Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The happy Spring Festival holiday is over in the twinkling of an eye. I wonder if you have gone to see the recent popular movie "wandering Earth 2" during the holiday. If you go to see it, you will be impressed by all the technology shown in the movie, from the magnificent space elevator to the 550W quantum computer that can control tens of thousands of planetary engines around the world.

Among them, the quantum computer 550 series has so many parts that it is even comparable to the protagonists in the film, appearing in almost all the key places and plots, and it is called the key to the successful implementation of the wandering Earth Project in the film.

Picture Source: wandering Earth 2 if you watch the eggs at the end of the film, you will also find that the code name 550W Quantum computer is probably the biggest villain in the entire wandering Earth movie series, from the cornerstone of the human escape plan to the biggest villain behind the scenes. Is quantum computer really as powerful as described in the movie? To what extent has quantum computer developed in reality?

What exactly is a quantum computer? What is a quantum computer? To put it simply, a quantum computer is a device for general computing based on quantum logic, which is essentially different from the traditional computer. At present, the traditional computer basically follows the binary system (there are decimal devices in the early period of the tube, and basically binary in the later period), and its state is only 0 and 1, while the quantum computer is different. in a nutshell, it has three states: 0, 1 and 2.

Image source: friends who know a little about the history of computer development in VEER may begin to complain at this time, aren't 0, 1, 2 ternary computers? It is important to note that ternary 0, 1, 2 is only a way of calculating every three into one, not a state.

Or it would be easier to understand that in a binary system, 0 is off, 1 is on, and there are only on and off states. In the quantum computer system, 0 is off, 1 is on, and 2 is uncertain (refer to Schrodinger's cat). In quantum mechanics, the state of "2" is generally called superposition state, and "2" does not represent a certain state. it's the superposition of n states.

Image source: Wikipedia so, during the operation of the quantum computer, the existence of "2" allows the quantum computer to be in n states at the same time. For example, let's assume that there is a traditional computer with four bits that can only get one state per second, that is, 0000 or 0101, so it takes 16 seconds to get all the states.

At this time, we also have a quantum computer with four qubits, which can calculate all the permutations and combinations from 0000 to 1111 at the same time, which means that the quantum computer can output 16 states in one second, which is equivalent to the efficiency of 16 traditional computers running at the same time.

16 times, it doesn't seem like much? What if you increase the number of bits to 5? The answer is 32 times. What about 6 bits? 64 times. With the increase of the number of bits, the performance gap between quantum computers and traditional computers increases exponentially, and friends who know a little bit about mathematics should be able to realize the horrors among them. so the actual quantum computer speed can reach a height unmatched by traditional computers.

Moreover, the quantum computer also has a magical characteristic-the quantum entangled state, which can make the two quantum states at innumerable distances synchronize instantly regardless of time and space. To put it simply, if there are two quantum entangled states, one in China and one on the moon, the people in China turn the quantum in their hands in a circle (metaphorically) and turn on the laser light to the moon, before the laser reaches the moon, the quantum on the moon has already turned around synchronously.

Quantum entangled state transcends the characteristics of time and space, which makes it one of the feasible conjectures of space-time travel and other concepts in science fiction. In quantum computers, scientists can make use of this feature to make quantum computers perform different sets of operations at the same time, and finally observe the result with the greatest probability of collapse, that is, the "correct answer".

It can be said that in front of quantum computers, the encryption system currently used by human beings is virtually non-existent. People with a strong quantum computer can theoretically enter and leave the online financial systems of various countries at will, and modify the amount on their accounts at will. Of course, this is the most boring application, if we can create 550W in reality, we can even simulate the whole world at the atomic level.

How far are we from "MOSS"? In wandering Earth 2, MOSS is an artificial intelligence based on the latest quantum computer 550W, and the power of 550W has many performances in the movie. For example, it controls tens of thousands of planetary engines around the world at the same time, has the spare power to build and maintain planetary engines, and even simulates digital life, extending its life to 70 years (2 minutes in 550A).

The performance of a quantum computer depends on the number of qubits built into it, and the specific performance index is "quantum volume", a special unit proposed by IBM. The 550W quantum volume in the movie is 8192, and the most powerful quantum computer disclosed in IBM News is 128. the difference between the two is 64 times.

However, the screenwriter seems to have put a small oolong here. In fact, we have a quantum computer with more than 8,000 quantum volume. in theory, in an ion trap quantum computer, it only takes 13 qubits to get a computer with the same quantum volume.

Some netizens in related fields said that more than 8000 perfectly logical qubits are needed to realize the 550W computing power in the film, so what is the maximum number of quantum computers we have now? 433 qubits, made by IBM, are more than 20 times less than the 550W in the film.

Figure source: IBM and, with the increase in the number of qubits, the difficulty of research and development will soar, and we still have a long way to go to achieve the same computing power of 550W. While computing is only the first step in making 550W, there is no hope for reengraving "MOSS" in reality.

What for? I don't know if you still remember a segment in the movie where the UAV control system of the space elevator is out of control. the final solution is to connect the 550C to the main computer of the control center and directly generate a new operating system to cover the old system.

At the point in time of the episode, the quantum computer is still a strategic device and is only used in a few very important projects, so the unmanned control center is actually using a traditional computer. Without additional operation, 550C independently completed the compilation and transcoding between the two computer systems, and self-compiled a new system bottom layer in a very short time.

And 550 series quantum computers can be used in almost all scenarios that require computing power, which means that 550 series is general-purpose quantum computers. In the research and development of real quantum computers, general-purpose quantum computers still exist like castles in the air. It's possible but impossible.

Our current quantum computers have great limitations. Only in special operations can they perform much better than traditional computers, such as parallel computing and other scenarios. Moreover, in order for the quantum computer to run in a predetermined form, it also needs to be set up by technicians in advance.

To put it simply, our current quantum computer is a special device, which can only work in a specific field, and its performance is even worse than that of a traditional computer if it is allowed to work in a non-specific field. It can be said that the ultimate dream of quantum computer research and development is to build a general-purpose quantum computer, when everything that needs to be used by a computer will be strengthened as never before.

In the imagination of some researchers, mature general-purpose quantum computers can simulate a person or even a planet at the atomic level, and use quantum properties to calculate the person's future, that is, "predicting the future" in science fiction. It may sound whimsical, but it's not impossible in quantum mechanics, and it's also expressed in movies, such as the digital life map Yaya, and in the closing eggs, MOSS predicts the Jupiter crisis that will not happen for decades.

Picture Source: wandering the Earth 2 the distance between us and the quantum computer in the movie can be borrowed from a netizen's analogy: "it is probably equivalent to the difference between drilling wood to make fire to the i9 processor" unless there is a new Big Bang of Science. Otherwise, it's impossible for our generation to see it.

However, there may be no need to be pessimistic. In the current quantum computer programs in various countries, thousands of bits of quantum computers will be put on the market around 2023-2025. With the popularity of quantum computers, infrastructure such as computing centers will achieve considerable performance improvements, and the resulting changes may completely subvert our society.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Lei Technology (ID:leitech), author: Lei Tech Digital 3C Group

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