What is quantum computing in Laymen's terms?

in technology •  7 years ago 

I really enjoy writing posts to assist to technology challenged to understand more of the technical world. I am not saying everybody in the world can become super programmers , but I do believe that the non-technical world can have conversations with the technical at a specific level. e


Image Credit

Let's chat quantum computing.

It’s a qualitatively new form of computing, which would exploit quantum mechanics: a generalization of the laws of probability themselves, to involve negative and even complex numbers, which has been the basis of physics since 1926
Content Source

The statement above immediately made me think of @lemouth, a good friend, Particle physicist and professor in physics. @lemouth is one of those people that did not think the earth will explode when they started CERN where they accelerate particles and crash them to each other. Please follow him as he writes on very interesting subjects :) @lemouth time to visit us in South Africa again.

Anyway, the statement above is exactly what I do not want to write, as not many will understand :)

To understand what Quantum computing is, we first need to understand conventional computing.

What is conventional computing?


Image Source

Computers can basically do two things. They can store numbers in memory, (image above) and they can process these stored numbers with the basic mathematical equations. You can obviously do much more by doing a sequence of events. Everything in computers is managed by switches that is either switched on or switched off. Just like the light switch in your houses. When the switch is on, it is reflected as a 1 and when it is off it is reflected by a zero, and this is where Binary comes in. These switches combine into a binary code for anything in a computer. For example here is A B C in Binary A = 01000001, B = 01000010, C = 01000011.

Each of the zero's or one's is called binary digit or a bit, which might sound familiar to some of the Non-Techies. With a string of 8 bits, you cans store 255 characters…that is now A-Z or 0-9 or whatever symbol you want to store. 1 Byte = 8 bits. Through a combination of these Bits and Bytes, computers do their thing.

I will write another post to go into morm There detail at a later stage as I want to get, to the reason of the post and that is What is Quantum Computing?

Some of the content sourced here

Quantum Computing


Image Source

Quantum theory and @lemouth please correct me if I am wrong deals with a world of atoms, and the smaller particles inside them. Apparently the when you go smaller and smaller, things starts to behave differently. According to a well-known physicist Richard Feynman:

Things on a very small scale behave like nothing you have any direct experience about... or like anything that you have ever seen.
[Content Source](http://www.explainthatstuff.com/quantum-computing.html]

Moore's Law

A dude from the Intel Corporation once noticed way back in 1965, that the number of circuit transistors i.e. Switches per square inch has doubled every year since the invention of the circuit board. He then predicted that it will carry on for a long time. So we are basically doubling the speed computers can process at every year whilst everything is becoming smaller.
So now :

Quantum + Computing = Quantum Computing

As I explained in the Conventional Computing section above the switches can either be off or on, i.e. 0 and 1 and these are stored either as a 0 or a 1 in a Bit.

Well you have to read a bit about Schroedinger's cat, which is a thought experiment devised a by Eric Schroedinger, way back in 1935, where he illustrates what he ees as a problem with Quantum Mechanics. The bottom line of the story is that he described a scario where the cat can be dead and alive at the same time. Sounds freaky and impossible, but he did it and this is what is called quantum superposition.

In Quantum computing we use qubits, which is the bits of the quantum world.

Where a bit can store either a zero or a 1, a qubit can store a zero, a one, both zero and one, or an infinite number of values in between—and be in multiple states (store multiple values) at the same time! If that sounds confusing, but Schrödinger's cat is alive and dead at the same time.
Content Source

I really hope that I am helping some of you Non-Technical people to understan a bit more of the technical world. I will do some more very soon.

Some of my other in Laymen's Terms Post.

Some of these posts have been written more than 10 Months ago :)
Artificial Intelligence in Laymen's terms
Blockchain and Digital Signatures - In Laymen's Terms
Trustless - What does it mean in laymen's terms?
Cyber Attacks explained in laymen's terms
Machine Learning - In laymen's terms
Internet of things and what it is in laymen's terms
Big data - What is it really about - In laymen’s terms

Happy Steeming!


Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

The whole world of computing is astounding, how far we have come is unbelievable really when you think about it! Its very confusing to someone who is sort of new to the deep technicsl side of things, but with explanations like this it becomes easier.
you got me really inteoduced to schrodingers cat too, this concept still doesnt makse sense to me, but im worling at figuring it out because it is really very odd.
thanks for the share, got me going this morning :)

maybe one of your Leymans terms vids, you can speak on what the new hadron collider does? you did make reference to is and that stuff is craaaazy and sooooo cool!!!

Thanks @jacor for sharing this important, knowledgeable and educational post about quantum computing.. learnt a lot!

Nice post :D

Very informative article about how computers handle computations. The future of computers continues to expand, and while Moore's law appears to becoming to an end, scientists are constantly searching for new ways to get around existing physics barriers and continue to create innovative technologies.

Here's a quote from the author @jacor:

Computers can basically do two things. They can store numbers in memory, (image above) and they can process these stored numbers with the basic mathematical equations.

Your continued support in the Steemit community is appreciated @jacor.

I post regularly about Steemit, Bitcoin and other crypto related material, check out my Steemit page and follow and VOTE UP for the FASTEST active news you can run with! :D

Thank you,

Jeffrey Anderson
Editor in Chief
The Anderson Report
@cryptoNEWScoins on Twitter

Screenshot_2017_07_24_at_10_50_28_PM

This is a great grandfather *** Please follow us please and thank you ***

Anyone else find it interesting that 8 is the magic number for both computers & elements? I can't help but ponder over the probability that this reality was built by a quantum AI, as a way to figure out how it came to be/make itself in the first place.

On a related note, I've died a few times, & the best way I could describe it to a physicist, is that I was experiencing reality in a quantum state. Time stopped, sped up, reversed, looped, multiplied, & more. My perspective shifted to different places. I existed as light. I experienced a future that is now in my past. That's what made me realize that it wasn't a mere hallucination.

In layman's terms Quantum Computing is bullshit. Does a tree make a sound if it falls in the forest and there is nobody around to hear it? Does a fart smell if nobody sniffs it?

Schroedinger's Cat is a "thought experiment" that shows there is more than one possible outcome until the outcome is known - that's it. You can't have your cake and eat it too!

Thanks for writing this article, quantum computers and what there future can bring is fascinating , and who doesn't want to have one for there own ?

For this reason i made a (non functional :) ) 3d model of the D-WAVE 2X - Quantum Computer:

The model is free to download, and can be 3d printed

beautiful article

hello, nice post and upvote

upvoted and follow ....... if you like check my photos here https://steemit.com/photography/@bllackwidow/mytrip-to-brugge-belgium-part-1 i am new here so i need some support, thank you

Cool article

Thanks very much

Hi @jacor I've written an article about you, check it out, if you can? thanks.

30 Best Steemians Of The Day To Follow 1st August 2017

https://steemit.com/steemit/@jzeek/30-best-steemians-of-the-day-to-follow-1st-august-2017

interesting post @jacor ...

Very informative keep it going bro.

Thanks a lot @steemmanju

really enjoyed your article!!!

What worries me about quantum computing is that it's going to kill the blockchain. What are your thoughts on that?

Hey @rocking-dave, no it won't it can only add value to the block-chain. It all depends on how it is applied.

@jacor technology Very important in the world

Hi jacor i was just wondering what a qubit is stored and acessed from.

Wow..
Amazing

that was layman terms you just hurt my head! trying to process that was like putting a ps4 game in a (16bit) sega megadrive it didnt go in

Waiting for my Quantum phone, then I can call everyone possible simultaneously!

  ·  7 years ago Reveal Comment

Very good article, nice and well explained. Nice work, thank you.

There is lot more to this

Very interesting and well written. Also led me to read some of your other posts, which were equally informative!

I've upped and now follow you. Keep up the good work.

Thanks very much @kublai .

Thanks for this important info. Buddy :) keep it up.

Incredible level of technology

Thank you for thinking of the ones that dont know anything about these things and making such an effort to explain to us. You might find some people with lots of computor knowledge that thinks it is not so good. But I can assure you between my friends and people here on steem it is helpling us a lot. Only intellegent people can come down to our level and then move up back to where you should be.

Nice earn..
Lage raho

Thank you very much for the information)) I follow you))

Quantum Computing is a hoax, imo. The basic theory - that something is true and false at the sime time - itself is not compatible with logic and math on which the whole science of physic is fabricated on.

Physics needs to learn its place. All they do is come up with undisputable Theories (much like God whose existenz you can not proof or disproof) and they use mathematic formulas to make those assumptions sound more valid.