When people think about Quantum Computing, the first thing they might think about is technology that is bigger, faster, and more powerful – they’d be partly right. By definition, the term quantum represents the smallest possible amount or unit of something, such as energy.
Like many abstract subjects, quantum computing can be more easily understood through an analogy. Picture the maze from the Pac-Man computer game. You’ll recall the objective was for Pac-Man (or Ms Pac-Man) to gobble up all the dots while avoiding the ghosts that chased it. While Pac-Man could travel just one path at a time, the ghosts could travel all of them simultaneously, which gave them an inherent advantage. In relation to quantum computing, Pac-Man represents the functionality we experience in a so-called classic or traditional computer, while the ghosts, who could be everywhere, all at once, illustrate the functional progress made by quantum computing.
The origins of quantum computing are found in step-by-step procedures called quantum algorithms and the quantum circuit model, which was first developed in 1985 by British physicist David Deutsch, who introduced the first universal quantum Turing machine.
Quantum computing exists to help solve complex problems and answer questions that were previously unanswerable about our world. As such, its most practical and commercial applications are found in areas like drug discovery and development, material science, financial modeling, cybersecurity, and machine learning.
While it may seem cutting edge, like most technological advancements, such as AI, the first ingredients of quantum computing actually date back to the early 20th century when physicists first began to explore the strange and counterintuitive world of quantum mechanics. But the real breakthrough came in the 1980s, when Deutsch and other computer scientists realized that quantum mechanics could be used to build computers that could solve certain problems much faster than traditional ones.
The first actual quantum computers they built came a few years later, and since then, the field has grown rapidly. Today, there are quantum computers in development at universities, research labs, and companies around the world.
The development of quantum computers remains a major technological challenge. One of the biggest challenges is building quantum bits, or qubits, which are the basic units of information in a quantum computer. To understand this better, consider another analogy.
An article on the MS Azure website entitled “What is a qubit?” provides a great description of a (binary) bit, binary with a value, such as 0 or 1, as a coin that is lying on a table as definitely heads or tails, while a qubit is a spinning coin that may land on either side. As such, qubits are much more fragile than traditional bits, and they are easily disrupted by noise and interference.
Despite the challenges, quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize many fields, including medicine, materials science, and artificial intelligence, supporting the aim of developing new drugs, designing new materials, creating new artificial intelligence algorithms, and even understanding the behavior of our four-legged friends!
In the next part of this series, we will address the symbiotic relationship between fiber optics and artificial intelligence and how FiberLight is designing and deploying an infrastructure that’s purpose-built for the wide proliferation of quantum computing.