The Quantum Gaming Journey
It’s 2120, there’s another pandemic outside. But you’re not worried. You have your very own quantum computer that you can game all day on. You look outside your window and sigh as 10k superconducting quantum bits run on a super-cooled processor. You grab your coffee and begin your grind. Life’s good.
But wait a minute. What’s a quantum computer?
They’re basically your conventional computer but with far greater computational power. Instead of the normal bits, they run on something called quantum bits or qubits. These qubits have certain properties which make them a whole lot more powerful than a bit.
· Superposition: it is the ability of a qubit to exist in a mixed state of 0 and 1 at all times. This is unlike a bit that exists in a fixed state of either 0 or 1.
· Entanglement: it is the property that tells us that a certain qubit is always dependent on the state of another even if they’re separated by a large distance.
Now if that messes with your brain, congratulations, you’re getting there.
Quantum computer scientists in today’s world are thinking and progressing in various industries like
Security, Medicine, Optimisation etc.
But I believe that there’s another industry that also deserves some of their attention. I’m talking about the
37 billion US dollar industry of PC Gaming.
From introducing strange weapons, generating new levels to just creating better in-game AI, a quantum computer can really take the gaming world up a notch.
However, here’s some unfortunate news. The most advanced quantum computer today is made up of just 65 qubits. Which means it’s not really ready to run our favourite GTA San Andreas just yet. But there are a few simple, ugly looking games that have been made on the supermachine.
Cat-Box-Scissors
The very first game to be made on a quantum computer was the classic Rock-Paper-Scissors, except its quantum version was Cat-Box-Scissors which was developed in March of 2017.
This adaptation of the game asks both the players to
choose one of two states (either 👨 or 👩).
The human wins if the states chosen are the same and the bot wins if the states chosen are different.
The game revolves around the very simple NOT gate (yes, the one which converts 0 to 1 and 1 to 0).
Let’s imagine a 3-D sphere like the one shown below.
The 👩 gate takes the person in the positive direction which is along the path Z’-X-Z or Z’-Y-Z and the 👨 gate takes the person in the negative direction which is Z’-X’-Z or Z’-Y’-Z.
If we consider Z’ to be our starting point, with the help of the 👩 gate we can move to a point on either X or Y. And if we use a 👨 gate we can move to X’ or Y’. Similarly, if we were to be on the X-Y plane and use the 👩 gate, we would end up on Z and if we used the 👨 gate, we would be back on Z’.
Let’s look at the 4 possible situations one might encounter when the person and the bot choose their state. The first state is the one chosen by the person and the second state is the one chosen by the bot, i.e. a qubit.
1. 👩 + 👩
If the person chooses the 👩 gate, he would be able to go to X or Y, and when the bot chooses the 👩 gate, from X or Y he would then be able to go to Z.
2. 👩 + 👨
Again, choosing the 👩 gate would take him to either X or Y. However, here the 👨 gate would take him in the opposite direction. So, instead of going to Z, he would come back to Z’.
3. 👨 + 👨
Here, the person would be able to go to either X’ or Y’ due to the first 👨 gate. The second 👨 gate would take to Z.
4. 👨 + 👩
Again, the 👨 gate would take the person to X’ or Y’ and the subsequent 👩 gate would take him back to Z’.
Here we can see that whenever the two states are the same we end up at Z which is the opposite of Z’, our starting point. This behaves as a NOT gate.
And when we have different states, we see that there is no change in the being of Z.
In our game, Z represents the state of the qubit that is the referee. If the moves (choosing between 👩 and 👨) made by the players reflect a change in the state of Z, it means that the human has won. And when the referee’s state remains the same, the bot is declared the winner.
So to sum it up, if the human and the bot both choose the same state, which means travelling 180 degrees, the human wins and if they choose opposite states, which means travelling 0 degrees, the bot wins.
A little complicated for the age-old Rock Paper Scissors, huh?
The game is available here if you want to give it a try!
Here’s a snapshot of what the game looks like:
The starting of this revolution was led by Dr. James Wootton who’s created some other classic games like Battleship and Solitaire. The party has now been joined by people all over the world jumping on the craze conducting various Hackathons and Ideathons to help take this higher. Although we’re still quite in the beginning, everybody’s enthusiasm is just a promise to what could be the new era of the gaming and quantum industry!
References:
· https://physicsworld.com/a/game-on/
· https://builtin.com/hardware/quantum-computer-games
· https://www.ibm.com/blogs/nordic-msp/quantum-gaming-is-here-learnings-from-the-quantum-game-jam/
· https://gizmodo.com/what-will-quantum-computer-games-be-like-1827405067
· https://thequantumdaily.com/2020/09/18/gaming-your-way-into-quantum-computing/
· https://decodoku.medium.com/the-history-of-games-for-quantum-computers-a1de98859b5a
· https://decodoku.medium.com/games-computers-and-quantum-84bfdd2c0fe0
