Is real quantum computing nearly here?

[Mick]

Yes

[[Dimetrodon]]

While disappointing, I think Faster Than Light travel is reserved for science fiction stories.

[warmweer]

does any of this mean that I can put a quantum computer in my electric scooter and go a lot faster?

need more info: what's the PHP version your scooter is running on?

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

I don't need no stinkin PHP. I got some of that THC man.


robert

[warmweer]

I don't need no stinkin PHP. I got some of that THC man.

Not exactly lightspeed, but the experience will probably be the same

[warmweer]

While disappointing, I think Faster Than Light travel is reserved for science fiction stories.

The speed of light isn't even a constant as it depends on the medium it's travelling through.
What we refer to as the speed of light is actually the speed at which light passes through a vacuum. However, the moment it passes through a medium, light slows down.

[HiFiKabin]

the moment it passes through a medium, light slows down

... or maybe there is a yet to be discovered medium where the speed of light gets faster

[warmweer]

... or maybe there is a yet to be discovered medium where the speed of light gets faster

That would be my brain : information passes though it so fast I can never remember anything. I guess I'll have to donate it to science once I have no more use for it, but I'll probably forget that

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

on a more serious note: https://youtu.be/pTn6Ewhb27k

[ponchi101]

Yes, I’ve read most of that stuff but the Big Bang expanded faster than the speed of light so that rule is there to be broken and I have every faith one day it will.

Space can expand at FTL speeds; space can do whatever it wants. Radiation traveling within space is what is limited.

Quantum computing seems to be a new version of nuclear fusion energy. It has been just 30 years away, for the last 60 years.

[Mick]

Fusion will happen very soon as will commercial quantum computing - 60 years is nothing in the grand scheme.

My grandfather used to tell me in 1900 there was hardly a bicycle on the streets where he lived as a kid never mind anything else. 60 years later man walked on the moon. Valve guitar amplifiers are still the best though, germanium and silicon never quite gets there, not yet anyway

[[Dimetrodon]]

Man walked on the moon in 1969 through to the early 1970s, then haven't been outside of low earth orbit ever since. Now we clap for billionaire oligarchs for going into low earth orbit as if it is new or exciting, and totally not just billionaires showing off their wealth and power.

Quantum Computing is cool, but it is a long long way from being in the home.

[Mick]

Hmm, Ken Olsen said something similar in 1977.

[[Dimetrodon]]

Hmm, Ken Olsen said something similar in 1977.

And he wasn't wrong. Most people's introduction to the PC was in the 1990s and even then, far from everybody could afford one. 20 years is an entire generation.

The first quantum computer was in 1998: https://www.britannica.com/technology/quantum-computer and it hardly has taken off since then. I think it is mostly hype.

[Mick]

He was wrong and I’ll bet he wished he’d bit his tongue as he said it. Unfortunately for him the ¾ of a million PC’s (plus clones I expect) sold in 1983 weren’t DEC.

I had an IBM 5150 and a Dragon 32 in my house in 1983/4 and many of my friends at the time had similar setups. We ran packet radio stations on both types.