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Computes in 200 seconds to do what the best computers in the world take 10,000 years to compute

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/tech/google-quantum-supremacy-scn/index.html

Google claims it has designed a machine that needs only 200 seconds to solve a problem that would take the world's fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to figure out.
The speed achieved by the computer represents a breakthrough called "quantum supremacy," according to a blog post from the company and an accompanying article in the scientific journal Nature.
The results announced Wednesday herald the rise of quantum computers, which can store and process much more information than their classical cousins by tapping into the powerful forces contained in the field of physics known as quantum mechanics.
One big difference: Normal computers use data that exist in only one state at a time — a one, or a zero. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can simultaneously be any combination of zero and one. The difference means much faster processing speeds.



Google (GOOGL) will now try to build "a fault-tolerant quantum computer" as quickly as possible. The company sees applications in designing lightweight batteries for cars and airplanes, as well as new medicines.
"Achieving the necessary computational capabilities will still require years of hard engineering and scientific work. But we see a path clearly now, and we're eager to move ahead," it said in the post.

The speed experiment devised by Google was criticized by some experts and rival companies after the results leaked online ahead of their official publication date.
IBM (IBM) said in a blog post Monday that Google had overestimated the difficulty of the computing task. Instead of 10,000 years, IBM argued the problem could be solved by a classical computer in just 2.5 days.


China bet big on quantum computing. Now the US races to keep up.
"We urge the community to treat claims that, for the first time, a quantum computer did something that a classical computer cannot with a large dose of skepticism," IBM said.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended the company's claim in an interview with MIT Technology Review published Wednesday, comparing it to the Wright brothers' attempts at flight.

"The first plane flew only for 12 seconds, and so there is no practical application of that," said Pichai. "But it showed the possibility that a plane could fly."
China is considered a leader in the development of quantum computing, which could have significant military applications. The United States is trying to catch up, sparking fears of a quantum arms race.

Sounds like the end of the world, to me.

I think Jesus has to come back first. and he certainly will without our permission and without computer technology.

In my opinion, quantum physics is the reason you find your keys right where you thought you left them, the third or 4th time you looked there.

They were there all the time, just in a state of matter or energy you could not recognize. Finally you got lucky, and your eyes/brain perception happened to coincide with a temporary manifestation in the everywhere/every time continuum. Once you fixed the bastards in place (with your perception), they still existed everywhere/ everywhen - but are just giving you temporary use of that part of them.

Until the next time you put them down. Then they go out to party again.

You gonna trust your data to THIS?

On the other hand, it could lead to teleportation, and/or more efficient inter-stellar travel some day.

Nah, we humans just won't be needed anymore.

I didn't mean the very end. lol

Nice to see you!

Just a little bit of hype, it is Google after all.

Quantum Supremacy From Google? Not So Fast, Says IBM

BM is disputing the much-vaunted claim that Google has hit a new milestone. From a report:
A month ago, news broke that Google had reportedly achieved "quantum supremacy": it had gotten a quantum computer to run a calculation that would take a classical computer an unfeasibly long time. While the calculation itself -- essentially, a very specific technique for outputting random numbers -- is about as useful as the Wright brothers' 12-second first flight, it would be a milestone of similar significance, marking the dawn of an entirely new era of computing. But in a blog post published this week, IBM disputes Google's claim. The task that Google says might take the world's fastest classical supercomputer 10,000 years can actually, says IBM, be done in just days.

As John Preskill, the CalTech physicist who coined the term "quantum supremacy," wrote in an article for Quanta magazine, Google specifically chose a very narrow task that a quantum computer would be good at and a classical computer is bad at.

slashdot

Think about it this way:

If it took 200 seconds to solve a problem the fastest supercomputer would take 10,000 years (and we’ve only had computers for 50 years)...

How do they know the answer was right?

we know too much already..

Now if we can download out consciousness, we can travel at the speed of light.

Skynet = Google

To where?

You want Skynet?? Huh? This is how we get Skynet...

What, you don't trust Google?

Actually there are hard to do problems that are easy to check. As in cryptography where factoring a key is difficult but it's easy to tell if you got it right.

this is all propaganda to scheer the ruskies and chinese nearly scitless, and to drive up stock prices.

but, it's not a bad idea at all. solving problems faster and faster. finally, we run out of problems?

that wouldn't be a good thing. think of the widespread unemployment that might generate.

on the other hand, we could put people to work digging out exotic invasive plants.

Gus : the problem is with that kind of power nothing can be encrypted anymore. the reason ort encrypted data is safe is it takes 10,000 years to reverse it !