
Researchers demonstrate the first single-photon transistor using a semiconductor - ItsTotallyOn
https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/clearing-a-path-for-quantum-light
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dschuetz
> quantum light

That is one of those articles which are meant to impress people with money and
make people cringe who understand a thing or two about the subject it is
covering.

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AmericanChopper
What’s wrong with “quantum light”? The photon is the quanta of light (or
electromagnetic radiation more generally). Quantization is what Planck’s
hypothesis is all about.

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xelxebar
It's like saying "wet water". Not a false statement, but under normal
conversational assumptions, it sure sounds like there's some non-wet water or
some similar contrasting idea.

If you're familiar with Grice's Maxims, then "quantum light" violates the
Principle of Quantity by providing _too much_ information, inviting
misinterpretation.

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talltimtom
It’s more akin to saying water droplets. Now you can argue that “all water is
made up of droplets” but still not every body of water is a bunch of droplets.
When people talk about quantum light, they mean something different from just
saying light.

You are being pandantic.

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oytis
It would be better called 'quantized light' IMO. 'quantum light' sounds like
marketing BS.

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AmericanChopper
Well the photon is the quantum of light. I don’t think you’d say ‘quantized
computer’, you’d probably say quantum computer, as in relating to quanta.

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oytis
Don't get your analogy. Photon is a quantum of light. Quantum computer is not
a quantum of computing.

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montenegrohugo
Can anyone tell me how much of a reduction in space and energy this would
suppose compared to current 7nm architecture? 100x? 1000x?

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etaioinshrdlu
I'm pretty uneducated on the subject, but I wonder if we could have quantum
computers that exist on a spectrum with standard digital computers, such as by
having transistors, logic gates, memory cells all in superpositions. Maybe
there could be a fuzzy dividing line between quantum and classical computers.

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abdullahkhalids
That's a good and a bad question. Let me rephrase your question. A classical
(standard digital) computer can solve some problems efficiently/easily, and
others not so. A quantum computer can efficiently solve all problems that
classical computers find easy, and some of the problems that classical
computers find hard. Now, your questions seems to be, if I make a midway
computer that has some superposition in it, would it be stronger than a
classical computer?

The answer is yes and no. There are indeed some problems that this midway
computer can solve faster than classical computers. But these problems are
mostly mathematical curiosities, interesting that they exist, but not useful
at all for any practical problem. If you look at only the practically useful
problems, then either you keep things simple and make a classical computer and
deal with not being able to solve some problems. Or you make things
complicated and make a quantum computer and solve some more problems
efficiently. In other words, edge cases aside, the jump from classical
computers to quantum computers is a qualitative change, and not a continuous
spectrum as you wonder.

