#3: “Let’s Talk Quantum”

 

 #3:

“Let’s Talk Quantum”

 

For the short Audio Trailer, link Here

For the full Audio Version, link here

 

Right then, here's where we start: Let's talk quantum.

Just the basics of how it works. Hopefully you might understand some of it. Nobody understands all of it. But just a glimmer of the forces that shimmer just out of our sight will help you understand how our world’s greatest rock and roll band— The Get Quick— has been undone. Or reduced considerably. Turned into a local band in Philadelphia, of all places.

How did we get here?

That's all quantum, I'm afraid. With the bloom of AI, there's lots of demand for hyper processing powers. These rapidly—rabidly—expanding functions require new lanes in the old Information SuperHighway.

Highways were fine for your long lost dialup days, but our leap in processing powers demands new digital dimensions entirely. The discovery and exploration of these dimensions is being sold to people today in the deluge of “quantum hype" currently thundering through the internet like some multifaceted, unstoppable turd.

In my opinion, one reality is enough. These aren't powers we need or want. This technology has been put in front of people to answer questions we should have never started asking in the first place.

I should know because I was one of the fools who started asking those questions, long, long ago.

For reasons of public relations, today's corporate quantum hype obscures that "long, long ago". When discussing this revolutionary technology, we're not discussing the revolution which created it. We're not looking too closely at the origins, or the motley group of malcontents, fools and bona fide, Biblical rebels who started tearing at The Veil to find it.

That's just the way most of them like it.

We'll discuss more of them later.

Right now we're discussing the basics of quantum processing.

You'll have to grasp that for your grip on The Get Quick.

So let's have a bash at Quantum mechanics, shall we?

Corporate hype trumpets PR perfected concepts to explain the intricate complexities of the quantum world. Perhaps none has been more repeated than the idea that these impossibly powerful machines "reach into another dimension" to find answers.

As far as soundbites are concerned, the Quantum PR team reached into an alternative dimension of utter rubbish for that one. Their fanciful image of alternate dimensions is really just a way to explain the tricky business of supercomputing on the quantum level.

Right here, dear reader, is where you have to think a bit.

If that turns you off, just trust me and jump to the next entry.

If you don't trust me—which you shouldn't, not me or anyone else— read this with detached interest. Weigh the information. Perhaps supplement it with a few minutes of those punchy videos made by amateur physicists online.

You'll recognize their efforts through their sound effects, mostly. Introducing concepts with cartoon “zooms” and “pows"-- then illustrating them with internet cat memes--  just isn't ol’ qTom’s style. Call me old fashioned. Speaking of that, where is my Old Fashioned? Ah, yes. There we are… Back to quantum computing.

The process relies on something we call "super positions". In traditional computing, binary code reigns supreme. An electron within the processing units can be either a 1 or a 0. They operate in the "either/or" realm of our reality, which demands that things be in one place at one time.

But the quantum level of reality doesn't adhere to those rules. Particles there can appear to be in two places at once—or even more. This is done through a concept called "super positioning”, which illustrates the strange logic of particle behavior in the subatomic realm.

"Super positions" are multiple positions held at once. If binary positioning is limited to yes/no, super positions are everywhere. They can be probably/maybe/everywhere/always/sometimes + never, all wrapped up at once. This ability to reflect multiplicity and massive possibility allows answers to be pursued through continuous, complementary and multi-directional avenues—all at once.

Free from binary limitations, allowed to exist within several placements that explore different possibilities simultaneously, quantum computing outpaces traditional computing.

Astronomically.

Since I'm short on cat memes, let's use a (hopefully) simple metaphor to illustrate this difference between traditional (binary) computing and Quantum supercomputing. Ready? Here goes…

Suppose you wake up in a town you don't know. You're sitting in a VW Bug in the town square, and have to find your way back home.

But there's no signs, and the town appears entirely abandoned. There's not a soul to ask for directions.

So you start to explore, trying to find your way home to the city.

In this strange town, that's not simple to do.

Within this peculiar place, nearly every road is a long and winding one. Each of them eventually leads you to a dead end. You’re sure that one road leads out of town. But to find it, you’ll have to eliminate all the dead ends. That will take lots of driving, lots of time, and a generous share of petrol.

If that wasn't challenging enough, imagine you're in competition with another bloke who's trying to find that same road out of town.

But they have a tremendous advantage over you; they aren't driving that VW Bug.

And no, they don't have an Aston Martin, either. Because their advantage isn't just about speed.

It’s about positioning.

What they have is a superior position.

Because they're in a helicopter.

They don't have to travel down every road individually, finding out where it goes. They can look down from their highly advantageous position and see them all at once. They'll know in the blink of an eye what will take you in your little VW Bug all day to discover.

Really, there's no competition. They’ll find the answer first and—relative to you in your VW bug— remarkably fast.

In most simplistic terms, that's the difference between traditional computing and Quantum Computing.

The VW Bug is Traditional Computing, driving down every road of possibility to find the desired result. The Helicopter is Quantum Computing, which isn't limited to driving. Nor is it limited within linear time and space. It doesn't have to "be" in a specific lane of the problem to solve it. It grasps everywhere all at once, eliminating dead ends and finding precise answers with astonishing speed.

Holding that "superposition" of hovering possibility, Quantum Computing has the capacity of processing a multiplicity of possibilities with astounding speed. Within that whirling miracle, stunning solutions emerge that would elude traditional computing for fantastically long intervals of time.

Phew. Did you get that?

I hope so. Because quantum computing is truly amazing.

With that fully acknowledged, it's simply not as fantastical as quantum hype would have you believe.

Do quantum processes reach into alternate dimensions to find answers?

Well, if you’ll pardon me to answer one question with another, let's consider this:

In our imaginary dead-end town, is that helicopter in an alternate dimension from the VW Bug?

No.

But whoever's driving the Bug might believe that to be the case. They’ll never see them, because that driver's problem is on the horizontal plane. It’s right in front of them. They aren’t looking up for answers. They are processing the problem through a different layer of shared reality.

Seen that way, the helicopter is well indeed in another realm entirely.

They exist in different realms. But they remain in the same reality.

Next time you hear some Quantum hoopla about reaching into different realities, think about that helicopter.

And if you don’t much fancy helicopters, think about deep sea divers.

Picture a treasure hunter who dives in the ocean to find sunken pirate loot. She’s got help in this business. People on a boat bring her to the site, then watch her dive in the sea. For a while she’ll disappear from view, swallowed up in the ocean blue. Then up she’ll pop with some treasure.

That’s another way to imagine quantum processing. It disappears from view in order to access deeper, more fluid layers of reality. While there, it discovers buried treasures of priceless information which can't be reached by other means. Returning to the surface, we greet them with wonder as they enrich our world exponentially.

Is that making sense? Hope so. I'm halfway through Old Fashioned number two.

Suppose that's enough Quantum for now.

More the Morrow.