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Quantum Computers Check Each Other's Work

Posted by samzenpus on from the steel-sharpens-steel dept.

sciencehabit writes "Quantum computers can solve problems far too complex for normal computers, at least in theory. That's why research teams around the globe have strived to build them for decades. But this extraordinary power raises a troubling question: How will we know whether a quantum computer's results are true if there is no way to check them? The answer, scientists now reveal, is that a simple quantum computer—whose results humans can verify—can in turn check the results of other dramatically more powerful quantum machines."

3 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Age old question by Dishwasha · · Score: 5, Funny

    If a quantum computer makes a calculation in a forest and no one is around to verify it, does it solve the problem?

    1. Re:Age old question by ebno-10db · · Score: 3, Funny

      No. For those Slashdotters unfamiliar with "forests", an unoccupied one is, for these purposes, equivalent to /dev/null/.

  2. Re:Bitcoins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    [...]steel the coins that already exist.

    Foreman: What exactly are you dipping in that vat of steel?
    Worker: My cellphone.
    Foreman: Why the hell would you cover your phone in molten steel?
    Worker: Well, someone on Slashdot said that I should break the bitcoin encryption and then steel them.
    Foreman: You know they're just ones and zeroes, right?
    Worker: Yes, that's why I'm coating my entire phone.