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upyourego OP t1_ist3mxr wrote

Reply to comment by dummythiccuwu in Rolls-Royce says a combination of quantum compputing and classical computing is likely to be in use for at least a decade before pure quantum takes over. The company is working with Classiq to create hybrid algorithms to speed up simulations for fluid dynamics and new materials. by upyourego

>Eli5

I nearly had to ask to explain Eli5.
Quantum computing is a new way of solving maths problems. Instead of 1s and 0s (bits) to process information, it uses 0, 1 and any combination of 0 and 1 (qubits) - giving many more ways to solve those problems.

It basically means a quantum computer can solve incredibly complication problems in minutes that would take a supercomputer tens of thousands of years.

But right now they're useful in very limited ways - over time they'll become more useful until they can beat out supercomputers.

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warplants t1_ist5dor wrote

> over time they'll become more useful until they can beat out supercomputers.

Completely wrong. Quantum computers can never, even in principle, be faster than conventional computers for 99.99% of computing tasks. Quantum computers only might have an advantage for a very tiny subset of computing problems.

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upyourego OP t1_ist6t9c wrote

I was over simplifying - but yes I agree their use is limited to certain problems - but for the industries where they are useful the change will be substantial.

Also abstraction layers like those developed by Classiq can increase the number of usable applications

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leaky_wand t1_istciam wrote

Wouldn’t the applications follow the tech though? Maybe the applications are so limited today because engineers recognize brute force methods as inefficient and solve them via classical computing methods instead. If future computing problems are crafted to become structured more like quantum computing problems (evaluating millions of potential possibilities vs. attempting to craft a single solution up front), it seems there are a lot of applications possible.

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warplants t1_istgc1j wrote

Here’s the problem with quantum computing: yes you’re simultaneously evaluating countless potential “possibilities”, but at the end the QC only gives you the answer for one randomly chosen possibility. In that sense it’s far worse than just brute-forcing through every possibility with a classical computer, as at least with the classical computer you know which result corresponds with which possibility.

The sole advantage of the QC is that it can evaluate far more possibilities than can be classically brute-forced. But, again, when it spits out the answer, it erases the work done on all possibilities except the one randomly chosen by your measurement.

This means that at a minimum, you have to run the same problem many times on a QC to get a distribution of possible answers (since each individual answer is basically meaningless). Once you have a distribution, if you’re lucky you might see that certain solutions are more/less common that others, and this in itself may give you some insight to the problem you’re originally trying to solve.

TLDR computing anything with a QC is hugely inefficient compared to classical compute, the only problems you might even consider for a QC are those that simply can’t be classically computed in human timescales.

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summerfr33ze t1_isxvkji wrote

Yeah that doesn't explain anything. I don't think I'm stupid but no matter how many times I try to read about how quantum computers work I don't really get it. I've done some programming so it's not like I'm clueless about computers. There's a lot of people on this subreddit talking about how great quantum computers are and they seem to have about the same level of understanding of it as I do. This is just one of those topics where I've resigned to the fact that it's just something for people with advanced computer science and physics degrees to talk about.

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upyourego OP t1_isz503e wrote

I don’t have a degree - just a lot of experience writing about science and technology. I am doing an astrophysics degree as a mature student.

This article is useful for an explanation. But down the line you’ll interact with one using an abstraction layer. We don’t really write in assembly today, we use something like python and the same will apply to quantum.

https://www.quantumbusinessnews.com/applications/how-a-quantum-computer-actually-works?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=enter-quantum-22&utm_content=nonbrand&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp77gpIPt-gIVixWLCh2TRgceEAAYAiAAEgLEJvD_BwE

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summerfr33ze t1_iszrz0y wrote

I read the article but I must have entirely missed the explanation.

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upyourego OP t1_iszy9ub wrote

It’s not an easy one to explain But basically (over simplified) you’re manipulating atoms and the fact in quantum physics they can hold multiple states.

The reaction and changes create signals and combined these can be used to process calculations - solving complex equations.

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