Feb 07
24
Quantum Leaps
There have been significant developments recently in Quantum Mechanics.
Einstein was talking about this field of science when he said “God
doesn't play dice”. Quantum Mechanics is seriously weird and
counter-intuitive.
Quantum Computing
This recent Wired story
reports the demonstration of the D-Wave Systems 16-qubit,
specific-purpose quantum computer and includes an interview with the
father of quantum computing, Oxford University theoretical physicist
David Deutsch, who “…invented the idea of the quantum computer in the
1970s as a way to experimentally test the “Many Universes Theory” of
quantum physics — the idea that when a particle changes, it changes
into all possible forms, across multiple universes.”
Quantum Crypto is more developed that Quantum Computing and has been commercially implemented on optical networks by MagiQ Technologies. This technology employs Heisenberg's Uncertaintly Principle to achieve a highly secure crypto solution.
Interestingly, Quantum Computing has the potential to make current
mathematical approaches to cryptography redundant, as the massive
parallel computing power available will render current algorithms
vulnerable to brute force attacks. However, Quantum Crypto is not
beleived to be vulnerable to this type of attack.
While these are both transformational technologies, Quantum Computing
is possibly a boot-strapping technology. It appears to promise
solutions to several currently intractable computational problems and
to dramatically increase computer modelling capacity. Applying Quantum
Computing to scientifc problems such as global climate modelling,
carbon management, nanotechnology and nuclear fusion could lead to the
exponential leap of scientific and technical capacity known as the
Singularity.
Such a quantum leap in human intelligence augmentation will hopefully
develop in time to be applied to the climate emergency. We, and our
computers, will need to be as smart as possible to deal with this.