So, I started listening to the Star Talk podcast this last week. It's hosted by celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson as he tackles subjects that are (quite frankly) really interesting. There's usually a guest of extreme scientific note on the show and a comedian who is there to lighten the mood and to represent "all of us" out here who have trouble with these kinds of concepts. But there was one episode of the show that kind of scared me. It was one that is all about Quantum Computer. You can find it HERE if you'd like to listen to it yourself. The ad-free version has commercials, but you can skip through those easily and get back to the content.
On this particular episode, the guest star was the authority on quantum computers, Dr. Michio Kaku. This guy has more scientific cred than just about anyone, and he really knows what he's talking about on levels that few are prepared to understand. But he's also a great communicator and can boil things down very easily for dummies like me. Now, the reason I clicked on this particular episode was because I was curious. I'd heard that quantum computers "were coming." And I like technology, so I thought, wouldn't it be nice to know a little bit more about this tech that may be "around the corner" so to speak. The answer to me was: uh...I'm sorry I clicked on that. I think I would have preferred to remain ignorant. Now...I'm full of worry.
So if you don't know, I'm going to try to boil this down in the way that Dr. Kaku did. I may fail, but here's what I grasped from the podcast. A quantum computer right now looks like a chandelier with hundreds of cooling pipes. At the bottom is a box that contains the electrons that do the computing. In order to get them into a proper state to be programmable, it requires a temperature close to absolute zero. What is the benefit of doing this? Infinite processing power, which is just crazy to imagine.
The way we do things right now is through transistors. Things are either a "0" or a "1." That's it. And it is through those two choices that all of the computers that we all use everyday now, work. Problems are solved like a rat going through a maze. You make a choice, it ends up being the wrong one, and you backtrack and make another choice. This is also how we do chemistry and how we figure out new medicines. People use petri dishes and take really good notes and observe. It is trial and error, basically "0" and "1."
What a quantum computer does is "0 and 1" and then "every other number in-between." So it's infinite. Dr. Kaku said, if there is a thing that has a trillion combinations, it will do all of those trillion combinations at once, in the time you snap your fingers, and spit out the right answer. He said that the first quantum computer will make all encryption, all passwords, all secrets that are protected by any kind of code completely obsolete. Everything will be laid bare. So there is an arms race going on between the different governments of the world (and the corporations) to make the first programmable quantum computer. There is already a prototype of one that you can play with online right now. But it doesn't have the programming language yet to make it do what people want it to do. However, I think that's just a matter of time. So I suddenly thought of all of our banks being rendered wide open with everyone able to access our funds, to read everything including any state secrets, to suddenly know about every single missive sent between people even on apps that claim they are heavily encrypted. It is all wide open for the world to see.
I myself don't think I have any particular secrets to keep. However, I work hard for the money I have and if it can just be emptied out and my balance go to zero, I thought, "How am I going to survive?"
I kind of wish that people wouldn't go around making these kinds of things. But there is no way to stop them. So, the rest of us just have to live in the aftermath of these creations and hope for the best. It wouldn't worry me so much if I could count on people to "do the right thing by me." But if it's one thing I've learned...people never do the right thing by me.
That is a scary thought. All it would take is for the wrong country or group of people to use it and it could take down an entire nation, even the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteIt might become like nuclear weapons: Russia gets a quantum computer and tries to steal all our stuff, we use ours to steal their stuff. It seems like it'd be pretty hard for anyone to just make one in a garage to use against the world. And in the meantime maybe someone will come up with a fractal encryption or whatever Data did in ST: TNG to keep the Borg out of the Enterprise's computer.
ReplyDeleteFascinating post. It sounds like the plot of a James Bond movie and you're right, it is scary stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, someone still tries to do the thing. The thing that is going to wreck it all. Every. Single. Time.
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