Oh, and I'm in the middle of Reamde right now and it's a blast.
Wow, how are you in the middle of a book that's not released yet? At least the release date on Amazon says sometime in September. Also, how does it compare so far to Stephenson's previous stuff?
Qutrits with optics is cool, but is the quantum computer just around the corner? Most definitely not! Optics are great for communicating quantum information, not so much for storing them. Quantum memory needs solid state technology, and while some promising results have been reported using diamonds by researchers at Harvard and other places, the quantum computer is still many many years, maybe even decades away. TFA is overhyped, as seems to be the case with all articles reporting quantum computing breakthroughs!
I'm not sure how AOL works, but you can give Mark Lyon's handy little application a try to forward the old mail to a gmail account. You could download your AOL emails to some local Unix style mailbox and use the app after. There is IMAP support planned, but it's not implemented yet as far as I know. Hope that helps. If not, mod me down!
Good question. In fact, this is one of the trickier problems to solve when coming up with a QC algorithm. The trick is, to use the phenomenon of coherent interference to yield the result that you are looking for. Interference here is basically the same as wave interference. So, after our QC executes an algorithm and finds the solution to a problem for all N inputs simultaneously, we then have to interfere our output result state (which now exists as a coherent superposition of N different outcomes) in such a way as to obtain the result we are looking for. A good example you might want to look up is the Deustch-Josza algorthm, which though useless for most practical purposes (in my opinion:-)), shows how we can use intereference in a smart way to obtain the desired result.
...as observing the data in transit actually changes it
Quantum mechanical systems, unlike classical systems, can exist in a superposition of states. A classical bit for example, can only be either 0 or 1, while a quantum bit, or qubit, can exist as both 0 and 1 at the same time with some probability. Hence, when you 'observe' a quantum system, the system is forced to be (I won't use the word collapse here!) in a new state consistent with the apparatus or observable you used to observe it. That's an oversimplified explanation. Go to the tutorials section at the Cambridge Quantum Computing website for more tutorials and simple reading on how this stuff works, including some very cool articles by Artur Ekert, who independantly discovered quantum crypto
Slashdot Mirror
If you'd like, I'll send you an email full of spoilers.
Heh, I appreciate the offer, but seeing as it's a Stephenson book, I'm almost guaranteed to want to read it, so I shall politely decline :-)
Oh, and I'm in the middle of Reamde right now and it's a blast.
Wow, how are you in the middle of a book that's not released yet? At least the release date on Amazon says sometime in September. Also, how does it compare so far to Stephenson's previous stuff?
Qutrits with optics is cool, but is the quantum computer just around the corner? Most definitely not! Optics are great for communicating quantum information, not so much for storing them. Quantum memory needs solid state technology, and while some promising results have been reported using diamonds by researchers at Harvard and other places, the quantum computer is still many many years, maybe even decades away. TFA is overhyped, as seems to be the case with all articles reporting quantum computing breakthroughs!
On a related note, this article by Neal Stephenson on laying submarine cables is an awesome (but dated) read.
Quantum teleportation is about replicating quantum states between two locations, not disassembling and then reassembling matter!
I'm not sure how AOL works, but you can give Mark Lyon's handy little application a try to forward the old mail to a gmail account. You could download your AOL emails to some local Unix style mailbox and use the app after. There is IMAP support planned, but it's not implemented yet as far as I know. Hope that helps. If not, mod me down!
Good question. In fact, this is one of the trickier problems to solve when coming up with a QC algorithm. The trick is, to use the phenomenon of coherent interference to yield the result that you are looking for. Interference here is basically the same as wave interference. So, after our QC executes an algorithm and finds the solution to a problem for all N inputs simultaneously, we then have to interfere our output result state (which now exists as a coherent superposition of N different outcomes) in such a way as to obtain the result we are looking for. A good example you might want to look up is the Deustch-Josza algorthm, which though useless for most practical purposes (in my opinion :-)), shows how we can use intereference in a smart way to obtain the desired result.
...as observing the data in transit actually changes it
Quantum mechanical systems, unlike classical systems, can exist in a superposition of states. A classical bit for example, can only be either 0 or 1, while a quantum bit, or qubit, can exist as both 0 and 1 at the same time with some probability. Hence, when you 'observe' a quantum system, the system is forced to be (I won't use the word collapse here!) in a new state consistent with the apparatus or observable you used to observe it. That's an oversimplified explanation. Go to the tutorials section at the Cambridge Quantum Computing website for more tutorials and simple reading on how this stuff works, including some very cool articles by Artur Ekert, who independantly discovered quantum crypto
Funniest post so far!