The Limits of Quantum Computing

The Narrative Fallacy writes "Scott Aaronson has posted a draft of his article from this month's Scientific American on the limitations of quantum computers (PDF) discussing the question: Will quantum computers let us transcend the human condition and become as powerful as gods, or are they a physical absurdity destined to be exposed as the twenty-first century's perpetual-motion machine? Aaronson says that while a quantum computer could quickly factor large numbers, and thereby break most of the cryptographic codes used on the Internet today, there's reason to think that not even a quantum computer could solve the crucial class of NP-complete problems efficiently. Aaronson contends that any method for solving NP-complete problems in polynomial time may violate the laws of physics and that this may be a fundamental limitation on technology no different than the second law of thermodynamics or the impossibility of faster-than-light communication."

Comments

Short answer

[Anonymous Coward]

or are they a physical absurdity destined to be exposed as the twenty-first century's perpetual-motion machine?

Answer: Yes, No, Maybe.

Re:Short answer

[Thanshin]

or are they a physical absurdity destined to be exposed as the twenty-first century's perpetual-motion machine?

Answer: Yes, No, Maybe.
  You forgot the CowboyNeal answer.

Another victory for OSS

[Anonymous Coward]

It is totally pointless talking about quantum computers and such when you consider that most of these machines will be running proprietary, closed-source operating systems like Windows. Windows is an inferior operating system that does not scale well, and almost limitless scaling that quantum computing offers would be completely wasted even on Vista's poorly written, bloated and outdated kernel. Even if the clueless, drone-like engineers at Microsoft could figure out how to add scalability on the order required, it would become infected with spyware within minutes.

Where these machines to run an Open Source operating system, such as Ubuntu (Linux), then support for such scalability could be added by the users, as the source would be open to them to modify. What is more, the superior design of Open Source Software means that the computer would operate more efficiently, and be virtually unhackable - the design of the kernel makes it *impossible* for any kind of malware to exist on a Linux system.

Re:Okay Then.

[Smordnys s'regrepsA]

Don't forget "and are willing to have sex with you"