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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
Think of all the power we would save not playing MMOs with the PC turned on.
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>
All we need to do now is program the question...
Z.
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.
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?
Does anyone know what is new here ?
I may appear lazy, but on a quantum level, I'm really quite busy.
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
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?
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".
So how do we overclock it?
buy more cats
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.
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.
Late? Or perhaps you meant early? Or it could be that this is neither late nor early, but simply in a quantum state of an April Fool's joke that has been measured before all the computations had a chance to stabilize in the computer (running or not).
Narratordan
"If you're not confused by quantum mechanics, you really don't understand it." - Niels Bohr
the article is rehashing an idea about resolving certain problems but creating your quantum coherence, but never collapsing that via direct measurement. there are bigger surprises out there than this in quantum computing.
If you read the description its not actually as wrong headed as it sounds, the whole "its not running" thing is really inacurate. Basically they have a "program" that does a database search, this "program" is actually physical hardware that is run by optics. They "ran" it by shooting a photon at it, but then blocking the photon before it entered the program thus it "not running". The trick is that properties of the photon continued into the program and it worked. This really isn't new news for anyone who has every dealt with the slit experiment or any number of experiments that show that photons can be in multiple places at once.
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...
..did it also deduce the existance of rice pudding and income tax?
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.
42
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
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.
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.
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
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
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!
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.
So are you saying it does all my work without even asking?
Get your ass back to Redmond!
Given the wide spread infestations of malware, most Windoze machines also work better when turned off...
Oh well, what the hell...