The Era Of Quantum Computing
It is a type of computing that makes use of quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement. Because of its ability to readily query, monitor, analyse, and act on data from any source in banking and finance, this is also involved in stopping the spread of the Corona virus and developing viable vaccines. Quantum computing would aid in credit risk management for high-frequency trading and fraud detection. Now, quantum computers are thousands of times quicker than traditional computers. Organizations such as Splunk, Honeywell, Microsoft, EWS, Google, and many others are now participating in quantum computing innovation. The global quantum computing market is expected to exceed 2.5 billion USD by 2029. To get into Quantum Computing you need to have experience with concepts of Quantum- Mechanics, Linear-Algebra, Probability, Information-Theory and Machine-Learning.
To have a better understanding there a real time example — Let’s play a game. Imagine that you are in Las Vegas in a casino and you decide a game on one of the casino’s computers-Just like you play solitaire or chess. The computer can make moves in the game just like a human player. This is a coin game. It starts with the computer showing heads and the computer will play first. It can choose to flip the coin or not, but you don’t get to see the outcome. Next is your turn. You can also choose to flip the coin or not and your move will not be revealed to your opponent- The Computer.
Finally, the computer plays the game again and chooses to flip the coin or not!! And after these three rounds, the coin is revealed and if it is heads the computer wins and if it’s tails, you win. So, it’s a pretty simple game. And if everybody plays honestly and the coin is fair, then you have a 50% chance of winning this game. And to Confirm that I asked my students to play this game on our computers and after many-many tries, their winning rate ended up being 50% or close to 50% as expected. Sounds like a boring game right!! but what if you could play this game on a quantum computer? Now Las Vegas casinos do not have quantum computers. But IBM has built a working quantum computer. Here it is. But what is Quantum Computer? Well, quantum physics describes the behaviour of atoms and fundamental particles like electrons and photons. So Quantum Computer operates by controlling the behaviour of these particles, but in a way that is completely different from our regular computers. So Quantum Computer is not just a more powerful version of our current computers. Just like a light bulb is not a more powerful version of candle. You cannot build a light bulb by building better and better candles. A light bulb is a different technology based on deeper scientific understanding. Quantum Computer is a new kind of device based on the science of quantum physics. And just like a light bulb transformed society. Quantum computers have the ability to impact so many aspects of our lives including our security needs, healthcare and even the Internet. So, companies all around the world are working to build these devices. And to see what the excitement is all about, let’s play a game on a quantum computer.
IBM’s Quantum computer can be operated everywhere like from right here. Let’s play the game again!! To flip the coin or not. for quantum computer using your choices. Show you the results right here. The quantum computer one almost every game. It lost only because of a few operational errors in the computer. So how did it achieve this amazing winning streak. It seems like magic or cheating, but actually it’s just quantum physics in action. A Regular computer simulates heads or tails of a coin as a BIT as 0 or 1 or a current flipping on and off inside your computer chip. A quantum computer is completely different. A quantum bit has a more fluid, non- binary identity. It can exist in a superposition or a combination of 0 and 1 with some probability of being zero and some probability of being one. In other words, its identity is on a spectrum. For example, it can have a 70% chance of being 0 and 30% chance of being 1 or 84–20 or 60–40, the possibilities are endless. The key factor here is that we have to give up on precise values of zero and one and allow for some uncertainty. So, during this game the quantum computer creates this fluid combination of heads and tails zero and one so that no matter what the player does flip or no flip, the superposition remains intact. It’s a kind of stirring a mixture of two fluids, whether or not you stir the fluids remain in a mixture. But in it’s final move, the quantum computer can unmix the zero and one perfectly recovering heads so that you lose every time. If you think this is a bit weird, you are absolutely right. Regular coins do not exist in combination of heads and tails. We do not experience this fluid quantum reality in our everyday lives. Even though we don’t experience quantum strangeness, we can see it’s very real effects in action. You have the data for yourself.
The quantum computer won because it harnessed superposition and uncertainty. And these quantum properties are powerful not just to win coin games but also to build future quantum technologies. So let me give you three examples of potential applications that could change our lives. First of all, quantum uncertainty can be used to create private keys foe encrypting messages from one location to another so that hackers could not secretly copy the key perfectly because of quantum uncertainty. They will have to break the laws of quantum physics to hack the key. So, this kind of unbreakable encryption is already being tested by banks and other institutions. Today we use more than 17 billion connected devices globally.
Just imagine the impact quantum encryption can have in the future. Secondly, quantum technologies can also transform healthcare and medicine. For example the design and analysis of molecules for drug development is a challenging problem today and that’s because exactly describing and calculating all of the quantum properties of all the atoms in the molecules is a computationally difficult task even for our supercomputers. But a Quantum computer could do better because it operates using the same quantum properties as the molecules is trying to stimulate. So, future quantum stimulations for drug development could perhaps do treatment for diseases like Alzheimer’s, which affects thousands of lives. And thirdly, my favourite quantum application is teleportation of information from one location to another without physically transmitting the information. It might sound impossible, but it is possible because these fluid identity is of quantum particles can entangle across space and time in such a way that if you change the something about one particle, it can impact the other and creates a channel for teleportation. It’s already been demonstrated in research labs and could be part of future internet.
Who knows what applications we will discover next. We must be responsible as we build our quantum future. Quantum physics as a tool just to build quantum computers. quantum computers are as a way for us to probe the mysteries of nature and reveal more about this hidden world outside of our expiry. How amazing that we humans with our relatively limited access to the universe can see far beyond our horizons just using our imagination. And the universe rewards us by showing us how incredibly interesting and surprising it is. The future is fundamentally uncertain to me that is certainly exciting.
