Quantum Computing

The kind of computer or smart phone you are reading this blog on is essentially based upon a binary system wherein everything is coded by either a 0 or a 1 or some combination of these two digits. A quantum computer goes one level further, operating within what is called a quantum state, with three variables instead of two - called qubits – including the 0 and the 1 and an additional superposition state (or quantum position), which is a state in which both the 0 and the 1 exist simultaneously. It may be hard to get your head around this idea, but no harder than trying to understand how quantum physics is different from classical physics. The addition of this third factor, however, is the basis of the emerging Quantum Financial System that we will all soon be introduced to and live our lives within from hereon.

To help understand the potential for quantum problem solving using computers with this third variable, consider the case of Schrödinger’s cat. It’s a thought exercise wherein physicist Erwin Schrödinger imagined a cat in a steel chamber alongside a Geiger counter containing a tiny amount of radioactive substance. The probability of an atom of that substance decaying is equal to the probability that no atoms of it decay. Also in the chamber is a mechanism for releasing a poison that will kill the cat immediately if even one atom of the radioactive substance decays. You cannot see the cat, so to you, there is an equal chance that the cat is alive or dead. Schrödinger’s view was that the cat is simultaneously alive and dead until the observer opened the chamber to see if the cat is alive or dead.

If that seems confusing, understand that it’s confusing to modern computers as well. The most advanced main frame computers can figure out whether the metaphorical cat is alive or not, but they require years right now to do so. Most modern computers simply cannot do it. Quantum computers on the other hand can make parallel computations and calculate so much faster than their classical counterpoints that this problem is elementary for them. They can figure out in seconds or minutes what most classical computers could never do. Each additional qubit doubles a quantum computer’s processing power. The biggest quantum computers have less than 100 qubits right now, but IBM aims to have a 1,000-qubit computer by 2023. As one might imagine, there are all sorts of exciting applications for this kind of power.