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Google Buys a Quantum Computer

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Re: Google Buys a Quantum Computer

#11
post #3

Have D-Wave demonstrated any actual quantum behaviour yet? I had them down as a scam prior to the google involvement; now I'm not sure what to think.

Yes they've published proof. Also check this for more recent news: http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/05/d-waves-quantum-optim...

Re: Google Buys a Quantum Computer

#13

I think if there is someone I would not want to own a quantum computer, next to Lockheed Martin, thats Google. They already are at least 10 years ahead of everyone else. If they are the first to spend the money on seriously making use of quantum computers, who on earth is going to stop them if they decide to make bad use of their power? I'd really like to see this power in a companies hands that is not against the co…

They already are at least 10 years ahead of everyone else

What one Earth does this mean?

Re: Google Buys a Quantum Computer

#16

I think if there is someone I would not want to own a quantum computer, next to Lockheed Martin, thats Google. They already are at least 10 years ahead of everyone else. If they are the first to spend the money on seriously making use of quantum computers, who on earth is going to stop them if they decide to make bad use of their power? I'd really like to see this power in a companies hands that is not against the co…

They already are at least 10 years ahead of everyone else What one Earth does this mean?

I guess he meant amassing data, computing power and knowledge to apply latter to the former.

Re: Google Buys a Quantum Computer

#17
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been some calculations that are consistent with entaglement which is a premise for quantum behavior. However D-Wave isn't a general quantum computer. It's an adiabatic quantum computer. I'm pretty sure it can't solve Shor's algorithm, because it only does function optimizations.

D-Wave does have a factoring algorithm. See the comments from D-Wave here: http://dwave.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/learning-to-program-th... "We do have a factoring algorithm that I’m going to do a series of blog posts on"

If they actually do have a factoring algorithm, it's easy for them to prove: factor something we give them that is obviously unfeasible for classical computers and give us the result.

Re: Google Buys a Quantum Computer

#18

I think if there is someone I would not want to own a quantum computer, next to Lockheed Martin, thats Google. They already are at least 10 years ahead of everyone else. If they are the first to spend the money on seriously making use of quantum computers, who on earth is going to stop them if they decide to make bad use of their power? I'd really like to see this power in a companies hands that is not against the co…

They already are at least 10 years ahead of everyone else What one Earth does this mean?

Well, he did include "at least" which suggests he was just coming up with a rough figure. I somewhat agree with him.

There is no denying that Google is (arguably) one of the most powerful companies out there. Are they ten years ahead of everyone else? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing for certain is that they have the computing power, finance,and connections to pretty much pursue whatever they want.

Is that a bad thing? Who knows. It really boils down to whether anyone/anything should ever have that kind of power.

Re: Google Buys a Quantum Computer

#19

I think if there is someone I would not want to own a quantum computer, next to Lockheed Martin, thats Google. They already are at least 10 years ahead of everyone else. If they are the first to spend the money on seriously making use of quantum computers, who on earth is going to stop them if they decide to make bad use of their power? I'd really like to see this power in a companies hands that is not against the co…

> I'd really like to see this power in a companies hands that is not against the concept of privacy

Is there any company like this? I mean... it seems companies won't be against privacy as long as it doesn't get in the way of making profit.

Re: Google Buys a Quantum Computer

#20
post #3

Have D-Wave demonstrated any actual quantum behaviour yet? I had them down as a scam prior to the google involvement; now I'm not sure what to think.

They did demonstrate quantum behavior in a Nature paper [0] they published in 2011.

[0] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v473/n7346/full/nature1...

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