes next, you are already on track. So let’s get started!
Physics works differently at the quantum level than it does up here. Quantum particles like electrons, neutron, protons, and even atoms can do weird and crazy things like teleport, or be in two places at once.
For this though, we will focus on two important properties of quantum physics: Superposition and Entanglement.
Regular computers run on binary bits, which are basically 0s and 1s. A 1 means that a transistor (an electrical switch inside a computer) is turned on, and a 0 means that the transistor is turned off. A series of these 1s and 0s can be made into instructions that tell a computer what to do
But a quantum computer can make these bits be 0 and 1 at the same time. This is the very bread and butter of quantum computing. How does this mind-bending theory work though?
This, my friends, is where S U P E R P O S I T I O N takes place. Quantum superposition states that a particular system can be in two states at once. These particular systems are called Qubits. Qubits can be anything from electrons to electrical circuits although quantum computers usually use superconducting material for qubits.
The image above shows a picture of a qubit. Here, we can see a zero at the top of the qubit and a one at the bottom. This is called polarization and if the arrow was pointing directly to the top or bottom of the qubit, you would have the classical 0 or 1 binary bits respectively.
You might be asking yourself, “then why isn’t the arrow pointing to either the 0 or one?”. This is because, the qubit is in a state of S U P E R P O S I T I O N. The arrow is pointing somewhere in between the zero and the one and what this means is that the qubit is in a state between zero and one. This is how it can be in two states at once, albeit in this case the polarization is more inclined to the 0.
But here is were we must suffer our first speedbump. Turns out that we cannot ever observe a qubit in a state of superposition. Why, you may ask. Because the laws of physics do not allow us to do so.
If anyone tries to observe a qubit in superposition, it will immediately collapse into a state of either 0 or 1. Same goes if we try to copy a qubit in a state of superpositon. There is NO WAY we can observe a qubit in a state of superposition.
“But then what is the point of inducing a state of superposition in a qubit if we can never observe it?” Well, good question. In fact, there is a way around this, by using another curious property of Quantum Physics: Entanglement
Quantum Entanglement happens when two qubits are “entangled” with each other. What this means is that the two qubits are connected such that if you observe one qubit in a state of superposition and it collapses to a definite value of 0 or 1, the other qubit is sure to collapse to that same value too. These qubits will remain connected to each other no matter how far apart they are.
Entanglement properties can be used to make the next stage in quantum computers, quantum logic gates. What are quantum logic gates?
In a classical computer, logic gates are just a series of transistors that can use the 0s and 1s to do basic operations. For example, an AND gate will get two values as input and will only return True if both input values are true. Otherwise, if even one of them are False, it will return false.
The same concept applies to quantum computers too. Quantum logic gates use quantum entanglement to manipulate the superposition of qubits and flip them around to return another superposition as an output. At the end of the computation, when we observe the qubits, they collapse from the superpositions into states of 0s and 1s. These 0s and 1s will be processed and read by a classical computer to give an answer to our calculation or question.
If you were able to follow along so far, congrats! We have just covered the complicated bits of how quantum computers work. Everything as we next marvel at how fast quantum computers are with a little bit of mathematics.
Why quantum computers are so much more powerful than classical computers
Right now, you might be scratching your head wondering “how do qubits and superposition and entanglement and all that jargon make a quantum computer and better at calcultion than a regular one?”
Well, consider what we said about a qubit before. It can be in a state of superposition, which means that it is in two states at once.
This means that unlike regular binary bits, it can hold two values at once. What this does is it exponentially increases the computing power of quantum computers.
Think about it this way: Since a qubit can hold both a 0 and a 1 at once. This means that for every new qubit that we add, the number of values they can hold double.
So this means that if we have only 300 qubits, we can hold 2³⁰⁰ values in those qubits. This translates to the qubits being able to hold more values than the number of particles in the entire universe.
Think about that crazy computing power for a second. First, with only 300 qubits, you can compute the number of atoms in the universe. Comparing this calculating power to that of a classical computer’s is like comparing the speed of light to that of a snail. That seems like unimaginable power doesn’t it?
The problem though, is that we, at this point can not make a quantum computer with so many qubits. This is because it is hard to contain such qubits and keep them at the astronomically extreme temperatures required to keep them working.
Remember how before I said that if you try to observe a qubit, it will no longer remain in a state of superposition and will collapse to a definite state? Well a qubit is so sensitive that any interaction with matter, electromagnetic activity, or light will cause it to falter and collapse.
Because of this, qubits are kept in temperatures colder than outer space, kept in complete darkness, and is usually far away from any magnetic fields.
The kind of infrastructure needed to keep a qubit in such temperatures is pretty hard to maintain and since any interference with the outside world will cause our careful entanglements and superpositions to collapse, we are still pretty far away from those kinds of computers. The record for most qubits in a quantum computer so far is Google’s quantum computer, with 72 of them.
But still, even with these few qubits, quantum computers have been shown, in theory, to do tasks that classical computers can only dream of doing.
The crazy things a quantum computer can do
Some of these things that a quantum computer can do will blow your mind because of how crazy they are. So prepare to be amazed.
HACK RSA ENCRYPTION KEYS…
I’m not going to go super deep into this type of public domain security so if you want a better description of this, this link will serve you better.
RSA Encryption is a type of public online security through which you can send private messages between two people. The people who can access these messages have a key. What this key is is that the system will give you an extremely high number and as the passcode, you need to enter in two prime number that when multiplied, give you the extremely high number
Let me give you a simple example:
Let us say that you get the number 15, and as a passcode you need to enter in two prime factors of this number (excluding 1 of course). The answer is easy: 3 and 5.
But what about when the number is 190,637? Not so easy now is it? The two prime factors are 379 and 503, but now you can see how difficult it is to find these two prime factors.
These numbers are usually ridiculously high and it will take forever for a classical computer to try and find those prime factors.
For a quantum computer though? Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Using it’s sophisticated qubits, quantum computers are able to simulate all the different possibilities at once you will get your answer within seconds!
Unfortunately, we are still about a decade away from hacking RSA Encryption with quantum computers, but when it does come, this means that your private info is not exactly safe anymore. Is it cold in here? I feel it just got a little cold in here.
…AND MAKE BETTER SECURITY
Fortunately, quantum computers can make better security systems to hide your private info. Whew! That was close!
The way that a quantum computer does this is by creating it’s own way to send messages!
Remember when I told you about Entanglement and how two different qubits can be entangled, which means that if you change something in one qubit and the other will change accordingly?
Well, let us use this for communication!
Say that two people, Person 1 and Person 2 (I’m not creative with names), want to send an encoded message that ony they want to access. To do this, each person would have a set of qubits and each corresponding qubit between them are entangled.
So, Person 1 could send a message by collapsing the superpositions of their qubits into a series of 0s and 1s. What this does is it makes the qubits on Person 2’s side change to an identical series of 0s and 1s. They can keep “teleporting” messages to each other across vast distances, even cross the universe!
Why is this form of communication so secure? Think back to the properties of superposition that I mentioned before. There, I said that when you try to observe a superposition, the qubit will immediately collapse to a definite value.
So let’s say that someone is going to try to listen in upon the messages sent between Person 1 and Person 2. The minute they try to observe the superpositions being sent between the two persons, they will collapse to a random value, a value that is different to the original intended message. Person 2 will get a different message than what Person 1 sent and they will know that someone is listening upon their messages.
This also holds true for if the eavesdropper tries to copy the messages being sent between them. They will still get a different value! Because you cannot copy qubits!
I’m pretty sure that by the time you are done reading this section of the article you probably had a heart attack and immense relief at the same time. You probably need to lie down right now. Take your time, I’ll still be here.
Done? Alright then, let’s move on to our next application of Quantum Computers, modeling atoms!
MODELING AND VISUALIZING MOLECULES AND ATOMS
Did you know that scientists still do not know how exactly molecules and atoms look like or behave? Crazy right?
But then what was all that you learned in your high school chemistry classes. What about that classic image of an atom you know and love? What about those chemical models and equations?!
Those are just representations of atoms and molecules folks! Scientists do not know they behavior of atoms or molecules. All they can do is make a likelihood of what an atom or molecule will do.
Well, why is this? Because molecules and atoms run on quantum physics, which is completely different to what we experience up here.
We don’t know for sure how quantum physics affects the way that atoms and fundamental particles interact with each other. So how do you get over this barrier?
Well, with quantum computers of course! (I mean think about it what has this entire article been about?)
Quantum computers can help us simulate these extremely tiny particles because they too are run on quantum physics. Using qubits and superposition and entanglement, they can easily simulate the interactions between molecules and atoms and different particles.
This will have many implications. First off, we can simulate how molecules in drugs will interact with the molecules of a human. This way, we can accurately model drugs and make them even better at curing the intended disease!
This can be used for scientific endeavors too. Quantum computers can help solve some of the most important questions that evaded scientists for decades.
For example, we can simulate the molecules and atoms that went into creating the first life on Earth. With this, we can finally find the origins of life! How incredible is that?
Some people have gone even crazier to say that we might be able to simulate the entire universe!
Although, as states before, this is probably not going to be possible until the next few years, when we have more qubits inside quantum computers.
PREDICTING THE WEATHER AND THE CLIMATE
Believe it or not, we have still not mastered the art of predicting the weather. Even though meteorologists can usually accurately predict the weather, we are still not correct 100% of the time.
For example, we may have been promised a rainstorm by our local weather station but instead only got a light drizzle. Why is this?
Well, when you try to predict weather, you have to look at a vast scale to do so. This means that sometimes you cannot predict local or isolated weather events.
Even though this is not that big of a problem for something like a little rain, it is a big problem when it comes to natural disasters.
Tornadoes, one of the deadliest natural disasters, are notoriously hard to predict. These natural disasters can form in the matter of minutes and people who are in the line of danger may have no warning.
But don’t you worry, for Quantum Computers are here to the rescue!
With their enhanced processing power from their qubits, quantum computers can more accurately predict phenomenons such as weather and can consider many different possibilities at the same time, something that a classical computer cannot do.
So far, I have given you 4 examples of what a quantum computer can do. But these few examples are just few of the many different things that a quantum computer can solve. As you have perused through the absolutely bonkers things that a Quantum Computer can do, you might be asking yourself, “Why not just replace all our regular computers with these machines from another dimension?” Well, about that…
Why quantum computers will not replace regular computers
Yes, you read that right. Quantum computers will not replace classical computers.
“Then what was the entire point of quantum computers? Why would we not want this extra processing power”
The thing is, we cannot exactly use quantum computes without classical computers.
Why? Because when we collapse the superpositions within the quantum computers, we get a string of 0s and 1s. Now, we cannot exactly read these numbers ourselves though because we will collapse the superpositions the minute we observe them.
But what we can do is feed these quantum outputs into the classical computers, and they will be able to read these for us.
And, for the foreseeable future, we probably won’t use quantum computers to do the mundane tasks of browsing the web, watching a video, or reading this article. So what does this mean?
This means that quantum computers are best at performing calculations. We do not need them to do something that ordinary computers can already do. So this means that quantum computers, only when coupled with classical computers, can reach their full potential. And this is what I mean by a new age of computers. With both quantum computers and classical computers working together, we might be able to solve problems that we never could in the past.
But please, take my words with a grain of salt, or an ocean’s worth of salt.
Quantum computers are still in their infancy. Quantum computers right now are comparable to huge classical computers of the early 1900s, the ones that used to fill entire rooms. And look where we are now. Your smartphone is more powerful than the computers that powered Apollo 11. For all we know, quantum computers could take that giant leap
The thing is though, with the technology we have now and in the near future, quantum computers probably will not replace regular computers. This does not make quantum computers any less exciting though. Coupled with the applications and the crazy processing and computing power, quantum computers still remain one of the leading technologies in the world.
Quantum computers have a bright future
As mentioned above, quantum computers have many different applications that could be used to solve some big world problems. We just haven’t come there yet.
But quantum computing is a rapidly developing field with many different people contributing to it.
We have also come up with many breakthroughs too. Late last year, Google announced that it achieved quantum supremacy, which means that on a specific problem, a quantum computer performed better than a classical computers. Thats a huge breakthrough!
Within the next few years, we will start to see a lot more integration for quantum computers into our calculations and we can actually make a lot of progress for a lot of problems we thought impossible.
So I advise you to keep a watch over this rapidly developing field and maybe even join it.
