| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer 08:25 - Jun 9 with 1498 views | NthQldITFC |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-61647134
Is the Ben Wallace having access to a Quantum Computer a good thing or not?
One part of me says "yes" and the same part of me says "no". |  |
| # WE ARE STEALING THE FUTURE FROM OUR CHILDREN --- WE MUST CHANGE COURSE # | | Poll: | It's driving me nuts |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 08:27 - Jun 9 with 1467 views | unbelievablue |
It's a shame that, as usual, the most bleeding edge technology is developed with defense in mind. |  |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 08:46 - Jun 9 with 1432 views | davblue |
When is the future's version of Arnie coming back to terminate people? |  | | |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 08:52 - Jun 9 with 1413 views | DanTheMan |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 08:27 - Jun 9 by unbelievablue |
It's a shame that, as usual, the most bleeding edge technology is developed with defense in mind. |
Whilst that is certainly true in some cases, quantum computing has been knocking around for a while. You can't really do a lot with it so I'm surprised this is even a news story. Reads more like a promotional piece than anything else. |  |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:01 - Jun 9 with 1388 views | Keno |
yes but one of Boris mates/relatives/girlfriends took the contract for delivery and this is whats arrived
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:07 - Jun 9 with 1374 views | wkj |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 08:52 - Jun 9 by DanTheMan |
Whilst that is certainly true in some cases, quantum computing has been knocking around for a while. You can't really do a lot with it so I'm surprised this is even a news story. Reads more like a promotional piece than anything else. |
As a fellow techie - I'm not. This is not much more than an exercise in priming public opinion and theoretical buy-in -
See also the Artificial Intelligence fantasy, where the mental buy-in is that computers somehow replicate sentient thinking when under the hood it is much less sexy - pattern recognition. [Post edited 9 Jun 2022 9:08]
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:12 - Jun 9 with 1370 views | StokieBlue |
Whilst it being usable at room temperature is pretty cool, last I heard the Orca processors were only 4 qubits which isn't enough to do anything. For instance, if you wanted to crack some encryption it would have to be 4 bit encryption which is only 16 possible combinations which you could do on a piece of paper.
Quantum computers are certainly interesting but don't really have any real-world applications as of yet. Last time I read up on them the Google DWave processors were approaching 100 qubits but there was also some debate about whether they were "true" quantum computers.
For anyone interested (which probably won't be many), quantum computers differ from conventional computers in one significant way: in the processor in your computer each bit can be only 1 or 0 and thus all calculations are run in a linear fashion. In a quantum computer each qubit can be both 1 and 0 until it is observed (see quantum mechanics) and thus the calculations are done in a multidimensional fashion.
The upshot of this is that if you have a 256 qubit quantum computer you "should" be able to almost instantly break any 256 encryption (which is most of the internet) because the qubits are in all possible states. This has obvious benefits for certain problems, cracking 256 bit encryption with conventional computers is extremely difficult because there are 2^256 combinations (for comparison that is approximately the same as the number of atoms in the universe). However if you can get a functioning 256 qubit computer that problem should be solvable.
The main issue with quantum computers has been two-fold. They need to run at insanely low temperatures just above absolute zero and qubits are very hard to keep stable, anything in the local environment can interfere with their wave pattern and thus completely throw off any calculations. Isolating qubits from the rest of the environment so that the wave function of the entire processor isn't disrupted by someone making some coffee is one of the main areas of research.
So quantum computers are a very interesting field but we are nowhere near one which is going to change the world.
SB |  |
| Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:13 - Jun 9 with 1361 views | wkj |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 08:27 - Jun 9 by unbelievablue |
It's a shame that, as usual, the most bleeding edge technology is developed with defense in mind. |
Developing technology with defence in mind is the ideal scenario. You have a large focus group that has a close relationship with the development and funding that isn't skewed by dividend chasing shareholders. By the time the technology makes it's way to the public domain, it is suitably road tested.
One of the key (this is a geeky pun) technologies developed by defence agencies is encryption cypher - I am sure you can imagine why you'd want to shield the development of encryption technology from commercial entities. | |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:15 - Jun 9 with 1356 views | unbelievablue |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:07 - Jun 9 by wkj |
As a fellow techie - I'm not. This is not much more than an exercise in priming public opinion and theoretical buy-in -
See also the Artificial Intelligence fantasy, where the mental buy-in is that computers somehow replicate sentient thinking when under the hood it is much less sexy - pattern recognition. [Post edited 9 Jun 2022 9:08]
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The marketing of pattern recognition and machine learning as AI is such a conjob. | |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:19 - Jun 9 with 1347 views | wkj |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:15 - Jun 9 by unbelievablue |
The marketing of pattern recognition and machine learning as AI is such a conjob. |
Indeed, AI is a catchphrase not a concept - although machine learning I am more comfortable with as you are priming an algorithm to adapt to patterns as such.
For example - A computer algorithm can determine how to identify a chair by evaluating rules that tells the computer the shape of a chair - Learning
A computer algorithm doesn't know what a chair actually is - Intelligence | |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:43 - Jun 9 with 1296 views | Guthrum |
I bet it doesn't look anything like that, either. |  |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:06 - Jun 9 with 1253 views | Wacko |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:12 - Jun 9 by StokieBlue |
Whilst it being usable at room temperature is pretty cool, last I heard the Orca processors were only 4 qubits which isn't enough to do anything. For instance, if you wanted to crack some encryption it would have to be 4 bit encryption which is only 16 possible combinations which you could do on a piece of paper.
Quantum computers are certainly interesting but don't really have any real-world applications as of yet. Last time I read up on them the Google DWave processors were approaching 100 qubits but there was also some debate about whether they were "true" quantum computers.
For anyone interested (which probably won't be many), quantum computers differ from conventional computers in one significant way: in the processor in your computer each bit can be only 1 or 0 and thus all calculations are run in a linear fashion. In a quantum computer each qubit can be both 1 and 0 until it is observed (see quantum mechanics) and thus the calculations are done in a multidimensional fashion.
The upshot of this is that if you have a 256 qubit quantum computer you "should" be able to almost instantly break any 256 encryption (which is most of the internet) because the qubits are in all possible states. This has obvious benefits for certain problems, cracking 256 bit encryption with conventional computers is extremely difficult because there are 2^256 combinations (for comparison that is approximately the same as the number of atoms in the universe). However if you can get a functioning 256 qubit computer that problem should be solvable.
The main issue with quantum computers has been two-fold. They need to run at insanely low temperatures just above absolute zero and qubits are very hard to keep stable, anything in the local environment can interfere with their wave pattern and thus completely throw off any calculations. Isolating qubits from the rest of the environment so that the wave function of the entire processor isn't disrupted by someone making some coffee is one of the main areas of research.
So quantum computers are a very interesting field but we are nowhere near one which is going to change the world.
SB |
Great explanation, thanks |  |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:12 - Jun 9 with 1227 views | NthQldITFC |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:12 - Jun 9 by StokieBlue |
Whilst it being usable at room temperature is pretty cool, last I heard the Orca processors were only 4 qubits which isn't enough to do anything. For instance, if you wanted to crack some encryption it would have to be 4 bit encryption which is only 16 possible combinations which you could do on a piece of paper.
Quantum computers are certainly interesting but don't really have any real-world applications as of yet. Last time I read up on them the Google DWave processors were approaching 100 qubits but there was also some debate about whether they were "true" quantum computers.
For anyone interested (which probably won't be many), quantum computers differ from conventional computers in one significant way: in the processor in your computer each bit can be only 1 or 0 and thus all calculations are run in a linear fashion. In a quantum computer each qubit can be both 1 and 0 until it is observed (see quantum mechanics) and thus the calculations are done in a multidimensional fashion.
The upshot of this is that if you have a 256 qubit quantum computer you "should" be able to almost instantly break any 256 encryption (which is most of the internet) because the qubits are in all possible states. This has obvious benefits for certain problems, cracking 256 bit encryption with conventional computers is extremely difficult because there are 2^256 combinations (for comparison that is approximately the same as the number of atoms in the universe). However if you can get a functioning 256 qubit computer that problem should be solvable.
The main issue with quantum computers has been two-fold. They need to run at insanely low temperatures just above absolute zero and qubits are very hard to keep stable, anything in the local environment can interfere with their wave pattern and thus completely throw off any calculations. Isolating qubits from the rest of the environment so that the wave function of the entire processor isn't disrupted by someone making some coffee is one of the main areas of research.
So quantum computers are a very interesting field but we are nowhere near one which is going to change the world.
SB |
That's all very interesting, but what about my joke?  | |
| # WE ARE STEALING THE FUTURE FROM OUR CHILDREN --- WE MUST CHANGE COURSE # | | Poll: | It's driving me nuts |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:14 - Jun 9 with 1219 views | Keno |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:12 - Jun 9 by NthQldITFC |
That's all very interesting, but what about my joke? |
I'm in a bit of a binary over whether to laugh or not | |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:24 - Jun 9 with 1206 views | leitrimblue |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:12 - Jun 9 by StokieBlue |
Whilst it being usable at room temperature is pretty cool, last I heard the Orca processors were only 4 qubits which isn't enough to do anything. For instance, if you wanted to crack some encryption it would have to be 4 bit encryption which is only 16 possible combinations which you could do on a piece of paper.
Quantum computers are certainly interesting but don't really have any real-world applications as of yet. Last time I read up on them the Google DWave processors were approaching 100 qubits but there was also some debate about whether they were "true" quantum computers.
For anyone interested (which probably won't be many), quantum computers differ from conventional computers in one significant way: in the processor in your computer each bit can be only 1 or 0 and thus all calculations are run in a linear fashion. In a quantum computer each qubit can be both 1 and 0 until it is observed (see quantum mechanics) and thus the calculations are done in a multidimensional fashion.
The upshot of this is that if you have a 256 qubit quantum computer you "should" be able to almost instantly break any 256 encryption (which is most of the internet) because the qubits are in all possible states. This has obvious benefits for certain problems, cracking 256 bit encryption with conventional computers is extremely difficult because there are 2^256 combinations (for comparison that is approximately the same as the number of atoms in the universe). However if you can get a functioning 256 qubit computer that problem should be solvable.
The main issue with quantum computers has been two-fold. They need to run at insanely low temperatures just above absolute zero and qubits are very hard to keep stable, anything in the local environment can interfere with their wave pattern and thus completely throw off any calculations. Isolating qubits from the rest of the environment so that the wave function of the entire processor isn't disrupted by someone making some coffee is one of the main areas of research.
So quantum computers are a very interesting field but we are nowhere near one which is going to change the world.
SB |
So we're still not gonna be able to bring Dr Sam Beckett home? |  | | |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:31 - Jun 9 with 1180 views | StokieBlue |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:12 - Jun 9 by NthQldITFC |
That's all very interesting, but what about my joke? |
I'm still undecided about it.
SB | |
| Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:34 - Jun 9 with 1172 views | Darth_Koont |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:19 - Jun 9 by wkj |
Indeed, AI is a catchphrase not a concept - although machine learning I am more comfortable with as you are priming an algorithm to adapt to patterns as such.
For example - A computer algorithm can determine how to identify a chair by evaluating rules that tells the computer the shape of a chair - Learning
A computer algorithm doesn't know what a chair actually is - Intelligence |
Yep. Most AI can almost be lumped in with automation as Artificial Labour (I’ll resist a snide comment here).
But the machine learning part seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds over recent years. Still probably a long, long time before we see the sci-fi version of AI though. |  |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:47 - Jun 9 with 1146 views | DanTheMan |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:34 - Jun 9 by Darth_Koont |
Yep. Most AI can almost be lumped in with automation as Artificial Labour (I’ll resist a snide comment here).
But the machine learning part seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds over recent years. Still probably a long, long time before we see the sci-fi version of AI though. |
It's not really the machine learning that has come on leaps and bounds, at least from a scientific point of view. We've known how to do this stuff for decades, it just wasn't practical as we didn't have the computing power. We've basically got to the point now where we can run these models with relative ease. | |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 11:55 - Jun 9 with 1091 views | Darth_Koont |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:47 - Jun 9 by DanTheMan |
It's not really the machine learning that has come on leaps and bounds, at least from a scientific point of view. We've known how to do this stuff for decades, it just wasn't practical as we didn't have the computing power. We've basically got to the point now where we can run these models with relative ease. |
Yes, you’re right to qualify that. It’s more that the opportunities have vastly increased and become more accessible rather than any breakthrough per se. | |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 12:00 - Jun 9 with 1081 views | DinDjarin |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 09:07 - Jun 9 by wkj |
As a fellow techie - I'm not. This is not much more than an exercise in priming public opinion and theoretical buy-in -
See also the Artificial Intelligence fantasy, where the mental buy-in is that computers somehow replicate sentient thinking when under the hood it is much less sexy - pattern recognition. [Post edited 9 Jun 2022 9:08]
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Bring back Prolog.
Had to write Towers Of Hanoi in it for part of my Computer degree.
Mind bending. |  | | |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 12:42 - Jun 9 with 1037 views | Deano69 |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 08:52 - Jun 9 by DanTheMan |
Whilst that is certainly true in some cases, quantum computing has been knocking around for a while. You can't really do a lot with it so I'm surprised this is even a news story. Reads more like a promotional piece than anything else. |
They are a fantastic solution looking for a problem. No one will know what to do with it anyway |  |
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| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 12:51 - Jun 9 with 1025 views | Kievthegreat |
| Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer on 10:47 - Jun 9 by DanTheMan |
It's not really the machine learning that has come on leaps and bounds, at least from a scientific point of view. We've known how to do this stuff for decades, it just wasn't practical as we didn't have the computing power. We've basically got to the point now where we can run these models with relative ease. |
I mean we're getting to the point where people can do simple stuff on a home computer if you've got a good enough graphics card. Plus after what feels like a bit of a stall, Moore's law has seemingly found another burst of energy. |  | | |
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