Add quantum computers to the list of things that could create a singularity. Google now thinks that as early as the end of next year they will have a working 50 Qubit quantum computer that can achieves something they call "quantum supremacy", it means solving a problem that no existing conventional computer can. This is much earlier than anybody thought just 5 years ago. The problem they're focusing on is calculating how a network of quantum circuits behaves. The difficulty of solving the network problem increases exponentially with the number of circuits, a smartphone can calculate what a 6 x 4 grid will do, to figure out a 6 x 7 grid Google needed one of the world's largest supercomputers with 10,000 times the power of a high end PC. To calculate what a 7 x 7 grid will do is beyond existing technology, you'd need a conventional computer with twice the memory of the world's largest supercomputer, but a 50 Qubit quantum computer could solve it easily. And the technique Google is using seems to be scalable, no need to stop at 50 Qubits.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23130894-000- revealed-googles-plan-for-quantum-computer-supremacy/ John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
