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Quantum Computing

Today I learned more about quantum computing.

I noticed the Rigetti1 stock had been soaring today and wanted to dig a little deeper into some real world applications for quantum computing2. So I guess we're moving from bits to qubits now? I was naive to think I'd likely never use calculus again until I started the deep dive on vector databases. It's a good thing I never learned quantum mechanics to begin with or it'd just be another reminder.

Google recently announced their new Willow chip3. And while trying to decipher the research4 on it, the concept that really stands out to me is the quantum logic gate5. I was just starting to feel really comfortable with exactly how computers and programming work mainly because the classic logic gate model is so easy to understand. Now it's linear algebra for matrices.

Let's be real, I'm not diving back into linear algebra or quantum mechanics... what I'm really interested in knowing is if there will be any real any impact on me. The most fascinating take on this is The Quantum Tortoise and the Classical Hare6. I joked with my wife last night about upgrading our ISP speed to 3Gbps reminding her that we both started with a millionth of it.

There is a speculative date of 2030 for what's called the 'quantum advantage' where qubits become viable. The money people are saying a +30% growth rate over the next six years. Meanwhile I'm still figuring out to get people to title an email appropriately and most sophisticated application of predictive algorithms I'm seeing is when my online shopping habits prompt new email suggestions of what I should panic buy for the holidays since it's my 'last chance' offer.

I think the first applications will be machine learning and natural language processing. Given the hallucinations in the first iterations, I'd imagine the more error prone qubits will be wild. Google announced a $5 millon dollar prize this year for folks to come up with some uses7. I'd guess there will be quantum race to figure out how to make a new medicine called 'makeyouhappyagen' or to get rid of all the plastic and CO2 we felt so futuristic producing in 20th century.

I did this writeup early this morning and I just checked on the market before I cut loose from the machines this afternoon. Shoulda spent more money and less time on research, but somebody's in tune 😂

quantum computing

D-Wave Systems, IonQ, Rigetti Computing, Honeywell, PsiQuantum

Footnotes​

  1. Rigetti - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigetti_Computing ↩

  2. Quantum computing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing ↩

  3. Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip - https://blog.google/technology/research/google-willow-quantum-chip/ ↩

  4. Making quantum error correction work - https://research.google/blog/making-quantum-error-correction-work/ ↩

  5. Quantum logic gate - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_logic_gate ↩

  6. The Quantum Tortoise and the Classical Hare - Quantum computing: What leaders need to know now - https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/quantum-computing-what-leaders-need-to-know-now ↩

  7. Google and XPrize Offer US $5 million to Researchers - https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-are-quantum-computers-used-for ↩