now any theoretical physicist on the street these days will tell you that
quantum processors are the next logical step in the evolution of mathematical
computations but for those of us just barely capable of tying our own shoes
many questions spring to mind what does theoretical physics have to do with
improving processor performance is this going to end up benefiting me in any way
that is actually relevant and most importantly will this next leap finally
be the one that takes me home oh boy
unlike classical processors which use transistors to create digits of binary
code called bits which are represented in the familiar form of zeros and ones
quantum processors use atomic sized structures such as a single freaking
electron and produce coded units called qubits which have the unique capability
of being both the values of zero and one simultaneously more on that later to
accomplish this engineers utilize extreme cold conditions and magnetics to
manipulate the natural polarity field within the electron and bring it to a
position where it rests in alignment with the artificially created magnetic
flow this resting state is referred to as spin down and would be similar to a
zero value in classical coding when the electron is forcefully going against its
natural inclination to rest with the flow of the magnetic field or its polar
south has been spun to the top position that is called spin up which you guessed
it represents a 1 in traditional binary speak let me use an analogy to clarify
imagine you're a child back on the playground sitting on the swings if
you're just sitting there exerting no effort letting gravity hold you in place
this could be considered the spin down position now let's say you were to
accomplish the dream of every child around the world and manage to be all
the way vertical up above the bar spin up would be the point at which you
reached the apex of your swing and gravity was working its hardest to pull
you violently back down to the earth now as i mentioned earlier qubits have the
unique potential to end up representing both a one and a zero in code value
simultaneously which you could imagine in our previous scenario would be like a
swinger sitting at the 90 degree mark directly between the ground and the sky
but just like gravity would make it impossible to stay at that position for
more than a fraction of a moment the electrons which drive the quantum
processor have forces preventing them from sitting still as well in fact that
might be underselling it a little bit because thanks to the quantum mechanical
phenomenon known as superposition the electron is actually moving in all
directions simultaneously before the moment it is measured so in order to
quantify information derived from an electron spinning out like a roided out
hamster in a ball engineers first determined the basic spin value as
previously described then they use mathematical probability scales which
calculate the likeliness the electron was actually spinning in the indicated
direction and then arrive at two separate numbers for each scenario which
are the processor's outputs for instance one might receive something like a 70
probability up and 30 down or as you now
see both zero and one at once if not at
least two varying degrees this form of measurement coupled with the electrons
unique physical properties lead to a quantum processor's two main advantages
over a classical one so here's the summary part first since the electrons
are spinning at such an indeterminable rate and direction they are also
potentially capable of running an indeterminable number of processes at
remarkable speeds secondly since two measurements are
needed to quantify each qubit value as opposed to the standard one transistor
per bit rule the increase in computing power for quantum processors is an
exponential one in other words when one qubit tells two friends they tell two
friends and then they tell two friends and i'm gonna run our fingers on my
hands really fast here until you reach the measly range of 500 qubits where
you've generated more possible processors than there are particles in
the known universe but now to the downside or the spin
downside as it were while quantum processors may have more
computing power than the whole known universe plus he-man because of all the
insane amounts of effort it takes to isolate manipulate and quantify
something like an electron in its spin these computers would likely only see a
benefit when running intense multi-tiered operations that take
advantage of the system's ability to run calculations against each other such as
weather and traffic predictions so for things that run basic algorithms such as
violent video games or sexually explicit videos or for the really depraved among
you violent sexually explicit video games classical processors are still the
king of the roost speaking of the king of the roost we have a sponsor for
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next 30 seconds cooler master has actually some pretty cool stuff going on
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prizes just for doing it thank you guys for doing the thing where you watch this
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