Slashdot Mirror
Quantum Computer Works Better Shut Off
waimate writes "A New Scientist article relates how its possible to get answers from a quantum computer even when your program isn't running." From the article: "With the right set-up, the theory suggested, the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run. And now researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have improved on the original design and built a non-running quantum computer that really works."
Wish I could do that with my "real" PC - save alot of power that way. Hard to see the screen though. ;-)
Stiny! Get me a danish!
I sometimes get better answers to my own questions simply by sleeping on it.
Neat! It's an updated Sinclair ZX-81!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
...works so much better when turned off.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Think of all the power we would save not playing MMOs with the PC turned on.
This scheme could have an advantage over straightforward quantum computing. "A non-running computer produces fewer errors," says Hosten. That sentiment should have technophobes nodding enthusiastically.
:)
Duh! It's not running so it can't produce errors!
I know a guy that doesn't work much. Now I find out that he's really doing more than everyone else in bizarro quantum world.
So... It's running Windows? Hey, stop hitting me!
Seriously though, this statement made my day: "A non-running computer produces fewer errors," says Hosten.
How do I convince my boss that I can work this way, too?
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
How better to prove that your invention is useless than to have it be just as useful when shut off? That's gotta suck!
I just heard a pinging noise in my brain. I think something broke...
You gotta love it when you can build something that doesn't run but somehow it works. Ugh, I miss my erector set. Those were the good old days.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.-TJ
nt
How can it work better when its off than when its on. Its either on or off, it can't be on and off at the same time!
</sarcasm>
"A non-running computer produces fewer errors," -- i'm sure microsoft will understand this phrase. I do not.
Most people have no idea what they are doing, and are silently panicking on the inside.
All we need to do now is program the question...
Z.
For Pete's sake, you're just mad becuase he got first post and you didn't. Funny or not, don't penalize the poor chap just because he happened to get his comment in before you did. Stop whining.
I'll give all my mod points to whoever can explain to me what Schrodinger's running cat has to do with my laptop's speed.
this idea in quantum computing has been around for quite some time now
Ever hear the expression "I'll sleep on it" ?
I've read several times how not thinking about a problem will lend itself to a solution.
ie Go take a walk, get a cup of coffee, take a nap.
Interesting, or maybe I just need coffee.
-- taking over the world, we are.
This should make surge protection and UPS MUCH easier.
Soon there will be quantum malware that "runs" even if you never try to open it, even if you kill its process, even if you filter it, even if your packets just pass close to it.
For all we know this malware is already running.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
in unrelated news, my refrigerator light bulb works better with the door closed.
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
But how do we KNOW it's off?
I wonder if it will give answers to questions not yet asked? [just joking]
Also, it sounds like these computers are still in the stage of "plug and play". Like the early electronic computers, you had to plug in patchcords to program it. This thing needs photons injected into it.
I wonder if there's any CompSci people thinking of the possible compilers that can be written for this thing? I'm thinking that a quantum computer will have the CompScientists throwing out a lot of the current Computer Science theory and developing new ones that fit into the computational capabilities of a quantum computer. I don't know, would deadlocks and such exist with a quantum computer? With all those funky quantum effects, like entanglement, you wouldn't have to worry about deadlocks - or whatever. I think you get me.
Saturday is April 1. Slashdot will be shut down. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Does anyone know what is new here ?
I may appear lazy, but on a quantum level, I'm really quite busy.
overclock it?
Say hello to my little sig.
Is a quantum computer kit that I can use to do this stuff.
Here are the instructions for the entrepreneurial inclined:
1. Make quantum computer kit
2. Sell it
3. Profit!
Microsoft reported earlier today that Windows performs better with your PC shut off.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
Is it me or is this an April fools joke thats running late? Maybe I should RTFA....
I always thought programming was more art than science, and a dark art at that. This proves that at it's best computers are magic. Soon they'll have computers that give their answers even if it hasn't been programmed, or better yet even if it hasn't been built yet. Those answers will be the most accurate of all!
When does stuff like this make people start to lose credibility? Are we there yet? IANAQM, but on a simple gut level I can't buy any of this.
In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
...The next generation will give correct answers before it's even built.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
Don't forget to try the veal!
"the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run."
sounds like another answer to a question no one asked.
More music, fewer hits
So that's why Deep Thought forgot the question! It was turned off for all those millennia while it worked on the answer.
You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
I am not pretty sure that it has anything to do with the Heisenberg Uncertainty, I am certain that it does - however uncertain that may sound to you.
Maybe we should look at what the definition of running is for a Quantum computer. Once it is assembled is it at that point running? Are applications an add on for functions pertaining to specified data?
Naturally, no one has ever been able to reproduce Campbell's results. Campbell was a great science fiction editor, but a real crank when it came to crackpot psuedoscience.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
I can just see the next article - "Quantum Software Works Better Without A Computer".
And the followup:
"Quantum Software Works Better Before Writing the Code Than After Writing the Code".
...If you don't open the box and look inside? I mean, without peeking and knowing for sure, it's in an indeterminate state.
Now you can tell whether the cat is dead regardless of whether the cat is dead or not.
Now they replaced the inhumane process of killing cats with just letting the cat hit Enter to run the program (instead of killing it). So now instead of "somewhat" dead cat you have a program that is "somewhat" runnning.
Did Bloody Stupid Johnson have anything to do with this? If so, it sounds an awful lot like he used a few lessons he learned from his work on the Post Office Mail Sorter and the New Pie
Three and a bit. You gotta have it.
It may work, but the answer to every question always ends up being "42". ...ahem...
No, I have no other deep thoughts on this subject...
\burt
(groaning)
There is no such thing as bad weather - only inappropriate clothing.
I finally have proof that if users turn off their PC's I will have less problems to fix and get more done.
I eat Karma for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's why I don't have any.
The article was very brief and short on details (maybe I have to read up more on quantum computing).
I kinda get the both running and not-running but how can the results be measured?
I use my computer to flirt all the time.
Though it needs to be on and I don't usually call it flirting.
"A non-running computer produces fewer errors," says Hosten
"Sir im getting a reading"
"Whats it say mark?"
"....Windows has caused an unexpected err......AHH SHIT!!"
...when the OS, Windows QXP, blue screens and then shifts into far infrared, actually delivering the solution prior to loading the data, while also delivering random solutions through out the timeline (document: Leonard of Venice found drawings for a flying aparatus on his table several hundred years ago, courtesy the blue screened Quantum Computator of 2015.)
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
I read slashdot and the linked article, I think ridiculous things and see voodoo. I read the Nature (very honorable science journal) article, there's no voodoo and everything is straightforward. BTW, I'm a physics graduate student. I wish slashdot and other sites didn't present serious science with such careless descriptions. I give slashdot a F- on this.
...they have already run Duke Nukem Forever?
This sounds a lot like it could be an episode of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force". Kind of like the episode where one of the characters was given a "Personal Analog Assistant"; which is a pen and a pad of paper.
"Put your message in a modem, and throw it into the cyber-sea." - Rush
I have a quantum clock on my desk that is shut off, too. It is exactly correct twice a day.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Anybody wanna bet the reasons behind the Black Mesa incident?
The last of the voice logs from the test chamber read:
"Shutting down. No. Attempted shutdown! It's not... it's not... it's not shutting down!"
Wanna bet why?
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
It's all smoke and mirrors, well mirrors anyway.
I've come to the conclusion that quantum scientists go out of there way to describe everything in confusing and fantastic terms. Obviously this "computer" is running. It's not like they turned it off and came back in the morning and the "answer" had magically appeared. They may think that all the photons are being captured and so none of them ever enter the "computer" itself. But the work is getting done, so something must be traveling through the "computer". If they don't know what that something is, it doesn't mean that it's nothing. It means that they don't know what it is. What they should say is, "we don't have a frickin' clue how it really works" but that doesn't sound as cool.
It is still running in a sense (ie. it has power and "stuff" is happening). Just not the typical sense for a quantum computer.
Seems stupid to suggest it's "shut off" because it's not. I would consider "shut off" would mean it has no power flowing to it.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
How can it work better when its off than when its on. Its either on or off, it can't be on and off at the same time!
Schroedinger + Heisenberg == Schroedenberg's Uncertain Cat Principle
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Did you hear about the naturopath who forgot to take his medicine? He died of an overdose.
It also reminds me of a quote from (I think) Arthur C. Clark which was something along the lines of: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I think this is one of those cases where even those who know what's going on don't know what's going on.
I swear my watch says February 22 not April 1!
Gorkman
A Quantum computer is never really on or really off - it's relatively a little bit off and on at the same time!
That sounds like saying an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters will "sometimes" type out a Shakespearean play. You just don't know when and which one.
OK, but first take a look at Elitzur-Vaidman's bomb testing experiment which (I think but not sure) is the predecessor of these counterfactual repeated measurement experiments.
Are we done? So, if you read the bomb testing experiment above, you'll see that you have a pretty good chance of detecting a live bomb without actually having the photon triggering it off. The basic idea of repeated measurements is that you can keep increasing the probability of detecting a potential live bomb without actually having the photon exploding it. Ta da, you have a counterfactual based experiment.
Watson to Holmes: "Holmes, but the dog did nothing at night time."
Holmes to Watson: "Precisely Watson, and that is very significant" or somesuch.
Anand Rangarajan anand@cise.ufl.edu
This would be a great boon for SETI!!!!
which came first? the chicken or the egg?
Now if they can get it to think of your questions for you it'll be perfect.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
improving your error rate by turning the machine off is easy if you're wrong with high enough frequency....
rand() even happen to give me the correct answer before I ask the question !
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Die, damn you!
What?
Further evidence that time and space is an illusion. Nothing really exists. Anything is possible except waking up. Rod Sterling [would be => is => will be ] proud .
Good book.
And I thought it was nonsence...
My God, it's full of answers!
Coming back here, the discussion consists entirely of moronic comments about Windows. Would someone with a clue care to provide some useful commentary?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
OK, I freely admit that the science behind how a quantum computer works is WAY beyond me, so correct me if I'm wrong about this. Wouldn't the ability to run a program without the computer being in an active state mean that quantum computing is an insane security risk? The article mentioned that they believed they had to specifically build the computer to exhibit this strange (and frankly fascinating) property, so does that mean this particular feature can be designed out?
I'm not talking about "quantum cryptography", I realize the security of that has been disproven recently.
..did it also deduce the existance of rice pudding and income tax?
Was there an article a while ago about complex decision are better made when sleeping? I can work in the future with my computer off and asleep at my desk. The future looks bright.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Okay I read the article and don't understand how this works. No one else on Slashdot has posted an explenation of how this works. Can some one please elaborate on this post? All I see right now is stupid jokes...... Which may mean that slashdot operates like the quantum computer. It all makes sense now....
This is straight out of Douglas Adams.
Windows' new shut-down message: "Microsoft Improbability Drive: where do you want to go today?"
No, here's what you do. You build a shielded, sound proofed room with your computer workstation, a nice entertainment center, bar and comfy recliner. Then you seal yourself in the room so no one can tell what you're doing. Either you have the computer turned on and are hard at work programming or you're kicked back doing nothing enjoying yourself. Call it Schrodinger's programmer.
Now, if your computer is hooked up to the Zeno effect device described in the article, it should be able to read the results of your work whether you actually did it or not. This should usher in a revolution in work environment for programmers everywhere.
I think this is the best example that we are actually living in a virtual, simulated universe and the programmers still have a few bugs to work out. It's the bloody Matrix but without all the cool clothes...
http://www.catb.org.nyud.net:8080/jargon/html/magi c-story.html
Were that I say, pancakes?
I do not have a clue, netiher does any of the replies above (e.g: "Windows runs better when turned off"): many "funny" messages, but no "informative" ones.
Got d***n it. I've read the article (yes I did), I also had in introductory quantum phycics course in undergrad, but I still do not understand "how this is supposed to work".
Yes they say that using the Schrödinger's idea, they send a photon into the computer while inhibiting it by using a series of mirrors. This rises the photon into a "superposition" where it's both inside and not inside the system at the same time. (Actually it's more like not inside). However this causes the system to run (*but sometimes*) and yet with less error ratio (quantum computing is error prone).
Baybe the actual question is "why is this supposed to wotk this way", I'm still confused.
42
Will this make halt detection possible?
Actually, jokes aside, this IS an interesting effect although I disagree with their use of the word "Off". The computer is powered up. But they are starving it of "normal" input.
To paraphrase: They feed the computer a signal (photon) but then intercept the signal before it can make it into computer. If light was purely particle, that would be the end of the story. However light is also wave/quantum thingy. Somehow, over several runs, enough of the wave/quantum thingy made it into the computer to make process the input.
If light is a wave, maybe they had a timing issue and enough of the wave made it into the computer.
If light is a quantum thingy, maybe they have discovered a way to imprint space-time (ether?) with the quantum state information of a removed object. If it IS this latter effect, maybe there is hope for homeopathy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy.
Homeopaths claim to dilute their active ingredients to the point of being non-existant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#The_.22The ory_of_Infinitesimals.22 and claim that, even when diluted THIS much, the solvent retains the "nature" of the active ingredient.
The "Real World" IS just a big quantum computer.... Who knows?
I am NOT a proponent of homeopathy -- it just bears a similarity to the experiment above.
So the computer sits in a space time continuum that gives the output purely on the fact that sometime in the future you will run the program?
Or does it sit there and think over the answers with whatever quantum molocules haven't been flushed from the system at the time of power off ?
With this computer you can play the new Duke Nukem 10x faster even though it's turned off. On the second thought, you can do the same with your computer at home, just close your eyes and focus...
From an article in Nature:
0 -10.html#B1
b s/nature04523.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060220/full/06022
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v439/n7079/a
Computers can be shut off??
Imagine and don't imagine a beowulf cluster of those!
New business model:
1. Buy super quantum computer
2. ???
3. Profit!
We now know step 2. Shut the computer off and go for a long weekend.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Is that the man who said that any technology advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic? They didn't belive him about the sattelites, ya' know... But, hey... Unix already uses magic for some tasks. So it is just an evolutive step forward, and umm.. logical one? Magical one? :-)
I get more work done when Windows is not running... now I'm confused!
I hope I didn't brain my damage.
This sounds like a Douglas Adams skit.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I know its just a typo, but if its not, does that make *any* sense? It's getting answers from itself? I know programs query about conditions, but the end result is an answer of some sort to the user, not itself...
Considering it's the 23rd, and this story was posted on this same date, I'd say you've got one of those weird quantum-calendars. May I suggest buying a Casio or Rolex? ;)
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
But this doesn't buy you anything. Quantum computers are reversible meaning they use no energy. And the computer has to spend just as long "doing nothing" as it would have spent doing the computation. And your computer is still tied up "doing nothing". So it's basically useless.
"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
...Hex!
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
to either complain about the results version 2 will produce or not. Then, I may or may not have suggested that we not build the version 2 at all which may or may not have resulted in the version never existing. Then the universe imploded. Fortunately, that was the OTHER universe.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
The more Douglas Adams seems to have had a view of the future when he talked of how the Infinite Improbability Drive worked.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
HAL: What are you doing Dave
Dave: Switching you off you maniac!
HAL: I'm afraid
Dave: Hah! That's it - you are now disconnected. I'm all safe now.
HAL: Er Dave, I'm a quantum computer. Self-destruct initiated. 3.. 2.. 1.. Daisy, daisy...
bang goes my karma... again...
Quantum Computer gives answers without running. You have to run it only if you want to find the question. Unfortunately, when you do find the question, the answer becomes a four way entangled yes, no, maybe, and maybe not.
Flip a coin. Its cheaper and gives just as good of an answer.
I am not a physicist, but I did spend a couple years in college studying it with an intent to become one, and I still maintain a layman's interest in the subject. Unfortunately, the math is beyond me. In any case, a lot of people are confused how this "works", and so I thought I'd try to help.
- testing_problem
Someone else already posted an useful background URL with is a good place to start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elitzur-Vaidman_bomb
Basically, what you have here is something called "interaction-free measurement". Because of the quantum mechanics work, a particle's wavefunction evolves in a certain way over time, which then "collapses" when you measure it to something specific. How it evolves is not deterministic, but probabillistic. Because of this, you can set up a quantum system whereby when you place a certain object in it at a certain place, you can change the whole system given the nature of what you add to it.
In this case, you have a quantum computer composed of mirrors that runs on photons. The mirrors are pre-set in a certain configuration to run a certain "program". No electricity is needed to "run" the program; you just inject photons into it and it spits out results when you measure it.
What they've done here is then place that computer in a certain location in an existing quantum mechanical system, the one which the photon comes from. This photon is associated with its own set of mirrors and detectors, and because of where and how the computer is placed into it, it effects the larger system.
Thanks to QM, you can then tweak the exterior system so that the chances of a photon ever actually getting to the quantum computer are infinitessimally small. But because there's still a small chance, the very nature of the computer in that location allows you to determine the results it would generate, even though a photon never actually gets into it to "run" it.
So, it's not to misleading to say the program never actually "runs". And you could say the computer isn't "on", but since it's just a mechanical-optical construct it's always "on". More importantly, though, is that exactly where the "computer" is becomes blurred; while it's true that it's particular programming is self-contained, by hooking it up to the external quantum system, you're sort-of making it a part of the computer as well. The "work" is being done by the photons outside the computer; remove them and you don't get anything.
Wow, reading the above, I didn't really do a good job of explaining this at all. But basically, even though the quantum program never actually executes, you still need to create it, and you still need to put it in a certain spot so that its quantum effect on the world around it can still be measured, and from that, you can infer what the program would actually do.
Bruce
On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], "Pray, Mr. Heisenberg, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" To which I replied, "Only if it's off."
-Peter
I also heard Microsoft's developing methods to find viruses before they're ever written. Kind of a future detection method without needing to detect anything. Apparently Bill had everyone at Microsoft turn off their computers. Wired: "So, how DID you guys know that your computer was about to lock up in around 13 seconds?" Bill: "I turned off my computer." Wired: "What?" Bill: "Quantum computing baby! It doesn't make sense! But it doesn't work!" Wired: "..."
Better article. Whoever wrote the other articley looks like they poorly summarized this one. Then the summary for the slashdot posting poorly summarized that. Sheesh.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
...but your results will be in an indeterminate state until you open the box.
If you don't have to run the program, then what's the point of building a quantum computer in the first place? You just need a terminal to see the result! I'll try it when I get home tonight.
-- Cheers!
"With the right set-up, the theory suggested, the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run."
And the answer is 42.
is it me, or are we just steps away from inventing the Infinite Improbability Drive?
Just raise the taxes on crack.
I can see it now..."Forget what you thought you knew about computers!" our correspondent John Woodall reports, "Apparently this new method of computing, called 'quantum computing' is just, relatively speaking, a big word for 'procrastination'" John then added, "Also, quantum computing 2.0 looks to makeshift new methods of use where not originally applicable, for example, determining if you would do any actual work before you actually do, whether you have a job or not and then determining your decision based on if you want to make a decision or not despite not having a decision to make in the first place. Our theory is, if you take enough steps back, you...oh nevermind. It doesn't make sense anyway...(begins grunting and crying uncontrollably)", adds John.
That is the real question.
but those Heisenbugs can be a real bitch to isolate
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
Will it run Duke Nukem Forever?
Was hoping there was someone who could shed some photons on the question of how does this work?
Then again, maybe if I just setup the question, continuously flirting with the "Submit" button, the answer will appear?
Digg has a better link: http://www.physorg.com/news11087.html
From the article, it looks like I'll need to be nested within some optical interferometers before my "Submit" program will use counterfactual computation.
"We also showed theoretically how to obtain the answer without ever running the algorithm, by using a 'chained Zeno' effect."
Oh wait, this is just in "theory".
Never mind, nothing to see here.
also gives the right answer when it isn't working... twice a day.
"Gee, don't feel bad about me brutally killing your whole family... according to this completely untestable theory I have, there is another inaccessible parallel universe out there where I didn't! See? It's all good now."
I always hated the Many Worlds interpretation because it's not science, it's religion clothed in science-speek. By it's very nature it is untestable... might as well say invisible purple monkeys (or flying spaghetti monsters) are responsible for how things run "behind the scenes." I subscribe much more strongly to the "shut up and calculate" school of thought.
Procrastination Man strikes again!
Obviously, I'm not a physicist. So let me preface by saying that pretty much everything in Quantum Mechanics and String Theory sounds to laymen like, "It is because we say so, you dork." So, spare me the replies like, "YOU wouldn't get it until years of..."
If I understand the basic paradox that started everybody marching down Quantum Road was: Light is a particle if you look at it one way, but a wave if you look at it another way. Therefore it must be both or neither, but can't truly be one or the other.
How's this for an alternate take: Light is a particle if you look at it one way, but a wave if you look at it another way. Therefore we are really terrible at observing light, no further conclusions can be drawn until we find better ways of observing.
All models break down at some point. This one seems to have started broken. Castles of nonesense are built all over it.
Check out my new aether computer. It works better when it doesn't even exist!
That I do a better job if I don't show up.
Customer: I'm having some trouble with my Quantum computer
Tech-Supp: Are you sure it's turned off? Make sure it's unplugged.
Grad Student 1: "Oh no, my quantum computer program is not responding"
Grad Student 2: "Have you tried turning it on and then off again?"
If I expect 0's 50% of the time from my questions and 1's the other 50%, then my computer can do half of its work while switched off! Now I somehow just have to figure out how to make the computer turn itself on when a 1 is expected. Or otherwise queue all the "zero work" to be done over night while the systems are "off" and leave the "ones work" for daily hours. Oh and the zero work should all be completed in zero seconds regardless of how much zero work there is to be done! I'm gunna be rich! I better go and patent this. Shhh, don't tell anyone.
Come to think of it, I have an old analog watch which is broken. It is however correct twice every 24 hours.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
The Bastard Operator who both is and isn't from Hell?
I'm pretty sure all this quantum stuff is just a big inside joke of really smart people. None of it makes a damn bit of sense and it generally flies completely counter to any sort of logic... so how the hell does anyone even work with it? By nature most mathmaticians/scientists/geeks/computer people work in logic, so how do you find non-logical thinking quantum physicists to come up with this shit?
I call shenanigans!
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Here's an easy way to get answers without investing any kind of work really:
:) In my case, flipping a coin yielded the answer that the Goldbach hypothesis *is* true; if anyone doesn't believe that, feel free to prove me wrong. :)
1. Ask a yes/no question (for example, "is the Goldbach hypothesis true?")
2. Flip a coin.
The answer you get will be right about 50% of the time, on average.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Can see it now, "My new computer is infected with a virus."
"You have one of them new Quantum computers don't ya?"
"Yes, I never turned it on, and it is infected already."
"Well those new Quantum computers don't have to be on, you can get them to do things while they are turned off."
"I don't even have it connected to the network!"
"Doesn't have to be, spooky things happen at great distances with Quantum computers."
"How can I protect my system?"
"Right now you can't, Microsoft has not issued fix yet, and they won't have an integrated Quantum firewall for another two years."
Quantum computer works better shut off.
Even current webservers do. We Slashdot people already knew it. In fact, we have been actively trying to demonstrate it, through a particular scientific method we like to call slashdotting.
Excuse me? What do you say, that was not the reason?
My other post is a First.
It might be able to grip it by the husk...
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
The Tek 585A scope, from circa 1962, is about 95% vacuum toobs, but it has a tunnel diode in its triggering circuit. According to classical physics, and the kind of reasoning in The Fine Article, the input signal can never get through the diode. According to quantum physics, the signal CAN get through even though there's an (classically) insurmountable hill. Using the same logic as The Fine Article, this old scope displays waveforms without a signal ever getting through the sweep triggering circuit.
I believe I need to invest in a quantum penis. I have been severely impotent for several decades now, but with a quantum cock I could fuck my wife with my perpetually flaccid boner and she would still have an orgasm!
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
and 42 is the answer.
good post that just points on the sillyness of quantum theory when applied to practical situations :)
I agree that this provided more insight than the article itself did, about quantum theory.
From the article:
The new design includes a quantum trick called the Zeno effect. Repeated measurements stop the photon from entering the actual program, but allow its quantum nature to flirt with the program's components
I assume the flirting described her is done by the charm quarks.
"Fix it"
Are they not-coding DNF on this computer?
cat /dev/random sometimes produces the right results even without running my program.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
No, no it's resting, look!
It runs better turned off, than when I turn the ignition!
Really - I think these guys are asking it the wrong questions. That, or the entire Universe is a "quantum computer" of some sort. How would you ensure that your little box was a closed system - not in quantum interaction with every particle in existance?
O.K. Back to my car...
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
I have an analog quantum clock that I have turned off and sure enough, twice a day it tells the correct time exactly right to the second.
Insert witty sig here.
...but that doesn't stop me from firing it up on occasion.
Empty a shotgun into the box and reduce the complexity of the scenario!
KeS
Operator:"How many..."
Computer:"Seven"
Operator:"Why are the..."
Computer:"Because they love cats"
Operator:"...but if they..."
Computer:"No, they don't"
Operator:"Then if you had..."
Computer:"About 15 weeks, but only if they are rounded at the end."
Operator:"Whoa..."
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
If a user can get answers from a quantum computer even when a program isn't running... Doesn't that mean that the program is running, at least in some way, shape or form?
All I can think of is Star-Trek-esque time paradoxes here...
all Microsoft needs to do is figure out how to use this whenever XP bluescreens or crashes...then their system would work all the time.
At last we see the purpose of the is_computer_on() function.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Nonexistent quantum computers found to work better that nonrunning quantum computers.
Yes, you can all get your quantum computations right now! Hurry! before some idiot creates a working q-computer and everything stops working!
I don't care where 'e grips it, quantum swallows are both migrat'ry an' non-migrat'ry at the same time. The real question is whether or not Schrodinger's Cat can catch one before the collapse of the coconut waveform.
Even better: Quantum computing will allow us to troll Slashdot before subscribers see the story.
P.S. In other news, in Post-Soviet Russia our quantum overlords have already welcomed you!
Breakfast served all day!
Sometimes repeated flirting can get a more accurate answer to the question than just 'running the program' and dealing with the resulting fallout when it turns out that she was feeling threatened -- or too drunk to properly assent.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Seinfield gave us the "Show About Nothing" Now Science has given us the "Computer About Nothing". Q: What's the computer doing? A: Nothing. Q: Nothing? A: That's right. It's doing absolutely nothing.
I say we take this a step further:
1) Go home and find a large cardboard box and tape it shut.
2) Now propose that the box both contains a quantum computer and does not contain a quantum computer.
3) Further propose that the (possible) quantum computer is both running and is not running.
Now we should be able to "ask" the "Magic Box" anything and get an answer back.
I have a pc with windows on it... I never turn it on because it works better that way. No BSOD no virii etc etc.
:-)
Wish I could've done my exams that way... not answering any questions so you can't have a faulty answer
So are you saying it does all my work without even asking?
But nobody would be able to read the play because the universe would compress to a singularity instantaneously under the weight of infinite monkeys.
"Nobody's ever going to make any money on the internet"
--VP of the company I worked for, circa 1995
Oh crap....
Radio on your iPod
What you are describing is more commonly known as the "Dual-Slit Experiment". Please note that what I describe below is how I remember it, but I may be incorrect in some details - fellow Slashdotters, please help me out where I fail in my descriptions...
Remember in high school (or another time), performing experiments with waves in a shadow wave tank? If you do, you remember at one end of the tank was the wave making device (basically a little lever that vibrates in the water). Light shined through or reflected off the water showed light and dark bands indicating the peaks and troughs (the amplitudes) of the waves being created. Now, at the other end of the tank, put a divider with two slits in it. The divider prevents the waves from passing, but the two slits allow the waves to pass, thus producing two separate waves, spaced apart. However, as the waves spread, they can interact, where peaks add, and troughs subtract. What you then get in the shadow tank is interesting - you get what is known as an "interference pattern". This pattern of light and dark represents how the waves are interacting, but more importantly shows that what is interacting are waves, and not something else.
Now, instead of water, do the same thing with light. Now, of course, you can't do this with just any kind of light, because regular light is incoherent, that is, it is scattered in every direction and orientation. What you need is coherent light. Hmm - where do you get such a source of coherent light...?
That's right - a LASER. Now, you need your barrier with slits in it. Since laser light is such a different beast than water, you can't use such a large "macro" system like was used in the wave tank. What you need is called a "diffraction grating" or "diffraction screen" - basically a piece of glass with extremely fine lines printed or etched on it (or a fine mesh wire screening), which performs the same function as our larger barrier with two slits in it (in fact, in the water demonstration, you can add slits, and the resulting interference pattern looks the same - it is just that in such an experiment, two slits are easier to observe and understand). Now, shine a laser through that and onto a projection screen - what do you see?
That's right - you will see an interference pattern of dark and light banding of the laser light. In fact, this is very similar to how a visible-light spectrogram works, where the banding indicates the relative levels of various wavelengths of the light being observed. BTW - if you want to try this experiment yourself, a simple laser pointer, some fine mesh screening, and a white wall or piece of blank white paper is all you need to verify this (note, though, that the mesh screening will produce a grid-like pattern due to the "slits" being in both the vertical and horizontal orientations - in fact, if you think about it, you can begin to understand how laser-pointer image "heads", which are included with most cheap laser pointers, work, as well as how you could get a monochrome-LCD with a high enough resolution to do the same thing).
So, with this experiment, we have shown that light has the properties of a wave. But what about photons?
Photons are the particles which make up light, and give it its dual-nature - of being both a particle and a wave at the same time. But, how do we prove this? Well, we need a device to measure light at the level of a single photon - a photo detector, if you will. We do have such devices, they are basically extremely sensitive versions of a solar cell, CDS cell, or CMOS sensor.
Now, imagine you had a shotgun, and Cheney was pointing (couldn't resist - my appologies) it at a very strong version of your barrier - but the barrier only had a single slit. If that gun was fired, most of t
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
What I really need is a computer than can be run without ever being made ... I assume the printer setup is a bit of a pain though ...
actually the system has to be powered up and programmed, but the program doesn't have to be started yet.
This is because then the system is in a superposition of having the program run/not run, those the results are there/not there and can be partly read out
so careful - the system is has to be powered!
... or not ...
Keep working on it guys. Pretty soon you'll have it not only working while it's off, but giving answers before you ask the question. --J
J
Quantum Computers follow the laws of Quantum Physics which totally throw out the normal laws of physics right out the door according to many descriptions I've heard. This little discovery could lead to computers that use very little power. Imagine running a computer on a 9 volt battery for a year!
Interestingly enough, the equation works in reverse when it comes to vast distances between objects in space. There have been some discovers concerning gravity and how it works on a large scale, thus eliminating the whole idea of Dark Matter. And before you say "well these two aren't related", yes they are related because according to what is know known the laws of physics change when dealing with the immensely small and the immensely large. Its not a constant anymore.
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
Sounds conceptually similar to an Improbability Drive or maybe the SEP field generator I use at work.
Get your ass back to Redmond!
"NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE"?
Besides, I thought merely observing an answer would change it?!
I think this line takes the cake:
"A non-running computer produces fewer errors,"
Is that like saying a "a program that's never run has fewer bugs"? I can imagine that Microsoft, Sun, and IBM would be VERY INTERESTED in this technology! THINK of the implications for software applications!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Well, it should be obvious to even the most dim-witted
individual who holds an advanced degree in hyperbolic
topology...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Maybe now we can figure out whether that poor cat makes it out of the box alive or not.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
"According to my newfangled quantum computer, the check is in the mail.
Given the wide spread infestations of malware, most Windoze machines also work better when turned off...
Oh well, what the hell...
"Yeah.. just one more kill and I'm the.."
"Psst! Boss is comin'"
"!@$#.. ALT-F4, ALT-F4, ALT-F4.. come on you piece of $#@%.. Screw it. Power -> OFF. Whew. Oh, hey boss!"
"Hey, I need you to.." QUAD DAMAGE! "..the hell was that?"
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
All those explanations make me wonder, how many physicists' heads exploded trying to understand QM. Thanks to my missing delta brain wave, my head is safe...
Obviously this is letting the Hand Of God do your work for you,
Proof that God exists.
Of course, proof that God exists eliminates the need for faith.
(Thus logically, God has ceased to exist.)
But in the true nature of the Quantum Almighty,
the Ultimate Being both exists and does not exist at the same time.
Careful how you take your measurement!
First, I actually RTFA, but am too lazy to further research this phenomena. I dont quite get how they are measuring that this "off" program is actually producing any result. That aside, consider that the "off" program is actually eventually run at some indeterminate time in the future. Maybe there is some reverse-time thing going on, so that in linear time a result is returned "before" the program is executed. If it is at all possible that some particles travel backwards through time, or exist simultaenously at all points on the time-axis, then thats what I'd put my money on. It may be a far-fetched solution, but what the hell, we're talking quantum-mechanics here ;-)
What could possibly hurt the security of the American people more than giving our own government the ability to hide its
So I assume that the answer is a "Quantum answer", one that holds the unique superposition of being at the same time an answer and not an answer.
It's basically undergraduate level mathematics. What's hard is trying to shoehorn a description of a quantum system into something that looks like a description of a classical system. The result is that if your knowledge of math extends as far as being able to understand some basic things about vectors then it's easy to read the original paper on 'counterfactual computation'. Much easier, in fact, than trying to understand a description in a pop science article. And that's why physicists heads don't explode, but people who read Scientific American and New Scientist often leave a sticky mess on the ceiling above where they were standing.
"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
WTF?
This is the dumbest shit I've ever read.. It sometimes works when it's off? If it works at all doesnt that kinda re-define what ON is? For OFF to exist it must be a state where it is completly non-functional otherwise it's always ON, power applied or not.
Get a dictionary, then a clue.
This all reminds me of Isaac Asimov's story about a compound called Thiotimeline. It was supposed to be a crystal that dissolved in water before the water was added.
If you were skilled enough, you could "intend" to add water to the thiotimeline then withhold it at the last instant. The Thiotimeline crystal would then travel through time looking for the instant when the water gets added. Making time travel a practical reality.
So I guess the next stop in quantum computing is a computer that does the calculations BEFORE the program is written. But if you try to list the program, the answer disappears.
"Sic Semper Path of Least Resistance"
So, what if the bomb that is _not_ there is (not) in the alternate universe through which the 50% probability of a(n unblocked) photon passes through, while the bomb that _is_ there is in the universe you are in, where you blocked the photon?
And then you open the box and let 100% probable photons in, right?
I'd say that the article's description of the device as _sometimes_ giving the correct answer is correct.
(I'll also guess that quantum computing is always going to be a statistical phonemenon.)
Wow this would be a perfect way to get around DRM issues. Music and video you can watch without watching it, so technically you didn't break the law.
"Quantum Software Works Better Before Writing the Code Than After Writing the Code"
That's the tao of quantum software.
Imagine an unplugged beowulf cluster of these...
or;
i've got the klein bottle blues, mama
just another trek into the periphery,
a walk about the never ending
and this one is imperative
the binary is a dead-end;
from uncertainty's recognition
machine intelligence will arise
forget about your emerald slippers mr engineer;
you can never return to your precious can's ass again:
those warm but fuzzy digital simulations
because along with every 0 or 1
a third way is dawning.
the maybe
surf's up
last one to catch the wave
is a dimensionally impaired flatworlder
Rush Limbaugh is a perfect real world example of an oxycontinmoron
RMS, originally a Physics graduate, obviously anticipated this quantum uncomputing stuff will eventually happen: "GNU is NOT Unix", copyleft (un-copyright), ... HURD :D
Just wondering al QM computers talks are about how many dots were connected i just wonder how many can be connected currently.
Because while we use transistors it is quit easy for companies to scale them up, so we got pentium 1.2.3 celereon etc etc. So why is it difficult to scale up a QM machine, since electronics were always good in evolving in how many transistors could fit on a chip, why QM don't evolve ?.
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change.
Now we only need to get the answer out of a non-existant quantum computer.