Mega Potential Problem Solver – Quantum Computing

Right now, the fastest computers (often in an array) on earth are pushing away at well north of 20 petaflops, which are unbelievably fast… so fast, it’s really too hard to contemplate. A petaflop is the ability of a computer to do one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) floating point operations per second (FLOPS). Whew! These “super” computers are so fast that normal fiber optic cable is too slow to feed and receive information. There are unmarked underground DARPA “black cables” all over the country running to and from these mega-computing stations to top secret government installations, mostly military, that use super-high-quality, deoxygenated dedicated fiber optic cables to carry the data. Whew again! What is shocking is that the information processing world believes that these magnificent machines are just too damned slow for some of their most critical modeling! Huh?

I am sure most of you are aware of the digital language, made of zeros and ones (implemented by a whole lot of mini-micro “on” and “off” switches) – long, long lines of them – binary mathematics (as opposed to the decimal system most of use when we perform arithmetical calculations based on multiples of the number ten). This binary system (binary
“bits”) is what virtually all computers on earth use to perform… well… everything! It is the requirement of these mega-long expressions of zeros and ones that makes computers “think” so much differently from human “analog” thought. Binary calculations just have too many digits to express really significant numbers efficiently. Wasteful!

In comparing this “old world” of binary computing to the promised land of quantum processing, the July 7th Scientific American tells us: “Classical computers are designed to follow specific inflexible rules. This makes them extremely reliable, but it also makes them ill-suited for solving certain kinds of problems—in particular, problems where you’re trying to find a needle in a haystack.

“This is where quantum computers shine… If you think of a computer solving a problem as a mouse running through a maze, a classical computer finds its way through by trying every path until it reaches the end… What if, instead of solving the maze through trial and error, you could consider all possible routes simultaneously?

“Quantum computers do this by substituting the binary ‘bits’ of classical computing with something called ‘qubits.’ Qubits operate according to the mysterious laws of quantum mechanics: the theory that physics works differently at the atomic and subatomic scale.” These atomic and subatomic qubits have measurable movement patterns, alone or in conjunction with each other, that can be influenced (the process of using those tiny beasts) to provoke a model which answers an exceptionally complex question that has a very large set of possibilities and variables. 

So, physicists envisioned using controlled qubits instead of inefficient bits, effectively harnessing the laws of physics to create patterns that demand massive simultaneous calculations. Huh? Using qubits can do a whole lot more than classic “one at a time” old world binary “bit” computers (what we currently use), because they do all those calculations simultaneously. It’s not that old world computers are worthless; it just that quantum computers can do a whole lot more for certain types of calculations.

So, what’s the catch? Get a bunch of really smart scientists, given them a cool new lab, and get out of their way. Where can we see some of these new “quantum computers” in action? Well, these qubits – which are effectively the basic units of logic in a quantum processor – are swinging and swaying way too fast to be useful unless they can really be slowed down and literally directed at a subatomic level. Thus, getting these quantum computers up and running is not so easy. Qubits can be unruly and unstable without the right environment; creating and operating in that environment is really difficult. 

Understanding any of this stuff is difficult enough for super-educated plasma physicists, but trying to explain it for “everyman” seems almost impossible. Almost. For dependent calculations, a line of questions that need to be answered before the next line of questions needs to be answered before the next line of questions can be answered… times a trillion or quadrillion… Well, you get it. Running simultaneous calculations, mutually inter-reacting, gets the job done so much faster. They can just approach a problem in an entirely different way.

It’s been a tough road for the existing multi-billion-dollar tech companies like Google and IBM, but one entity, coming out of left field, might be on the path to building a quantum computer that just might work. The November 17th FastCompany.com explains: “Research breakthroughs in this area at MIT and Harvard form the basis for a new Boston-based quantum startup called QuEra Computing, which is emerging from stealth with $17 million in venture capital behind it. The company recently received a research award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and says it’s already generated $11 million in revenue.

“QuEra uses a unique quantum architecture and laser techniques to arrange and direct the tiny qubits in its 256-qubit system. Doing so is no easy feat. Qubits, which are atomic particles made from superconductive materials such as niobium or ytterbium, are temperamental and unpredictable, which can lead to ‘noisy’ or imprecise results. So a certain amount of qubits normally have to be set aside for error correction. The more control that can be exerted over the qubits, the more of them can be used for actual computing.

“QuEra’s processor traps arrays of neutral atoms in a small vacuum chamber, then uses lasers to slow them down to virtual motionlessness, cooling them down to one millionth of a degree Kelvin above absolute zero. QuEra says this is a thousand times colder than the qubits in refrigerated quantum machines made by IBM and Google, two of the biggest players in quantum computing. The processor then uses flashes of laser light to arrange the qubits in the right positions to model complex problems.” Pictured above. Expensive but getting done. 

You are going to be reading a lot about these new computing systems, which we desperately need to help solve complex medical, environmental, supply chain, traffic and power generation problems in a big way. As I blog about the problems facing the earth, it is indeed gratifying to provide examples of technology that just might find the answers we need to “make planet earth great again.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and as we face a new year filled with strife and conflict, it is good to know that there are whole lot of dedicated and educated scientists out there looking for answers… and filled with hope.