My new favorite quantum hyperbole:
Handed to generals, a quantum computer might transform an ordinary nation into an instant superpower. Dozens of incoming missiles could be tracked at once.
O brave new quantum world!
O brave new quantum world!
My new favorite quantum hyperbole:
Handed to generals, a quantum computer might transform an ordinary nation into an instant superpower. Dozens of incoming missiles could be tracked at once.
“Realistic virtual animation” and “spawning nearly invincible killer germs” are tough, really tough.
BUT they cannot beat my all-time favorite…
… a mind-reading quantum computer in the hat!
This Quantum Bleep, sorry, Quantum Leap, published in the Fortune magazine offers even more:
* “thanks to quantum computer simulations it has known today’s temperature for five years”
* “quantum computers would be capable of breaking any cryptological code now used”
* “you can tackle any problem that gets exponentially larger”
And guess that? “To scientists on the quantum computing frontier, this scenario is conservative.”
Seriously… NP-complete problems solved in polynomial time and breaking every cryptographic code are soooo 90s.
Go Quantum Hat Computer!
Actually, I think this one might turn out to be true.
As you know, a NAND tree can be solved quadratically faster by a quantum computer than a conventional computer, and something like solving decision trees is what is used for missile discrimination. So it might turn out that quantum computers can do missile discrimination quadratically faster than classical computers.
So instead of 25 missiles hitting me only 5 hit. Horray! 🙂
I’m no advocate of star wars defense.
Luckily, discrimination is not used only in defense. Google uses “discrimination” every time it corrects the spelling of your search terms. More generally, “discrimination” is an important part of AI
That’s awesome. Really really awesome.
I guess the editor decided Middle America needed their daily dose of fear no matter how far the stretch. Though it is quite amusing that there maybe validity to it (eye rrtucci).
Anyways, I am “le tired”. I’m gonna take a nap … and then fire the missles.
I think the limits to missile defense are information-theoretic. The interceptor has to discriminate between the true warhead and the dummy warheads when everything still looks like basically a single pixel.
We have already solved the problem of not getting hit by missiles. It’s called Living In Canada.
There is a plausible theory of how a quantum computer might transform an ordinary nation into an instant superpower.