

The Quest For A Quantum Future - daigoba66
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/stories/stationq/index.html

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TrainedMonkey
I think graphical story telling format that is so popular now would be a smash
with web comics, but for me it really interferes with reading the story.
Abrupt background changes leave me confused, definitely not the best state to
be reading about quantum physics.

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jabelk
>Most kids want the thousand bucks, Lee said, but the pennies doubled daily
over 30 days eventually adds up to more than $10.7 million.

30 years perhaps?

Anyway, it's cool to hear about Microsoft Research. This quote is especially
exciting, since scalability is the main question I've had about quantum
computing (and really quantum mechanics as a whole) being viable outside of a
lab.

>“The problem of coherence is a major focus of our research here,” Lee said.
“Every researcher connected to this field dreams of building a quantum
computer. We are not trying to build a quantum computer. Our belief is that
trying to build a quantum machine by controlling electron spin and using
surface codes is like trying to build a computer using vacuum tubes. Labs all
over the world can do that, but you’ll never be able to scale up. We’re taking
an outrageously hard, unreasonably difficult approach, and if we succeed – and
it’s a big if – then we will have a building block for a scalable quantum
machine. We have a chance, a tiny chance but a real chance, to completely
upend technology and society in a fundamental way just like the transistor
did.”

Edit: oh, wow, I was thinking about the 30 day thing really wrong. Thanks!

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AndrewDucker
> 30 years perhaps? No, 2^30 is 1,073,741,824

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millstone
You get all the pennies from previous days too, so it's actually 2^31 - 1.

That said, the children may be correct to prefer $1000 over the pennies. Two
billion pennies is not exactly practical.

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bellerocky
Unrelated to the post, but I hate static fixed headers so much. I think I hate
any kind of fixed element that covers content.

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libraryatnight
Agreed, there's something constricting about it. Claustrophobic.

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standard4317
Any idiot with a two state system thinks they have a Quantum Computer, but
this is different. Non-Abelian braiding statistics are so far the only known
robust architecture for QC, so this will be interesting to watch. Its worth
mentioning that the cocktail they discuss relies on something that has yet to
be observed in nature; calling it science fiction would be an insult to time
travel.

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da-bacon
I'm not sure "non-Abelian braiding statistics" is the only known robust
architecture for QC. Topological qubits are, after all, just systems whose
natural states are quantum error correcting codes. Those who chose to pursue
quantum error correction directly likely also deserve the moniker of "robust
architecture".

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mturmon
Nice to see some PR about quantum computing that's _not_ related to D-Wave.

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webnrrd2k
I don't know why, and it's really not relevant, but the thing that struck me
the most was that they used actual chalk on the chalkboards. Everything I've
seen has been whiteboard and markers for quite a while now...

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da-bacon
You've discovered how to tell if you are in a physics department or a computer
science department :)

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raverbashing
So, looks like this topological approach is to Quantum Computing what the
Space-State is for radio transmission and Phasors are to electrical
engineering...

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hassaderpdole
Crashed firefox mobile

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jacquesm
Crashes of browsers are _never_ the problem of the website, but always of the
browser vendor.

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higherpurpose
The Quest For Researching Stuff That Will Never Come Out of Our Lab - is
probably a more accurate headline coming from Microsoft.

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IBM
Google gets tons of PR from Google X, why shouldn't Microsoft as well?

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dekhn
and it gets a fair amount of press over the NASA-hosted D-Wave they partially
funded.

