NSA and Army On Quest For Quantum Physics Jackpot

coondoggie sends this excerpt from NetworkWorld: "The US Army Research Office and the National Security Agency (NSA) are together looking for some answers to their quantum physics questions. ... The Army said quantum algorithms that are developed should focus on constructive solutions [PDF] for specific tasks, and on general methodologies for expressing and analyzing algorithms tailored to specific problems — though they didn't say what those specific tasks were ... 'Investigators should presuppose the existence of a fully functional quantum computer and consider what algorithmic tasks are particularly well suited to such a machine. A necessary component of this research will be to compare the efficiency of the quantum algorithm to the best existing classical algorithm for the same problem.'"

Comments

This just in...

[sfazzio]

NSA and Army wants quantum computations researchers to do exactly what they have been doing for the last 15 years.

Re:What's the point..

[Fluffeh]

Why must people with no idea on a particular subject always be in charge of the budgets around a particular subject?

Re:So...

[forkazoo]

"Investigators should presuppose the existence of a fully functional quantum computer," huh?

Does anyone else here read this as "NSA has a nifty, shiny new toy and are looking for ways to use it" ...?

I'm sure a lot of people read it that way. Personally, I read it as, "We know a quantum computer will be practical in the near future, and when that happens we want to be able to hit the ground running while everybody else says 'we has a nifty, shiny new toy and are looking for ways to use it.'"

Re:So...

[shawb]

Alternatively, they may be trying to convince the world that they DO have a quantum computer.