Quantum Supremacy

[John Clark]

For the first time a Quantum Computer has solved a problem that a conventional computer can not, actually 2 different Quantum Computers did and there is a paper from each team in the issue of the journal Nature that came out yesterday:

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature24654.epdf?referrer_access_token=d5OIRgRXjhov_Y7aUYicHdRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0O2y_BZ5CPS-KH0aejio0CrBO8pCtA0Hw4GFFcyLIGq_9sLyItmGlAGgcpoZyLC8y6KSXTgCvy7v1QisLsYnG7vqi0w-vnf5I6-odil-i4Ggo4QUUcQBWJIcfy58N7x-D6YsD_nU4U1ytVuVTPC_9DiOvGaqFmBfRv224xNWopYo0YSPYwYmZ6NRvXUvTz9IjU%3D&tracking_referrer=www.livescience.com

/www.nature.com/articles/nature24622.epdf?referrer_access_token=dgXGNTysT8EwhOOZ9lOtQtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MQ8a6_YgG4UfcW2SwV0yyUTLJhfJnff5uaj_no78zD6rP8nmDWU7noJKpPvMWclA9w0aheS0c6M6vehI9x_Y8JbfCt86YmnfvcXZxYxSOKVlOHn9Fb-nJl6gLqSwV3gVD4ALGMk31HzU-p36zd4sOlyMHyN2g8I9iV1b0Z70zl6VRmdR2KbTP55RsXB2mA2cQ%3D&tracking_referrer=www.livescience.com

They used their computers to simulate a quantum system, the particular problem they solved is not very useful but the implications are enormous, it proves once and for all that a practical quantum computer that you can actually build can solve problems that a conventional computer can't.

If I place 20 magnetized atoms in a lattice and then move one of those atoms how will the entire array move in response?  A good home computer could solve that problem but the difficulty increases exponentially as the number  of atoms increases, when you get to about 50 atoms even the largest supercomputer on Earth starts to beg for mercy, but in the new reports one quantum computer solved the 51 atom problem and the other solved 53. The mechanical details of the 2 machines are different, one used very tightly focused LASER beams and rubidium atoms and the other used electrically charged ytterbium ions, but they both got the job done. 

None of this is a threat to bitcoin....YET.  But the clock is ticking. 

John K Clark    

[Telmo Menezes]

Wow! Bitcoin passing 10K and now this. Two things that happened this
week that might have a place in the history books...
You are right, the latter might eventually invalidate the former.

Best,
Telmo.

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[spudb...@aol.com]

Any potential for this technology to go beyond Bitcoin or encryption applications, JC? Specifically, the impact upon technological innovation. Or do you feel, this is a pipe-dream, a bridge, too far? 

[Lawrence Crowell]

Bitcoins are used a lot by organized criminals. The block chain system is ideal for moving dirty money. It is a part of this disturbing trend of criminal power rising up. Trump made his money laundering dirty money through real estate. Last year 70% of his real estate transactions occurred with anonymous figures. As the world moves increasingly towards gangster government and failed democracy there might in the long run be a great future for bitcoins.

LC

[Telmo Menezes]

Hi Lawrence,

> Bitcoins are used a lot by organized criminals.

Bitcoins are certainly used a lot to perform illegal transactions,
mainly selling drugs, but where is the evidence that they are being
disproportionately used by organized crime? One could certainly
imagine that they are bad for organized crime, since they
"democratize" certain illegal activities and hurt the monopolies of
drug traffickers, for example.

>The block chain system is ideal for moving dirty money.

Nuclear physics is ideal for building weapons of mass destruction.

> It is a part of this disturbing trend of criminal power rising up.

Do you have any empirical (not anecdotal) data to illustrate this trend?

> Trump made his money laundering dirty money
> through real estate. Last year 70% of his real estate transactions occurred
> with anonymous figures. As the world moves increasingly towards gangster
> government and failed democracy there might in the long run be a great
> future for bitcoins.

If you are right, this is true. Bitcoins are a way to protect oneself
from corrupt governments. For the corrupt governments themselves, not
so good. They already have the means to move their dirty money around,
means that are not available to the average citizen. These means are
often not even illegal, because they make the laws -- check the
Paradise Papers. It would be better for them if the average citizen
had no way to place resources out of their grasp.

Telmo.

[Bruno Marchal]

Bitcoin, and digital money, will need quantum encryption. Some of them can be failed, but only in theory. Well, the last time I readon on this, but the filed is exploding.

I guess that *classical* teleportation will needs quantum encryption too, if you want avoid to be reconstituted by some Eve (by some Eavesdroppers).

I would not say "yes" to a "doctor" without some guaranties my "Gödel number" is enough secure.

I predict that the amount of digital communication used in encryption will ever go up. Already bitcoin is very demanding, and virtual money might become a danger for the climate. Some estimates that the Internet is responsible already of 15% of the mundial pollution, ...

Now, Quantum computations will have many applications different from encryption. To make the MW valid (original goal of Deutsch), to "find a needle in a stack", to factorize big numbers (with other goal than encryption (say), etc. but the main non-encryption goal will be to simulated nature's phenomena, from protein foldings to black hole, to big-bang(s), etc.

Bruno

http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/

[Lawrence Crowell]

On Sunday, December 3, 2017 at 8:23:42 AM UTC-6, Bruno Marchal wrote:

Bitcoin, and digital money, will need quantum encryption. Some of them can be failed, but only in theory. Well, the last time I readon on this, but the filed is exploding.

I guess that *classical* teleportation will needs quantum encryption too, if you want avoid to be reconstituted by some Eve (by some Eavesdroppers).

I would not say "yes" to a "doctor" without some guaranties my "Gödel number" is enough secure.

I predict that the amount of digital communication used in encryption will ever go up. Already bitcoin is very demanding, and virtual money might become a danger for the climate. Some estimates that the Internet is responsible already of 15% of the mundial pollution, ...

Now, Quantum computations will have many applications different from encryption. To make the MW valid (original goal of Deutsch), to "find a needle in a stack", to factorize big numbers (with other goal than encryption (say), etc. but the main non-encryption goal will be to simulated nature's phenomena, from protein foldings to black hole, to big-bang(s), etc.

Bruno

It is my hope that quantum computing has other uses. In particular black holes are a form of quantum computing and communication channel. The Ryu-Takanayagi formula is a type of quantum error correction code. Golay codes have Lie algebraic structure, and in the heterotic and sporadic groups correspond to Jacobi θ-functions and modular functions. There are also Goppa codes that are elliptic curves, and with the Weiles proof about Shimura varieties it means these are also modular. So I am interested in the intersection of these two. In particular we can think of these has having a comutatant sub-Hilbert space  that defines a von Neumann algebra. Maybe a quantum computer can emulate this.

I suspect that quantum computers will in time be put primarily to the task of encrypting financial and government information. Already about 10% of electrical power generated in the world is for the internet, about 25% of that involves money or transactions, and .17% of electrical power is now devoted to bitcoin mining. I suppose one can say this is "the way of the world." It is following the general direction humanity is moving, which is towards virtual constructions and an ever inwards focus. Think of it as the opposite future scenario from the science fiction TV screenplay Star Trek.

LC

[John Clark]

On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 9:23 AM, Bruno Marchal <mar...@ulb.ac.be> wrote:

​> ​

Bitcoin, and digital money, will need quantum encryption.

​

There are

​ ​

quantum encryption

​ ​

protocols that even a quantum computer couldn't break, they would be as secure as the laws of physics themselves, but unfortunately there are severe practical problems; they're slow and they would require new hardware.

​You'd

 have to rebuild the entire Internet from the ground up, and the fibre optic lines that we use now probably wouldn't work at distances of more than a few hundred miles, for long distances you'd probably need to use LASER communication satellites and hope for a cloud free day at both ends.

John K Clark    

 

[Jason Resch]

There is post-quantum cryptography (algorithms that are believed to be secure against quantum computers with many qubits):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography

This could serve as the basis for new TLS cipher suites, and would not require any revision to hardware of computers nor the in the Internet's infrastructure.

Jason

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[spudb...@aol.com]

Ah! it always comes down to cyber-money ;-)

[Bruno Marchal]

I will answer this when it stops raining!

Seriously, I think that quantum encryption might be feasible at the time when quantum computer can break the code. That will still take time. But you are right, quantum encryption will need a lot of work to be practical, but that is about the same for a quantum computer capable to break a code. There might be a short hole in the timing. Yes, that is plausible, but it will not last long.

Bruno

John K Clark    

 

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[Bruno Marchal]

On 03 Dec 2017, at 16:17, Lawrence Crowell wrote:

On Sunday, December 3, 2017 at 8:23:42 AM UTC-6, Bruno Marchal wrote:

Bitcoin, and digital money, will need quantum encryption. Some of them can be failed, but only in theory. Well, the last time I readon on this, but the filed is exploding.

I guess that *classical* teleportation will needs quantum encryption too, if you want avoid to be reconstituted by some Eve (by some Eavesdroppers).

I would not say "yes" to a "doctor" without some guaranties my "Gödel number" is enough secure.

I predict that the amount of digital communication used in encryption will ever go up. Already bitcoin is very demanding, and virtual money might become a danger for the climate. Some estimates that the Internet is responsible already of 15% of the mundial pollution, ...

Now, Quantum computations will have many applications different from encryption. To make the MW valid (original goal of Deutsch), to "find a needle in a stack", to factorize big numbers (with other goal than encryption (say), etc. but the main non-encryption goal will be to simulated nature's phenomena, from protein foldings to black hole, to big-bang(s), etc.

Bruno

It is my hope that quantum computing has other uses. In particular black holes are a form of quantum computing and communication channel. The Ryu-Takanayagi formula is a type of quantum error correction code. Golay codes have Lie algebraic structure, and in the heterotic and sporadic groups correspond to Jacobi θ-functions and modular functions.

That is very interesting.

There are also Goppa codes that are elliptic curves, and with the Weiles proof about Shimura varieties it means these are also modular. So I am interested in the intersection of these two. In particular we can think of these has having a comutatant sub-Hilbert space  that defines a von Neumann algebra. Maybe a quantum computer can emulate this.

Not maybe surely, and even in polynomial time if we accept Deutsch Thesis (which basically says so). Deutch presents his thesis as a refined Church-Turing thesis, but I think Church-Turing's thesis might possibly be incompatible with Deutsch thesis. 

I suspect that quantum computers will in time be put primarily to the task of encrypting financial and government information. Already about 10% of electrical power generated in the world is for the internet, about 25% of that involves money or transactions, and .17% of electrical power is now devoted to bitcoin mining.

I read that a large proportion of the energy source is still (chinese) coal. How far is internet interacting with the climate?

I suppose one can say this is "the way of the world." It is following the general direction humanity is moving, which is towards virtual constructions and an ever inwards focus. Think of it as the opposite future scenario from the science fiction TV screenplay Star Trek.

Yeah, but in the longer run, it is that virtual inward numerical focus which will make humanity able to leap forward out of the solar system, and beyond the galaxies. Our carbon bodies will be for the museum. I am optimist for the long term (much less for the short term, because the humans have still the hate, the fear, the jalousy, etc. It will still  take a long time before the humans stop to harm each other).

Bruno

LC

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