Mythruna

I don't know if ya'll have heard much about quantum computers yet, but they seem like incredible ideas.  What makes them different from digital computers is that quantum logic gates operate by the spin of electrons, which can spin +, -, or both directions at the same time.  Because of all these options, this will supposedly bring about incredibly powerful processing, smaller and more efficient than any supercomputer of today's standards.  What do you guys think about it?  When, if ever, would you predict these computers to be marketable, and how would we write code for them?  And are those incredibly powerful processing speeds useful?   

I am all about physics and quantum physics. My logic still tells me if you can have 1,0, or both, how the hell can you make sence of it? If I type every word at the same time, how would you be able to read it?

A friend of mine wants to go into school for nuclear and quantum mechanics. Cool stuff if you ask me. But keep in mind quantum computing is still a theory so it's likely to never hit a full scale.

I know that at CalTech they have made some leaps in quantum computing. http://www.caltech.edu/content/quantum-entanglement-and-quantum-computing (http://www.caltech.edu/content/quantum-entanglement-and-quantum-computing). It sounds pretty interesting to me.

That's awesome.  Thanks for giving me some of that info.  What I love about it is how small these computers could be...  To me, its inevitable that quantum computing will eventually replace our current digital computers; they have already made 8 qubit quantum processors. 

What I would absolutely love to do is get a degree that studies quantum computing specifically, but its still too early to be separate from theoretical physics...  So I'll probably pursue either aerospace engineering or computer science.

always enjoy hearing about how i'm behind in technology. simply fascinating.

Dafuq is quantum computing?

Like Acoustic said, it uses the quantum states of electrons (complicated stuff) to store information, allowing systems to run on at least a trinary base. (Current computers run on binary, 1 or 0, on or off. An upgrade to trinary would increase storage capacity and possibly processing power by 50%)

It might be more than a 50% power increase, I haven't learned much about quantum states.

As I recall, it's a little more complicated than just trinary states.  That in and of itself wouldn't be that big of a deal and could easily be handled by altering how we treat voltage in current chips.

It's much funkier than that.

An explanation, although still not too easily understood, of quantum computers:
http://arstechnica.com/science/2010/01/a-tale-of-two-qubits-how-quantum-computers-work/ (http://arstechnica.com/science/2010/01/a-tale-of-two-qubits-how-quantum-computers-work/)

Basically - yeah, it's much funkier than just ternary states.