Quantum computer replacement

[Michael641]

Can quantum computers replace classic computers one day?

 

[ahnilated]

anything is possible.

 

[jossrik]

'one day' is a long, long time, so I'ma say with absolute certainty, if the human race survives that long, yes. Why, just the other day I read that a quantum computer can multiply simply short numbers. Gotta start somewhere. Quantum computing as it stands today has a lot of hurdles to jump before you'll find it in the home, and none of those hurdles will be jumped any time soon. The simplest working quantum computers today fill entire rooms and require enormous amounts of electricity to run, but then again, transistor computing was that was 60 or so years ago too. We're working on it, however, there are other routes home computing may take in the interim. Rest assured, Intel isn't going to rest at 14nm processes.

 

[Pinhedd]

Can quantum computers replace classic computers one day?

I suppose that it is possible, but it is unlikely. Rather, I suspect quantum computing will augment turing computing.

Quantum computing, at least as far as its been explored so far, is mainly useful for solving specific types of problems that would normally have to be brute forced. This includes factoring large numbers, finding minima/maxima, and other problems in which the only way to find solutions is to test virtually every possible input combination.

Where an algorithm exists that has a finite, bounded, or calculable number of operations to obtain a desired result, quantum computing appears to offer little to no benefit.

 

[USAFRet]

Can quantum computers replace classic computers one day?

July 3, 1890.
"Can the 'automobile' replace the horse one day?"

 

[CorrectingDisinformation]

If you have a few million dollars handy, you can contact D-Wave today and buy a quantum computer that can fit in your basement. Google and the CIA both bought one. Problem is most experts (physicists and computer scientists) can't agree on whether it really is a quantum computer. Google scientists believe it really is utilizing some sort of quantum behavior while some academics at places like MIT are skeptical and say it doesn't. The people at D-Wave, of course, say it is real. It's pretty fascinating that well respected experts in the field cannot agree on how a machine (built by humans) actually works. They all agree, though, that the machine can massively speed up certain types of computing tasks. The only debate is whether this speed-up is due to quantum effects or clever classical computing tricks. D-wave claims it is not a universal machine, but uses quantum annealing. Still, experts disagree on whether even that is the case.

I can say one thing, if universal quantum computers are ever a reality, we wont know about it for a decade. The DoD has a virtual monopoly on QC research and, like any government project, they have money to burn. The government knows how powerful of a tool this can be for population control (oops, I mean "national security"), so you can bet your shiny butt that they are going to keep the interesting research classified. It would be such a huge advantage for the NSA to have a working QC in their basement at Ft. Meade since it would allow them to crack any RSA styled crypto scheme. Do you really think they will let that opportunity slip away? Let us not forget their past behavior since past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Back in the 70's they used to put private researchers under NDA agreements in regard to cryptography. If a professor released a paper on how to make or break a code, the NSA would pay him a visit and tell him to pull the paper from publication if they felt it was really ground-breaking. The only private institution that did any (real) research into crypto was IBM and they literally had an NSA office inside their HQ monitoring and approving any research they did. Of course, nowadays it would be much harder for the government to control research thanks to the Internet and to changing social norms (people today are much less trusting of the Men in Black than they were 40 years ago).

My point is university scientists cannot compete with classified government money since university scientists get most of their grant money from the government in the first place. The only competitors will be people in the private sector who can put up their own capital (Google being the big one). And even then it's possible the government will try and clamp down on that research.

TL;DR- Quantum computers will probably happen, but the government will have the technology first and use it in secret for a while before we see it (as is the case with every technology in history).

 

[pentium0077]

Can quantum computers replace classic computers one day?

Not in the next 200 years.