Question: Does your work relate to quantum computers in anyway? How do they work and is a quantum computer actually possible?

Simone Sturniolo answered on 18 Jun 2013:

No, it doesn’t. Sorry about that. It would be fun though! I like the concept of quantum computing and would like to work with it sooner or later. And I would like it even more if tomorrow I could have a working quantum computer at my disposal. The normal ones are getting a bit too slow for my current needs. I want MOAR POWER!
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Ahem. Anyway, quantum computers ‘would’ work thanks to something called ‘quantum superposition’. If you know something about computers (I guess you do, you sound very competent), you must know that computers work by computing with bits, that is, digits of binary numbers, each digit being either 1 or 0. Quantum objects have the property of being able to be in multiple states at the same time: for example, the famous Schroedinger cat is said to be “dead” and “alive” at the same time. This is a consequence of how quantum mechanics work: the “true” nature, or state, of an object is decided only when you measure it, when you look at it, while it can be undefined until then. So a quantum computer could work with something called “qubits” – bits that can be both 1 and 0 at the same time. So, for example, say that you have to try multiplying all possible combinations of 0 and 1. With a normal computer, this would mean performing four operations: 0x0, 0x1, 1×0, and 1×1. With a quantum computer however you could take two qubits, both being 0 AND 1 at the same time, multiply them, and obtain a result which contains all four results mentioned above, in a single operation! And that operation would likely be much faster than a normal computer’s one.
Can quantum computers be really built? A few days ago I’ve read a fierce dispute on a blog about whether it was possible or not. The big problem is that quantum properties are an unstable thing: the bigger the object you try to build (the computer), the more likely that the qubits “collapse” (because someone looks at them) and go back to being normal bits, either 1 or 0. You don’t see many dead-and-alive cats around the town after all. So someone says it’s straight out impossible to build a quantum computer that retains its coherence while being big enough to be useful, and someone says it’s just really really hard. Personally, I side with the latter: I think it can, and will, be done. Someone claims they already did it (a company called D-Wave: they don’t look like scammers, but their quantum computers don’t look completely legitimate either. They probably are normal computers with only a sprinkle of quantum thrown in). Either way, on that same blog I read a very powerful argument in favour of quantum computers. We already know that normal computers can’t simulate reality “in real time”: it’s too complicated. But reality exists, and just like a simulation like the one in the “Matrix”, works perfectly fine, and all based on Quantum Mechanics. So, if reality itself isn’t the example of a perfectly working Quantum computer, what is?