Could IonQ be gearing up for a bigger partnership with Nvidia?

Why IonQ Stock Surged Today

IonQ, Inc. (IONQ) ended the recent trading session at $10.63, demonstrating a +0.09% swing from the preceding day&#x27;s closing price. The stock&#x27;s change was less than the S&amp;P 500&#x27;s daily gain of 0.13%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0

IonQ, Inc. (IONQ) Increases Yet Falls Behind Market: What Investors Need to Know | Nasdaq

The facility will be IonQ’s second quantum data center providing cloud access to IonQ customers, and the primary production engineering location in the U.S. It will also house the company’s expanding R&amp;D and manufacturing teams, including the teams focused on the upcoming rollout of the ...

IonQ Debuts US First Quantum Computing Manufacturing Facility

This IONQ stock outlook will reveal why IONQ should be considered by both short and long-term investors for solid gains.

IONQ Stock Outlook: Why This Quantum Computing Play Could Be a Long-Term Winner | InvestorPlace

IonQ

ionq

Starting with Compaq back in 1981, there haven’t been too many startups in the history of the tech business that have seen things from a different angle and won against the big boys. Now we look at one potential suitor for Compaq’s crown in quantum computing, IonQ, and how its approach to QC may change the discipline forever. Tacos and Burritos About a week ago, quite accidentally, I stumbled across a documentary on Netflix called . I thought I’d watch every tech documentary on Netflix, Amazon Prime and all other streaming service as well as for free on Youtube, so when this popped up on the Netflix recommendation algorithm I was pleasantly surprised. The documentary, about how Compaq competed with, and won against, IBM in the personal computer business in the early 1980s, was a revelation. Silicon Cowboys ‘The world is moving so fast that it’s become change or die. Nobody knows that better than me.’ — Joseph R. “Rod” Canion Of course, I’d heard about the history of Compaq and its CEO Rod Canion et al who left Texas Instruments of calculator fame to establish the startup back in ’81. That was not before, however, Canion, Bill Murto and Jim Harris had thought about starting up a chain of Mexican food restaurants in the Houston area. Where’s my Burrito! Thank goodness for destiny, though. Compaq versus IBM Compaq released its Compaq Portable PC onto the American market in the fall of 1982, and the rest is history, they say. Its winning formula, no doubt, was its compatibility with IBM’s PC, its portability and decent price point. Compaq’s Portable PC. Source: oldcomputers.net For over a decade David stood shoulder to shoulder with Goliath. Things only started to go belly up for Compaq when Dell became the major player in the PC market in the early 2000s. This led to its eventual acquisition by Hewlett-Packard until sadly, the name was retired in 2013. This can’t detract, nevertheless, from the way Compaq conducted itself on the PC market and for a very long time was able to hold its own against companies like Apple and IBM. Three cheers, I say. This only serves as a warning to the big boys of the tech industry that no matter how much money you have, how much influence you possess on the market, innovation is free, and out there, somewhere lurking like a wolf in the night, there’s a clever person or two ready to steal your crown with such a gem of an idea, that they will disrupt the industry forever. Feynman’s Legacy Over the last half a decade, ideas of how computers can change our lives have gone into different directions from the traditional binary system of ones and zeros. ‘Quantum’ is a new byword for tech progress, and quantum computing, the new industry sprouting up startup after startup. These embryonic companies, seeing a future where quantum theory and its applications will change the world of computing, industry, business, education and people’s lives, is here to stay. The man, the genius, Richard Feynman. Source: mystudentvoices.com First espoused by Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman and Russian mathematician Yuri Manin in the early 1980s — who believed a quantum computer had the potential to better simulate things than a classical computer could — quantum computing has become the go-to field for those interested in a world where the science of quantum mechanics could shape our future. There’s a buzz on the streets of places like College Park, Maryland, Burnaby, Canada and Berkeley, California — home of IonQ, D-Wave and Rigetti, respectively, three of the industry’s smaller companies competing against the giants of the quantum world: IBM, Google, Intel, Microsoft and the dozen others on the market trying to vie for supremacy in quantum computers. ‘Nature isn’t classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you’d better make it quantum mechanical.’ — Richard Feynman One, though — IonQ , deserves special attention and reminds me of the brash and ballsy attitude of Compaq some forty years earlier. Not just because of its tiny budget in comparison to the others, but additionally for its approach to quantum computer research. While in the main most of the other companies’ efforts are in the semi-conductor superconducting slant to quantum computing, IonQ believes trapped ion technology and how it can be harnessed effectively to build a quantum machine that is both more reliable and cost-effective in the long run has seen many experts in the fledgling industry claim their approach is too unrealistic. Ion Trapping The startup, established in 2015 by cofounders , Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland and Fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute, and , a professor at Duke University, is going against the grain of the ‘traditional’ approach to quantum computer theory. Christopher Monroe Jungsang Kim Trapped ions versus Superconductor. Source: iontrap.umd.edu Their claims the ion trapping system requires less error correction, and that entangling a greater number of qubits is far simpler than in the current systems employed by many of the other companies in the industry, and uses, as its base, atomic clock theory The semi-conductor superconducting method, on the other hand, needs amongst other things dilution refrigerators and other costly equipment. Not good for the bottom line. IonQ’s developments are fairly new, and not everybody in the industry is on their side, though this has not stopped the startup from evangelizing their trapped ion architecture which they believe will surpass the semiconductor approach in the QC world practised by the big guns very soon. An obstacle facing all the companies at the moment is the noise produced by quantum computers, this is especially prescient with the semiconductor-based superconducting method. To say they are noisy is an understatement. These loud machines demand formidable error correction procedures mainly in part to eradicate external noises, wayward electromagnetic fields, vibration, heat and any other outside influences that can destroy the very delicate qubits that are at the centre of the technology. Once this is overcome, however, things can move forward. As of yet, though, the approach is still largely elementary. But wasn’t it the same at the early stages of the classical computer era? Whether IonQ’s remarkable achievements thus far come to fruition is open to debate. Yet, what they have accomplished must be applauded for its brave and innovative approach. Einstein once said: ‘Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.’ And this is true in IonQ’s case. Like Rigetti and D-Wave, the Maryland-based startup is courageous enough to make a go of it, even though the odds are stacked up against it a hundred-fold. With the resources of infinite money afforded to Google, Intel and IBM, the task ahead will surely be Sisyphean in both its struggle and complexity. Believing in their unique scientific approach to QC and how ion trapping can help the technology move onwards and upwards, will only improve the people working there. Positively Mutated Intellects Compaq, unfortunately, is no more, though its legacy lives on in the laptop and other mobile devices that have become part and parcel of our modern lives. People like Monroe and Kim are just 21st-century versions of Canion, Murto and Harris, with many of the same traits that all entrepreneurs who want to change the world have. If, say, in ten years’ time IonQ is a name of the QC past, too, consigned to history as a company which tried to break the boundaries of science, I don’t think it will really matter that much. What they’re doing now, like all tech companies, and like all scientists in the history of the world have done, is moving scientific thought on, giving it fuel to surge forward in a quest for a better truth, a more realistic vision, of how we can be if we put our minds to it. Barring Einstein and a few other geniuses in the history of the world with a positively mutated intellect, human achievements have largely been based on accumulated knowledge, a continuum of ideas that spread from one generation to another, quite seamlessly on the whole, but so very magical. Positively Mutated Intellect or just an overly aggressive alien? Source: comicvine.gamespot.com IonQ, then, like its long lost brother company Compaq, can be proud of its achievements. Whether they be today or tomorrow. You see, the idea’s the thing. <a href="https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href">https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href</a>

Why Tech Startup IonQ Could Be The Future Of Quantum Computing

Quantum Computing Needs More Software Engineers

কোয়ান্টাম কম্পিউটিং এর জন্য আরও সফটওয়্যার ইঞ্জিনিয়ার প্রয়োজন

Quantencomputing braucht mehr Softwareentwickler

La computación cuántica necesita más ingenieros de software

L'informatique quantique a besoin de plus d'ingénieurs logiciels

क्वांटम कंप्यूटिंग को अधिक सॉफ्टवेयर इंजीनियरों की आवश्यकता है

量子コンピューティングにはより多くのソフトウェアエンジニアが必要

양자 컴퓨팅에는 더 많은 소프트웨어 엔지니어가 필요합니다

A computação quântica precisa de mais engenheiros de software

Квантовым вычислениям нужно больше инженеров-программистов

Kuantum Bilişimin Daha Fazla Yazılım Mühendisine İhtiyacı Var

Máy tính lượng tử cần nhiều kỹ sư phần mềm hơn

量子计算需要更多软件工程师

Explaining the Infinite Potential of Quantum Computing in Marvel-lous English (No Math)

মার্ভেল-লাউস ইংলিশে কোয়ান্টাম কম্পিউটিং এর অসীম সম্ভাবনা ব্যাখ্যা করা (কোন গণিত নয়)

Erklären Sie das unendliche Potenzial des Quantencomputings in wunderbarem Englisch (keine Mathematik)

Explicando el potencial infinito de la computación cuántica en un inglés bastante divertido (sin matemáticas)

Expliquer le potentiel infini de l'informatique quantique dans un anglais plutôt drôle (pas de mathématiques)

क्वांटम कंप्यूटिंग की अनंत संभावनाओं को मज़ेदार अंग्रेजी में समझाना (कोई गणित नहीं)

量子コンピューティングの無限の可能性を面白い英語で説明する (数学なし)

놀라운 영어로 양자 컴퓨팅의 무한한 잠재력 설명(수학 없음)

Explicando o potencial infinito da computação quântica em inglês bastante engraçado (sem matemática)

Kuantum Hesaplamanın Sonsuz Potansiyelini Harika İngilizceyle Açıklamak (Matematiksiz)

Giải thích tiềm năng vô hạn của máy tính lượng tử bằng tiếng Anh khá hài hước (Không có toán học)

用相当有趣的英语解释量子计算的无限潜力（无数学）

Crypto Crash? Not Really... 

The metaverse is quite possibly the future of the internet. To help our readers learn more about it, we've started this metaverse interview series. These are the questions we've compiled to ask experts in blockchain, DAOs, NFTs, and game development, within the HackerNoon community. The series is intended for tech professionals to contribute their insights about the current state and the future of the metaverse. If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so here. If you also want to publish your thoughts about the metaverse, answer the template here. HackerNoon Reporter: So let’s start! First, tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests. My name is Matthew Proffitt. I’m a 26-year old, six-figure freelance consultant, financial analyst (certified FMVA), and content marketer that has helped more than 30 companies secure funding—over $500 million altogether since 2017. I specialize in ESG, emerging tech, and disruptive tech. Some days I type upward of 1500/2000 words per hour (without dictating) and some days, my ADHD gets the best of me, so I go down the dopamine rabbit holes and type like 50 words per hour. Thankfully, I get paid for ideas and insights in addition to content. I enjoy gaming, photography, reading, writing, listening to, and recently making music. I don’t have any music published yet, but I’ve been dabbling for about a year now. I’ve served as a thought-leader “behind the curtain” in more than 20 industries including Web 3.0, cloud computing, drones, cybersecurity, and management consulting. Please sum up what the metaverse is in 1 to two paragraphs. The metaverse is, essentially the next step in the human experience. Millennials have been a fortunate generation in many ways. We’ve seen the transition from AOL (before my time, haha.) to Web 2.0 and the wonders that HTML, among other elements, has brought. We saw the birth of technology like Augmented Reality and Quantum Computing IRL. (There are QCs available to businesses now—we live in the future.) Now, the metaverse is becoming a sovereign space for creators and consumers. It’s a place where people can go to build things that they own. It’s impossible to own a forgery of an NFT, for example. Someone can own the same image, even identical image attributes, but never a fake NFT, something people seem to forget when calling “theft” and other (still offensive) actions out. At a high level, the metaverse is a fusion of infrastructure, technology, experience, identity, and proof of ownership. Are you currently, directly or indirectly, working on building a metaverse? I support Web 3.0 and metaverse businesses alongside other clients. I’ve collaborated with a few NFT projects for ideation on things like world-building and story crafting, marketing, and many other things. I’m indirectly working on building in the metaverse. I attended NFT-focused event on Feb. 23rd, 2022. It was hosted , a non-profit network that supports underdog entrepreneurs in the Appalachian Highlands. I also just finished a grant-related PR for a Web 3.0 client that may prove infrastructural in the months and years to come. FoundersForge In your opinion, is the metaverse inevitable, or is it just another passing trending tech topic that'll lose hype? There’s no avoiding it any more than there was avoiding bitcoin. It will definitely lose hype—by nature, hype is meant to fade. The Gartner “ ” is a common reference for people seeking to learn which stage of adoption a given type of technology is in. Technology Hype Cycle Why is the metaverse such a revolutionary concept? The metaverse is revolutionary because there has never been a phase in human history that we could bring so many disruptive forces together at once. I would go so far as to say that . Once we find effective means to combine manufacturing, logistics, machine vision, , and automation, and all formats of AI/ML into the mix, I don’t think anyone can see where we will end up. To me, the metaverse is a summary of technological progress to date. we are building the singularity today quantum computing autonomization To sum it up, It’s the . beginning of the next chapter in human history What can people build in the metaverse that we can't build on the Internet, or in virtual reality today? What limitations of our current technology does the metaverse free us from? Simply put, the metaverse doesn’t necessarily free us from technological limitations by existing. It does, however, open new potential avenues of progress. Things like immersive AR/VR are already here—I’ve spent a fair bit of time exploring through my Quest 2, but I know I’m just scratching the surface. The most important thing that I see people building in the metaverse is experience. We’re now building experiences based on things that we own. It’s like when you’re playing a game—you farm for loot, grind away hours of your life, and you own the items you get, right? Not in Web 2.0—if a developer shuts their game down, you’ve got nothing. Seeing games like (This link will take you to the Darkwinds Discord server) that lost their footing (and developers) can still exist after losing the founding team—held by a community—it’s exhilarating. Darkwinds How are the metaverse and blockchain technology related? Can we build a metaverse without blockchain tech? This depends on how you relate concepts that underpin these concepts. Blockchain is, effectively, to the metaverse what seconds, minutes, and hours are to this portion of reality. If we compare block time against an average of 10 minutes ($BTC), we’re just converting from minutes into block time. So as far as I’m concerned, no. they’re inextricably linked—inseparable. History is written by the victors —Winston Churchill If you apply this concept to blockchain, it holds true, no matter what method we use to reach consensus. Effectively, there’s a multiverse of orphaned, rejected, and abandoned blocks—each containing a different shard of reality—a timeline of its own. The metaverse as I see it, cannot exist without blockchain—distributed consensus and an immutable ledger of history. How quickly do you think the metaverse will be developed? How much can we expect metaverse tech to grow in the next 5 to 10 years? Given recent changes in public markets and available technology, I expect to see massive growth. In particular infrastructure and quality of life enhancements, such as the Hyundai//IonQ partnership for lithium battery research. Other advancements have been made, with respect to silicon-based quantum computing components and even quantum logic gates. Further, investments from the private sector and media (looking at you, Zuckerburg and Meta) have drastically accelerated public sector awareness of the concept. It’s kind of forcing people to accept the impending advancements. I’ll take a second to split out various tech components of the modern metaverse and what/how I expect to see progress. I’m only going to touch on areas where I’ve provided thought-leadership, whether as a byline or as a ghostwriter—blogs, eBooks, whitepapers, etc. Quantum computing: We will continue to see growth in commercial-grade quantum computers, with widely-respected companies like placing by 2028. Some of the other industry leaders, like (quantum software development.) For some framing, quantum-driven Natural Language Processing (QNLP) was able to in 2020. IonQ 1000+ qubit quantum computers on the horizon Classiq accommodate both grammar AND meaning for words and sentences There’s also been recent progress in quantum networking and quantum encryption. the longest range free space network that I’ve heard of to date employs quantum entanglement to a satellite over 1,200km away. There is already a as well, as of 2021. multinode quantum network A paper published by in Nov. 2021 reported that Google researchers, in collaboration with Stanford, had successfully created time crystals—quantum particle systems that organize themselves into a periodic pattern of motion that is rather than in space. Simply put, it’s , a new category of phases of matter altogether. Nature periodic in time simultaneously stable and always changing Gaming: I’ve been into gaming for over a decade—including co-founding two esports organizations to promote mental well-being and help address some of the toxicity underpinning the gaming and eSports communities. When I started them, I ended up taking on more than I could handle, so despite strong (Top 10 out of over 90 teams) Amateur placements at events like NJROD: King of The Couch (a Halo and Call of Duty-focused event at the time), national placements for Magic the Gathering, and a host of other teams, such as CS:GO and Hearthstone, we decided to shutter the ventures. Blockchain/Crypto/Web 3.0: We will continue to see new and exciting projects in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space in addition to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and expansions upon Peer-to-Peer (P2P) finance elements, such as insurance. Flash loans were an exciting topic in 2021 for things like arbitrage, where your potential losses were able to be mitigated. One comical example was an individual —but ultimately paying only 0.2 $ETH (the cost of gas). buying their own CryptoPunk for $500 million Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)—I still remember when the Ethereum DAO was hacked in like 2017. The potential for benefit here is crazy, increased by an order of magnitude, at least, if combined with the other tech mentioned in this interview. DAOs can resolve nearly all of the G (governance-related) concerns in the ESG space if we utilize it properly over the next few decades. It’s not a silver bullet, however. Things like “Oracles” that onboard real-world data onto blockchains are just one key component of realizing the full potential of DAOs. I’ve seen a lot of discussion around stablecoins (such as , a former client of mine) and liquidity mining (such as Aave and curve), or pooling funds and letting someone else invest them—also known as “Yield Farming” between 2020 and 2021. There’s been some exciting progress there. Ultimately, you should only ever invest what you can afford to lose, however. Nothing is free—risk is an intangible currency all its own, you pay the risk upfront when you exchange value in any format. Everex Global Musicians like “Lil Bubble” have also made some meme-worthy songs, like this one about yield farming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42pUCIjC6ks And this one about DeFi as an overarching concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEs1Ezk9htU There has been a lot of mainstream visibility over the last couple of years, in particular as institutions like Goldman Sachs have , so much so that a wave of new scandals regarding governing-body personnel, such as Federal Reserve (FED) staff have incited sweeping sanctions on stock and crypto trading restrictions for FED personnel, including: begun investing funds into crypto Officials must provide 45-day non-retractable notice for transactions, receive pre-approval for purchases and sales and hold investments for at least one year Transactions will be prohibited during periods of heightened financial market stress ( ) Fortune.com Mobile processing: Qualcomm, Google, Apple, NXP Semiconductors, Samsung, and Ericsson are major mobile processing unit producers. Qualcomm Snapdragon, Google “Tensor”, Ericsson “NovaThor”, and other units have proven capable of impressive performance in a very small form factor. The Oculus Quest 2, as an example to kinda bring things back around to the metaverse, uses the Qualcomm XR2 mobile processing chipset (a variant of the Snapdragon 865 chipset that’s found in higher-end phones like the S20 Ultra from Samsung. It also uses the Adreno 650 graphics processor (GPU) from Qualcomm. It’s the first standalone VR headset to cross into “trillion floating-point operations per second” (Teraflops) territory. For comparison, a PS5 is capable of 10.3 Teraflops. That’s really exciting because the Quest 2 uses only about 5W of power for its mobile processor (CPU), whereas a PS5 uses a Zen-2 based custom processor. For all of its system operations, it uses 200W during gaming and purportedly as much as 90W just for watching Netflix. ( ) Note: These are two different sets of measurements showing the scale of difference—not a direct “apple and apple” comparison Energy Efficiency/ESG: We’re starting to see some crazy stuff here. There’s an AI that can control plasma now, by itself. It can even control the shape of the plasma. This may mean huge things for the safety and efficiency of nuclear power in the not-so-distant future. I’ve been really excited about this since I ghostwrote an article on Tokamak nuclear reactors, it was initially in 2017. I cannot link my article because it was ghostwritten, but we’re seeing really exciting stuff these days. inspired by this release from Tokamak Energy That doesn’t even begin to summarize it, though. I had a conversation with someone regarding a product that could work to balance carbon footprints and maybe even work to convert some of our waste products (like carbon dioxide, etc.) into energy—they were looking to raise funds, but we ultimately drifted apart before agreeing on a deal. Other things are under study and research here, like advanced air filtration (some are exploring air filtration to resolve pollution issues and aid in the reduction of climate change factors.) Tesla, of course, is making news with their (very) recent switch to (Lithium Iron Phosphate, specifically) for their standard-range vehicles. These are the , according to Power-Sonic, a battery manufacturer. producing Iron-based batteries safest lithium batteries that you can buy In conjunction with a multi-billion dollar initiative by the US Department of Energy, this may mean that the lower range is a far lesser concern. Now, when we are able to deploy stable nuclear reactors, we will quickly reach a tipping point wherein electric energy is far more sustainable than fossil fuels. If you think about it, your gas tank is basically just a (refillable) chemical potential battery. Some lead-based batteries last as long as 20 years, far longer than your current average car lifespan. Cybersecurity: There have been countless hacks over the last few years, including OpenSea, which has been a controversial compromise. People need to be aware that emails may be sent using HTML, also known as a “Deep Fake” email. Sites like allow users to send emails . Deadfake has begun imposing a footer at the bottom of emails sent from their service and uses trackable means in case of criminal activity, in order to prevent situations like this, whether related to it or not. Deadfake From anyone as a visibly authentic email address Security deserves an additional mention here as well—the OpenSea hack reminded me of the in 2017 (I ) which was worth 150,000ETH (only $30 million at the time ($220), is equivalent to over $412 million at a modern ETH price of $2,750) Ethereum Parity wallet breach covered the event here Since the SolarWinds attack a couple of years ago, businesses have realized that simply unit testing the components and requisites of software isn’t sufficient. Companies like ReversingLabs have developed solutions for whole-picture software testing, before a software deployment, which helps mitigate modern risks. Self-healing systems are also becoming increasingly relevant—as more than just jargon. Artificial Intelligence: Solving all forms of optimization problems, power management, predictive analytics, data science, the possibilities here are ever-evolving and seem limitless. In 2021, the first AI hyperoptimization model was deployed—an AI that trains new AIs. It’s able to do countless hours of initial training in just seconds. I could spend the next hour of typing at 1400wph, discussing advancements here, and still just scratch the surface. Logistics and Shipping: , , and more have been hot topics from 2017 through 2021, and continue to be hot in 2022. Recent evolution of things like driver shortages, dock detentions/delays, and shipment container-hauling chassis have led to newsworthy port backups and stalls in the supply chain. Odds are pretty high that you or someone you know has seen shelves barren as of late, sometimes for days to weeks at a time. COVID has definitely contributed, but some things, like the chassis shortages, have been backlogged for a year or more. Amazon and Walmart are struggling to find logistics support, FedEx seems to be struggling, and many third-party logistics providers are starving for talent. Self-driving cars can aid with resolving the talent struggles but are not market-ready for full autonomy yet. Seoul Robotics displayed a “ ” at CES 2022. Warehouse optimization automated warehouses LVL5 CTRL TWR One simple use case for this might be a CRM integration that verifies customers’ location-based details, such as weather, so businesses aren’t sending out SMS coupons for sleds when it’s seventy degrees outside. Manufacturing: Holy cow, we’re seeing the birth of the first fully autonomous factories and robots that can both feel pain and respond to it themselves. . They’re capable of complex tasks such as independently loading products and pallets onto trucks, and more—with no human intervention. Japan and the US are already —the perceptible culmination of tech required for fully automated factories and fully automated self-driving cars. Robots can now detect damage and repair themselves as well as other robots working on collective standards for 6G communications What is your hope for the metaverse? Do you have any worries or does the concept pose any threats? I have high hopes for it. I see the metaverse as an opportunity for humans to create truly sustainable industry, fully-immersive entertainment, and experiences, and resolve many trust-based issues that exist in the modern market. We may see a world of anything we can ever want within the next 20 years. I have a wide array of concerns as well, of course. We’ve got AI and machine-related ethics, defining the human experience to enable people to continue living full, deep, fulfilling lives, and even concerns regarding the addictiveness of AR/VR, gaming addiction, and more. Then there’s the prospect of mind-reading technology (Neuralink to name one business in the space), and a whole host of potential dystopian and apocalyptic scenarios. I’m not a doomsday type of guy, but I’m not blind to the possibilities, either. We have to work together and consistently adhere to and test our morals & ethics to ensure a bright tomorrow for humanity, specifically the generations to come. Thanks for your time! Any final words? I like to talk to people who do stuff. I welcome all formats of feedback and conversation, as long as people are respectful. I’m the guy that people come to when everyone says their idea is crazy, who helps them launch and raise funds. Most of the time, it’s people that are just ahead of their time. This article definitely covers more than just the metaverse, but I think it’s important to see progress as a whole, how the pieces come together, and where businesses can fit into the puzzle. That’s what I’m passionate about—stepping into the unknown and figuring out what connections exist, and which ones need to exist. I’m happy to answer any questions that I am able to.

There’s No Avoiding The Metaverse, It is the Next Chapter in Human History

“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not speak then unto me.” -William Shakespeare If you have your ear to the ground tech-wise you'll know that four pieces of tech have been making huge rotations -Blockchain, AI, IoT, and Quantum computers. In this article, we're going to be talking about quantum computers, what they mean, how they work, how they will be used, and where they are right now. Photo credits: IBM What are Quantum Computers? According to , quantum computers are devices that harness the collective properties of quantum states, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement, to perform calculations. Wikipedia To fully understand quantum computers you must understand quantum physics(at least a watered-down version of it 😅). I tried to use as many simple words as possible, but If at any point in time during my explanations you don't understand anything remember this quote by , the father of quantum computers - . Richard Feynman "If anyone tells you they understand quantum mechanics then they don't understand quantum mechanics" In essence, no one understands quantum physics, even the pioneers. Quantum physics is physics that deals with the behaviour and interaction of particles (i.e protons, electrons etc) in the quantum realm and how they affect our physical world. Now when the concepts of quantum physics are used to manipulate particles to perform computation, quantum computation comes about and this then brings about quantum computers. In simple words, quantum computers are computers that make use of quantum physics concepts to process data and output it as information the same way normal computers work but with atomic particles. How do Quantum Computers Work? photo credits: IBM To fully understand how quantum computers work and perform processing, you must first understand how classical computers process data. Classical computers process data through binary (i.e 0s and 1s, on or off), these 0s and 1s are designed and implemented into something called which are at the core just simple rules which guide the use of 0s and 1s to process data. logic gates Now for a computer to physically process data they make use of things called , transistors are just the physical implementation of a lot of logic gates that are designed to perform the processing of commands/data. transistors For instance, you have a doorbell, the circuit which helps the doorbell work is made of a bunch of transistors that are arranged (designed) in such a way that once you ring a doorbell the sound is then played for people to hear. Now the relationship between transistors and logic gates is at the core similar to a sketch by a sculptor before he starts to sculpt. So logic gates are just like a way to sketch out how transistors will be arranged in a system(like a computer, phone, watch, camera, etc) and then the transistors designed are then implemented in the physical system(computer, phone, watch, camera, etc) using transistors. Now at the core, Quantum Computers work in a somewhat similar way to normal/classical computers. but instead of using binary (0s and 1s) as normal computers do, they make use of something called Qubits, Qubits are just like bits(these are 0s and 1s) are for normal computers. I'm going to explain Quibits using an analogy, normal computer's bits(0s and 1s) are like a coin with 2 faces with 0 being one face(maybe heads) and 1 being another face(maybe tails), now when a computer processes data imagine the coming being tossed and it can land on either heads(0) or tails(1) and that is how in non-esoteric terms how classical computers work. Now for quantum computers, imagine instead of having 0s (heads) and 1s(tails) the Qubit is both a 0 and 1 at the same time (weird? I know😅), So where a normal computer has 2 bits (0s and 1s) a quantum computer has one bit which can do the job of both 0s and 1s because it can be both of them at the same time. Remember our earlier definition of quantum computers where I said . quantum computers are computers that process data by manipulating quantum particles using concepts from quantum physics Now quantum computers can be both 0s and 1s at the same time due to a concept in quantum physics called , this is a notion that tiny objects can exist in multiple places or states simultaneously. This might be a bit complex or at most scary but it explains how a qubit can be both a 0 and 1 at the same time. superposition Going back to our earlier coin analogy, where a classical computer's bits are like a coin with 2 faces, each representing one bit(0 and 1). A quantum computer is like a coin that is spinning. It is both faces of the coin (0 and 1) at the same time. Now quantum computers are not made up of monitors, keyboards, etc so it doesn't process data the way a normal computer does but rather it works like this - a problem is given to a quantum computer and then the same way normal computers design logic gates to process data the quantum computer designs logic gates suited to the problem and then it implements qubits which are then used to solve the problem. To know more about Quantum Logic gates, read this article Challenges Facing Quantum Computers Photo credits: IBM Algorithms For quantum computers or computation of any sort to succeed, algorithms are needed. Algorithms are simply a set of rules which are followed for something to be achieved. Quantum computers are slated to be faster at solving real-life problems than supercomputers ever will be, but for them to solve these said problems they need algorithms and these currently are in short supply because of how complex quantum computers are. But slowly we are getting there, research is going on for algorithms that can be optimized on quantum computers. Stabilizing and Scaling For quantum computers to achieve their goals efficiently you need a lot of qubits. But for qubits to work efficiently you need them to be in a constant state but freezing them in this state requires a lot of resources and therefore it is extremely resource-intensive, now imagine, for you to solve a large computing-intensive task which quantum computers are optimized for have to build and maintain thousands of qubits. superposition Fortunately, research on stabilizing qubits(quantum bits ) is progressing, to know about the current state of this research, read . this article Spooky Nature For quantum computers to go mainstream i.e for quantum computers to achieve the large goals which it is being slated to solve like efficient weather forecasting, space exploration, atomic particle modelling, data simulation etc people have to build algorithms for it. For people to build algorithms for quantum computers then people have to understand how quantum computers work but the thing is quantum computers are built on quantum mechanical concepts and understanding quantum mechanical concepts isn't exactly like reciting your ABCs. Fortunately, people are becoming more aware of quantum computers so gradually it is expected that information and tutorials on quantum computers will go mainstream. Companies Involved in Quantum Computing SOURCE: zdnet Atom Computing is a quantum computing hardware company specializing in neutral atom quantum computers. Atom Computing While it is currently prototyping its first offerings, Atom Computing said it will provide cloud access "to large numbers of very coherent qubits by optically trapping and addressing individual atoms," said Ben Bloom, founder and CEO. The company also builds and creates "complicated hardware control systems for use in the academic community,'' Bloom said. Xanadu Xanadu is a Canadian quantum technology company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Founded in 2016, Xanadu is building toward a universal quantum computer using silicon photonic hardware, according to Sepehr Taghavi, corporate development manager. The company also provides users access to near-term quantum devices through its Xanadu Quantum Cloud (XQC) service. The company also leads the development of PennyLane, an open-source software library for quantum machine learning and application development, Taghavi said. IBM In 2016, IBM was the first company to put a quantum computer on the cloud. The company has since built up an active community of more than 260,000 registered users, who run more than one billion every day on real hardware and simulators. In 2017, IBM was the first company to offer universal quantum computing systems via the IBM Q Network. The network now includes more than 125 organizations, including Fortune 500s, startups, research labs, and education institutions. Partners include Daimler AG, JPMorgan Chase, and ExxonMobil. All use IBM's most advanced quantum computers to simulate new materials for batteries, model portfolios and financial risk, and simulate chemistry for new energy technologies, the company said. By 2023, IBM scientists will deliver a quantum computer with a 1,121-qubit processor, inside a 10-foot tall "super-fridge" that will be online and capable of delivering a Quantum Advantage -- the point where certain information processing tasks can be performed more efficiently or cost-effectively on a quantum computer, versus a classical one, according to the company. ColdQuanta ColdQuanta commercializes quantum atomics, which it said is "the next wave of the information age." The company's Quantum Core technology is based on ultra-cold atoms cooled to a temperature of nearly absolute zero; lasers manipulate and control the atoms with extreme precision. The company manufactures components, instruments, and turnkey systems that address a broad spectrum of applications: quantum computing, timekeeping, navigation, radiofrequency sensors, and quantum communications. It also develops interface software. ColdQuanta's global customers include major commercial and defense companies; all branches of the US Department of Defense; national labs operated by the Department of Energy; NASA; NIST; and major universities, the company said. In April 2020, ColdQuanta was selected by the (DARPA) to develop a scalable, cold-atom-based quantum computing hardware and software platform that can demonstrate quantum advantage on real-world problems. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Zapata Computing empowers enterprise teams to accelerate quantum solutions and capabilities. It introduced , an end-to-end, workflow-based toolset for quantum computing. Zapata Computing Orquestra In addition to previously available backends that include a full range of simulators and classical resources, Orquestra now integrates with Qiskit and IBM Quantum's open quantum systems, Honeywell's System Model HØ, and Amazon Braket, the company said. The Orquestra workflow platform provides access to Honeywell's HØ, and was designed to enable teams to compose, run, and analyze complex, quantum-enabled workflows and challenging computational solutions at scale, Zapata said. Orquestra is purpose-built for quantum machine learning, optimization, and simulation problems across industries. Azure Quantum Recently introduced Azure Quantum provides a "one-stop-shop" to create a path to scalable quantum computing, Microsoft said. It is available in preview to select customers and partners through Azure. For developers, Azure Quantum offers: An open ecosystem that enables access to diverse quantum software, hardware, and offerings from Microsoft and it partners: 1QBit, Honeywell, IonQ, and QCI. A scalable, and secure platform that will continue to adapt to our rapidly evolving quantum future. An ability to have a quantum impact today with pre-built applications that run on classical computers -- which Microsoft refers to as "quantum-inspired solutions." D-Wave Founded in 1999, claims to be the first company to sell a commercial quantum computer, in 2011, and the first to give developers real-time cloud access to quantum processors with , its quantum cloud service. D-Wave Leap D-Wave's approach to quantum computing, known as quantum annealing, is best suited to optimization tasks in fields such as AI, logistics, cybersecurity, financial modelling, fault detection, materials sciences, and more. More than 250 early quantum applications have been built to date using D-Wave's technology, the company said. The company has seen a lot of momentum in 2020. In February, D-Wave announced the launch of , which introduced new tools and features designed to make it easier for developers to build bigger applications. In July, the company expanded access to Leap to India and Australia. Leap 2 In March, D-Wave opened free access to Leap for researchers working on responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In September, the company launched Advantage, a quantum system designed for business. Advantage has more than 5,000 qubits, 15-way qubit connectivity, and an expanded hybrid solver service to run problems with up to one million variables, D-Wave said. The advantage is accessible through Leap. Strangeworks , a startup based in Austin, Texas, claims to be lowering the barrier to entry into quantum computing by providing tools for development on all quantum hardware and software platforms. Strangeworks launched in March 2018, and one year later, deployed a beta version of its software platform to users from more than 140 different organizations. Strangeworks Strangeworks will open its initial offering of the platform in Q1 2021, and the enterprise edition is coming in late 2021, according to Steve Gibson, chief strategy officer. The Strangeworks Quantum Computing platform provides tools to access and program quantum computing devices. The Strangeworks IDE is platform-agnostic, and integrates all hardware, software frameworks, and supporting languages, the company said. To facilitate this goal, Strangeworks manages assembly, integrations, and product updates. Users can share their work privately with collaborators, or publicly. Users' work belongs to them and open sourcing is not required to utilize the Strangeworks platform. Summary Quantum Computing is still a relatively young field open for innovation and new ideas. It's also pretty fascinating once you understand the definition of most of its core concepts like , etc. superposition entanglement Quantum computers are still a relatively theoretical field as it hasn't yet started achieving all which it's slated to achieve but it is going to be the future of computing, when is the question. Co-published here: https://edemgold.blog/quantum-computers-in-a-nutshell

Understanding the Power of Quantum Computing 

Gordon Moore, the founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and former CEO of Intel in his 1965 paper, described that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit double about every two years and this statement is famously known as . Moore's law was consistent for the past 50 years, but with the current technological advancements, it is coming to an end. It is starting to become physically impossible to reduce transistor sizes to increase computational efficiency further, and hence this calls for alternate methods. Moore's Law One of the major areas of research is the development of quantum computers. A Quantum computer utilises quantum mechanics to perform a computational task that is governed by entirely different rules and should not be mistaken as an upgrade to the current classical computers. It promises to solve problems which are currently out of our reach. The quantum realm opens up a compelling alternative to classical computers in the form of quantum computing, which utilises Quantum mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement. The race to build the first quantum computer that can help scientists to find cures for diseases, to encrypt data with perfect security, and predict the earth's climate changes is well underway. Quantum computers could very well be the next big thing in the tech landscape, with a majority of industry leaders investing heavily in it and not making the same mistakes that were committed when the computer was first introduced. These include companies such as IonQ, Rigetti, IBM, Google, Alibaba, Microsoft, Intel, who are spending billions of dollars on quantum computing development and research. The most fundamental difference between quantum and classical computer is: utilize the classical phenomenon of electrical circuits(logic gates) being in a single state at a given time, either ON or OFF. Consider an ordinary coin, the two sides of the coin represent the two states, for example - heads represent ON(bit 1) and tails represent OFF(bit 0) or vice versa. Hence at a given moment, the coin is either heads or tails, i.e. one bit can store either 1 or 0. Classical computers utilize quantum mechanical phenomena specifically superposition, which is the phenomenon in which it is possible to be in more than one state at a time. Consider the same coin, on spinning the coin it is observed that the coin is in a superposition of states, both heads and tails, i.e. both 0 and 1 and on stopping the coin for measurement it is either a 1 or a 0. Therefore quantum bits( ) can exist in multiple states at the same time until measured and can effectively hold 2 bits of data. There are different possible physical implementations of Qubits like polarisation of a photon, spin states of an electron, etc. Quantum computers Qubits The Need For Quantum Computers Since a Qubit can effectively hold two bits of data rather than one, quantum computers can dramatically increase computational power. However, it may prove beneficial only to certain types of problems, and the main research interest is in identifying these problems and developing algorithms for them. Classical computers find it difficult to carry out functions that have exponential growth, such an example is Prime Factorization of large numbers, which would take countless years for classical computers to factor them. In contrast, by utilizing , which is based on Quantum mechanical principles, this task is completed in seconds. Shor's algorithm Quantum computers will have a massive impact on data security. Even though quantum computers would easily crack many of the encryption techniques today, predictions are that they would create hack-proof replacements. Other applications where quantum computing can make an impact are molecular modelling, mathematical optimisations, machine learning and much more. Drawbacks There are challenges at every level of a quantum computing system, from assembling qubits to reading and writing information on them, to sending data back and forth without it disappearing. Qubits are challenging to manufacture and should be maintained at temperatures lower than outer space. Decoherence is a phenomenon which reverts a quantum system to a classical system through interactions with the environment which decay and eliminate quantum behaviour of particles, and this poses as a major disadvantage. Due to decoherence, qubits can lose its quantum properties and superposition to the slightest of vibrations from nearby atoms, making it highly sensitive. Radiation, light, sound, vibrations, heat, magnetic fields or even the act of measuring a qubit are all examples of decoherence. Quantum Supremacy In quantum computing, is the goal of demonstrating that a programmable quantum device can solve a problem that classical computers practically cannot. quantum supremacy Google has announced that its 54-qubit Sycamore processor was able to perform a computational task in 200 seconds that would have taken the world's most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years. IBM, which operates the supercomputer that Google claims to have beaten is disputing their claims. IBM has responded by stating that the random number problem that the quantum computer solved takes less than three days on its supercomputer rather than 10,000 years, and thereby are arguing over the legitimacy of the claim, as the random number problem was not out of the reach of classical computers. A popular misconception about Quantum computing is that it is going to replace classical computing. Quantum computers will not fully replace classical computers. They will offer a fundamentally different way of performing calculations and will be able to perform tasks that would take classical computers millions of years to compute. While it is true that Quantum computers have the upper hand in specific problems like the simulation of biological molecules, factoring large numbers, etc., it fails to perform effectively on others, mainly because scientists have only developed a handful of quantum algorithms. The most likely scenario is that both Quantum computers and classical computers coexist, with the quantum system present as an add-on to tackle harder problems. Quantum computers are in its infant stage at present—the situation is very similar to how classical computers started, where computers were mainly used by scientists and not much user-friendly for others. It took time and technological advancements to improve on the usability and to teach people how to use computers, quantum computers will also follow through the same pipeline and pave the way to a technologically brighter future.

An Intro to Quantum Computers

Quantum computers are slowly creeping into mainstream thinking. But to take that big step, from the laboratory to universal application, may take more than quantum supremacy. Geniuses change the world, and a new Nolan Bushnell, of Atari fame, could be such a model needed to take quantum architectural systems to the next level Creating Value, Solving Problems In all honesty, there aren’t many people fit for the life of an entrepreneur, never mind one that is working in one of the most demanding sectors, tech. You’ve got to be a special kind of person. Calm and laid back but with enough curiosity on how the world is developing to ask serious questions about the direction and reason for it. Creating value and solving problems. That’s a tech entrepreneur, in a nutshell. , founder of and one of the greatest tech entrepreneurs in history, once said: Nolan Bushnell Atari ‘Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference.’ And, Jeewiz, ainy’t that true. Whether it’s the 1970s. Or today. It doesn’t matter. From Pong to Kong When Atari brought out Pong in 1972, it was ahead of its time. Now, the pixelated 8-bit blocks don’t look like much, and the game, as well as other pioneers in video games, Space Invaders, from Taito, and Nintendo’s Donkey Kong— at least in the eyes of my eleven-year-old daughter — are a collective embarrassment, but they were revolutionary for their era and the beginning of a computer and gaming revolution. Atari Guy, Nolan Bushnell. Source: Wikipedia All down to, in a sense, Nolan Bushnell and , Bushnell’s sidekick and first engineer of the early tech giant. Ted Dabney When you think of quantum computers, what comes to mind? Squiggly Symbols For most of you, I guess, just hearing the term ‘quantum’ probably scares the shit out of you. The fear of the unknown, of squiggly symbols on a blackboard, undecipherable to everyone but those smart enough to understand their remarkable meaning. And that’s natural. What I see today is very much like Bushnell and all the other Atari hippies that started off in the early 1970s. They had a vision, a dream for the future that was so very different from anything that had preceded it. They were heading into uncharted waters and they didn’t know if they were going to fall off the edge of the world or not. Source: imgflip But they tried. They tried, made mistakes and finally made something that made them legends, Hall of Famers in the annals of tech history. So what will the history books say about those working in quantum computing today, those early adopters of an industry who are surely going to dominate in the years to come? As of yet, nobody knows, though I’m sure it is only a matter of time. High-Calibre People High-calibre people like physicist Chad Rigetti, CEO and founder of . Or , senior vice president of software and applications at D-Wave. These are ideas men, thinkers that can intellectualize way outside the box, know which direction to take and how to get there. Rigetti Computing Dr. Alan Baratz Oh, and how could I forget , AKA ‘whurley’, as close a clone to Bushnell as they come (minus the cocaine, weed, alcohol and orgies), and a serial entrepreneur, tech geek, inventor and founder of quantum computer software company ., one of the innovators in the field. William Hurley Strangeworks, Inc Casting Types We can usually divide innovators into two categories in tech companies. Those good with the technology, design and coding skills; and the second group, the marketers, the sellers, those able to present the product in the best light so it goes on to sell like hot cakes. Strangeworks, Inc., Whurley’s QC startup. Steve Wozniak and Dabney are examples of the first kind. Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, excellent instances of the second variety. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Philip Don Estridge and Nolan Bushnell straddle the line of having the abilities of both groups, but what sets Bushnell apart, maybe, is he was the first to see a niche in the market, and to capitalize on that niche. Notwithstanding his personality and crazy lifestyle, Atari co-founder Bushnell — who is often cited as being ‘father of the video game industry’ with the creation of the game ‘Computer Space’ — was the first rock star of the industry, a pure ideas man, not too disciplined in his lifestyle habits with his cocaine parties and hot tub orgies with female coworkers, and in an era of #metoo and women’s lib his name doesn’t sit well for many people in the industry. But let’s think about it for a second: we need people like him, we need their valid inspiration as well as the fortitude they possess to go ahead with their ideas, their babies, their visions that have germinated technological revolutions. As of yet, however, we haven’t had a Bushnell in the quantum computer scene. Well, a true one. Will that ever change? Loadsamoney It’s okay to say Elon Musk, Gates or Zuckerberg will come in with their infinitely deep pockets and invest in quantum computers. And in Gate’s case, it has already happened with Microsoft’s development of its and their programming language. But we’re missing the point completely. All these behemoths of the tech industry along with IBM, Google, Intel etc have the resources to just buy the best minds in the world. ‘Quantum Development Kit’ Q# Photo by on Sharon McCutcheon Unsplash Headhunt them, if you will. Headhunters and the Headhunted Just a few weeks ago, scientists from British startup PsiQ decided to move to Silicon Valley, seeing it as the only way for them to raise capital for their venture. I see this in two ways: One, it shows the UK — and Europe, in general — has an inability to keep its best scientists. Competing with the United States is impossible. Even though the British government in the coming years, pecuniary motives aside, the pull of America, and California in particular, offers these startups magnificent seed funding, the best facilities on earth and an overall atmosphere of innovation. has promised £150m in development funds in quantum computing Who can blame them, then? And two, it proves that there are people out there, physicists, engineers, marketing men and women, who want to succeed in this difficult scientific discipline and business decisions, and that they have enough knowledge and bravery to start up on their own, just like Rigetti did. , too. and . IonQ Black Opal ColdQuanta These are just a few. More startups are out there. The Chosen Ones However, what we have yet to see is a visionary(s), a single person, duo or group with enough knowledge and foresight to strategize quantum technological system’s next move. Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing did it for computers (or maybe the Poles will be angry with that last assumption). As already mentioned, Bushnell and Dabney did it for video games. Jobs and Wozniak for the PC. Bill Gates for software. Tim Berners-Lee for the Internet. James Gosling for computer programming language. The Zuck, for well, stealing an idea that changed the world. And finally, Mr Bezos, for creating a bookstore that morphed into something else, making him the richest man on the planet in the process. Flower Power We are now at the very beginning of our journey. Quantum computer systems (QTS), just like the classical model in the 1940s, have a long way to go before they reach what many scientists and thought leaders in the industry call ‘quantum supremacy’, a definition which details a time when quantum computers can solve a problem that classical models cannot. Yet, maybe we are overstepping ourselves, trying to reach out to the stars when there’s a beautiful flower in front of our eyes. Quantum Advantage, by using (NISC) or other achievable quantum process systems as a solution, seems like it should be where we want to go. Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum Forget about D-Waves promise of the 5000-qubit computer by 2020 , though Hartmut Neven, a German physicist working for Google, believes Quantum Supremacy will occur very soon . With a Nolan Bushnell waiting in the wings, though, this could happen sooner than we think.

From Space Invaders to Quantum Computers

The youth of the 1980s was enthralled by computer games. Playing Batman: The Caped Crusader, and kicking Joker’s ass, was part of the experience for me. But there’s a movement, the Quantum computing world — how will it shape gaming in the future? Green-Screen Nostalgia When I think of nostalgia, I don’t think about the internet or playing soccer with my friends or watching on TV on a Saturday afternoon. Nostalgia, and I’m talking about the pure kind, was playing computer games. Back in 1985 or ‘86, my grandfather bought me a second-hand Amstrad CPC 64k personal computer. It was a machine that I cherished for many years until I dropped it one day. The A-Team Oh, my youth, how I miss you. Source: ebay Back then, when movie hit the theatres, Duran Duran was dominating the airwaves and the Cold War threatened world peace, I remember sitting in front of my PC for hours playing games like Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Chuckie Egg, Ghostbusters and who can forget Bruce Lee? The Goonies ‘I recently learned something quite interesting about video games. Many young people have developed incredible hand, eye, and brain coordination in playing these games. The air force believes these kids will be our outstanding pilots should they fly our jets.’ — Ronald Reagan, 1983 My parents, Luddites then and Luddites now, were forever looking at me in front of the black curiosity with a green-screen monitor that had taken their son’s attention away and stopped him from doing his chores and homework on a regular basis. Yippee, I thought. Before I’d fallen in love with computers, though (or more importantly computer games), I’d been an avid reader. I’d read a book or two a week: Young adult stuff and enough history books to keep me occupied for eternity. Computer games took all that away, at least for the most part of the 1980s and early 1990s. The Underground Railway, Black Beauty, Animal Farm. Then I became an adult and got my reading mojo back. But the nostalgia of those times has stayed with me. As a fan of popular culture, I can see now how computers and the geek culture have contributed to that genre immeasurably. Without companies like Atari and people like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, maybe the world of tech would have been delayed by a decade or two — or at the very least a few years — leaving my childhood a cold, black-hole-like vacuum without the mesmeric attraction of prehistoric pixels on the monitor screen and the three-minute orchestration of beeps and screeches as the game loaded up in the cassette player. What would life have been like then? Let’s not talk about it. Photo by on Magnus Reiß Unsplash Since the massive machines of the early years of the computer dawn in the 60s came about in university campuses, controlled by people in dickie-bows, horned-rimmed glasses and an awkward fashion sense, there has been an exponential growth in their power and ability to entertain. At first, they were expensive and out of reach to the pockets of your average teenager (and their parents). But then things changed by the end of the 1970s. The democratization of computing began. The PC was born. The game consoles, too. And then there were the games that came with them. They were a gamechanger. They created a social ambiance between machine and user. Playing them became a social event, a way of making friends and bonding. What could be better? I’m Not a Hacker Okay, they had a serious angle, too, like for hacking. Who can forget 1983’s with a youthful Matthew Broderick as lead — for me at least, it was the catalyst for my brief career as a hacker when one of my more tech-savvy friends, who owned a ZX Spectrum, got hold of a modem. We were no hackers and connected neither to the WOPR supercomputer or any other for that matter. WarGames very Retirement came early. The ways the technological landscape changed in the 1980s was unbelievable. ‘I burned through all of my extra lives in a matter of minutes, and my two least-favorite words appeared on the screen: GAME OVER.’ — Ernest Cline Roll on thirty-five years or so, and those computers seem funny in 2019. Sixty-four K of processing power won’t do a fart today but back then it was impressive enough. Moore’s Law has been good to computers. But it’s had its time. There’s a new shift in power that will alter the technological world irrevocably. The chronological line from those first games to the Web was a massive step. Yet now we are moving into a new realm, one far from what most people can get their heads around, quantum computing. With it, the era that I remember so fondly is disappearing. That is not to say video games are a thing of the past. No — the games industry is growing, with the market set to to be worth more than 90 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2020, from nearly 78.61 billion in 2017 , according to reports from Best The News. Yet what will they look like in the future? Quanto World, Baby! You’ve switched on your quantum computer, a work of art if ever you’ve seen one — not quite a Michelangelo as a piece of art, but not far off. More verging on the creativity of a Jony Ives of Apple fame. But sorry, you haven’t ‘switched on’ but ‘done’ whatever you have to do to gain access to it. You’ve got a powerful machine, too, ten, twenty, maybe even fifty superconducting quantum bits that are in the processor. But who’s counting? It’s cold, too, chillingly so, at almost absolute zero, technically zero kelvin — that’s roughly minus 273 Celsius if you’re a European or minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit if you’re stateside. Again, who’s counting? Certainly not me. Well, you’re all ready to play and you press the start button (if there’s a start button). A quantum computer. Source: digitaltrends.com This is a quantum computer. It’s here to solve all the problems the classical computer can’t. But how does it work? Tiny particles, of the quantum world, have replaced the binary system of ones and zeros. Computer logic has been erased. A new modality has come into its place. Although scientists are trying to create games for these promising machines that add up at the moment to coin flipping and other simple probabilistic games, in the future computer scientists and physicists aspire to fashion games which not only offer visceral entertainment for the user, but also give them the chance to move around in an AI world as real as the one they live in. Already there are companies which have started putting out basic quantum computers possessing a minimum number of qubit power. Unfortunately, these machines are susceptible to errors at the moment. Giants like Google, Intel, IBM and Microsoft lead the way with their billion-dollar budgets and worldwide influence. Yet there are other companies, with minute budgets in comparison but with no less ambition like , IonQ and D-Wave which believe their systems are just as good. Rigetti This battle of corporations versus the indie clan in quantum computers will be interesting. The contest for the first one to understand the difficult physics behind how the quantum world operates won’t be solved any time soon. However, just the idea that there are researchers and companies trying to change the status quo is exciting. We shouldn’t scold the constructing of simple probabilistic games because at least it’s a start, just like the early computer programmers in the mid-20th century started with their games: Josef Kates’ Bertie the Brain, recorded as the first ever computer game in 1950, led us to Pong, which brought us to Return to Castle Wolfenstein in the early noughties and then to Red Dead Redemption 2, in 2018. Go figure. What makes, then, a quantum computer so very different from a regular computer? First of all, a classical computer can’t factor very large numbers. Additionally, they’re not the best at simulating the behaviour of subatomic particles, as this operation would need too many binary ‘bits’ to pull it off. Quantum computers, meanwhile, could solve these problems (or are they not problems to them but mere trifles) using qubits, which are basically quantum bits. Qubits work, not like regular bits — which operate in the binary system of 0 and 1 — but somewhere in between, in what is called in quantum theory parlance ‘superposition’ This means, in essence, that they can be both 0 and 1 at the same time, or partly both. Spooky, yeah? That’s what Einstein thought, too. But there’s more — ‘entanglement’, that’s when two qubits, separated by spatial reality, can somehow influence each other no matter how far away they are from each other. Now that’s kinda spooky! The Conjuring But not as spooky as the picture below: Photo by on Lucas Ludwig Unsplash With this system, quantum computers will be able to factor very high numbers in a much shorter time than even the most powerful supercomputers we have today. Moreover, they will — in theory at least — replicate how atoms interconnect with each other, which could help us create new molecules, or even, unbelievably, new materials never before seen on earth. In artificial intelligence (AI), too, the prospects look good, with companies researching how quantum computers could improve and enhance AI. Unfortunately, though, the realization of these things is in the distance, as quantum computers are still at the elementary stage of development. One of the fundamental flaws of quantum computers is with the qubits themselves. Sadly, qubits are very sensitive things and any interference from external factors can deprive them of their quantum essence, which turns them into normal bits. Boring! This hasn’t stopped computer scientists creating simple games for the machines, though. The Brains of the Games Dr , a Research Staff Member at the Zurich Research Laboratory, an employee of IBM and fellow writer on all things quantum computers on Medium, has created a game called Decodoku, which is an early game based on quantum error correction theory, though it was made on a classical computer. It is a simple game to play. Quantum Battleships is yet another game by the British physicist, again rudimentary in its application but like Decodoku, it’s a start. James Wootton ‘I do not like it, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it.’ — Erwin Schrödinger One more game, or rather ‘experience’, is Quantum Experience, by Wootton’s employer, IBM, which enables people to write their own programs on its five-qubit computer. To do it, so IBM states, users do not need a science degree nor any substantial knowledge of quantum physics. That counts me in, then. These text-based games are only the beginning of something that, one day, will be big news. Dekodoku, Dr James Wootton brainwork. Source: Twitter Text-based games are all well and good, but what is the future of video games when the technology of quantum principles is relatively advanced enough to head into that direction? Most in the industry believe classical computers will still carry out the donkey work of the video game interface like graphics, sound and movement, while quantum computers could quite possibly, if predictions are correct, enhance the physics engine of the games and mechanics of movement, giving the visualization of the experience a more visceral feel. In actual gameplay, however, quantum principles could add weirdness to games never seen before, such as characters or adversaries who can, quite strangely, act out their quantum ability to be in two places simultaneously, or existing and not, influencing each other through entanglement and behaving against the laws of space and time. This could be a boon for hardcore gamers: Randomness, it seems, goes hand in hand with video games and how they play out. Perceptive gamers, however, quite often after playing a game many times, begin to see patterns of behaviour within the game’s processor algorithm that are not so arbitrary, detracting from the ultimate randomness and ultimately, the gameplay experience. ‘Quantum mechanics makes absolutely no sense.’ — Roger Penrose Adding quantum principles to a game’s algorithms could truly create random gameplay, and add never-before-seen playable environments and infinitely unique character behaviour. Yet it’s all supposition, and who really knows? One thing that isn’t supposition, though, is to reach this point it will take a lot of hard work and harnessing the intelligence of people in the industry, getting companies like Rigetti, IBM and others to work together in focussing their efforts on improving quantum algorithms. Up to now, all the talk — and quite rightly so, too — has been about the software challenges. Still, the conundrum of hardware and the complexities we could face building it, cannot be ignored. Qubit power — and what would be needed to outperform the operational efficiency of classical computers — is another area of some contention between experts in the industry. The standard amount bandied about by most is fifty qubits, though it has been reported that a quantum machine of at least 1,000 qubits is the optimal amount to accommodate inbuilt errors within the system. We even have a claim — outlandish, no doubt — by Vancouver-based D-Wave of a fully-operational . To achieve this number of qubits is going to take a superhuman effort. If Norishige Morimoto’s — global vice-president of IBM — thoughts of a global ‘quantum supremacy’ are to be realized soon, time is running out. 5000-qubit computer by 2020 Are they dreamers or realists of the quantum computer’s future? Whatever happens, the future of video games and how they evolve will be an interesting one. With quantum computers’ ongoing development, and computer scientists and quantum theorists working flat out to evolve the discipline, exciting times are certainly ahead. The Joker controlled by quantum mechanics? Sounds interesting, if a little unfair for gamers. Don’t think I’m gonna beat him, though! <a href="https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href">https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href</a>

Geek Video Game Culture Verging On Quantum Reality

Once only accessible to researchers at universities around the world, beginning in the late 1970s, the PC — due to a shift in size and cost — became easily available to the masses. Now that we are on the cusp of the age of quantum computers, will the same thing happen to them? Early Dawn , French poet Paul Valery once said, and this statement couldn’t be truer than today. We are on the rise, humanity, that is, and it’s all because of the new horizon of technology, a giant of the future, quantum computers, that is the cause. Years ago, in the embryonic days of computer development, the dream of mathematicians and scientists was humble enough: to number crunch simple computational operations. , built in 1944, was such a machine. From that, scores of rudimentary computers followed in Z4’s wake. ‘The future isn’t what it used to be’ Konrad Zuse’s Z4 Konrad Zuse’s Z4 computer. Source: alamy stock photo Later, in the 1960s, two computer scientists, Thomas E. Kurtz and John G. Kemeny, based at Dartmouth College, developed and authored the BASIC language , a simple computer language which allowed ordinary people without specialist knowledge to computer program. Since those salad days, the development of traditional computers has moved on into areas those first pioneers could only have dreamed about. It was forward and then up, and beyond that, too. From the 1950s to the watershed period of the mid-1970s, the so-called ‘powerful computers’ were exclusively in the hands of computer scientists and other specialists at esteemed places of higher learning like MIT, Stanford and Oxford. Then, a miracle occurred: computers become smaller and cheaper. Machines like the Apple II and Commodore’s PET democratized the use of computers, making them available to everyone. Hooray. Mindblowing These days, ‘quantum’ is a byword for where we are going, although the technology is still in its genesis. To understand quantum computers and what — if our minds and design applications get to grips with them — they can do for us is mindblowing. Quantum theory, fathered by the geniuses of our age Max Planck and Albert Einstein amongst others, is for many a subject so difficult to understand, so sheathed in intellectual rhetoric that it frightens the life out of many if only because of its sheer incomprehensibility. NASA, along with tech giants IBM and Google, is pumping its unlimited tech dollars into the quest to understand and use quantum technology to build a new type of computer. In China, too, things are gaining momentum in this sphere. A quantum race could very much be on the cards. With governments and tech companies leading the way, there is no doubt that in the years and decades to come the world of quantum computers will, like their classic brethren, become more ‘the norm’. There are some computer scientists and quantum physicists out there who believe the practical use of this technology is closer to realization than we think. Just watch this space. Quantumordinary The binary system of 1or 0 is the operational modality of classical computation, which in its essence is based on how the human mind operates. In stark contrast, quantum computers are modeled on the laws according to the universe. In this system, all the operational complexities of the classical model are included yet with the incorporation of the laws of quantum physics, too. The binary system, the model for classical computers. Source: Facebook In quantum computing, the ‘qubit’ has replaced the’ bit’, which is used in the binary system of the classical model. The result of using qubits instead of bits is the same regarding the number of qubits you get by adding to the chain. What makes qubits — and the quantum model extraordinary (or should I say quantumordinary) — is the fact that two radical events occur to the qubits that do not transpire in classical computer models, the phenomena of and . Here, the laws of physics take a very spooky and irregular path. In plain English, and without decorating the description with any scientific accouterments, in the quantum model superposition, or ‘superposition of states’, means the qubit, as opposed to a bit, can be both 1 and 0 at the same time, rather than in one state of a bit. Subsequently, entanglement is the event when two qubits get ‘entangled’ with each other, regardless of spatial parity between the two phenomena (which are not really phenomena but a unified phenomenon). ‘superposition’ ‘entanglement’ Qubits Entangled — don’t worry, I don’t understand it either. Source: MIT Technology Review With this in mind, it is difficult to comprehend how we can know such anomalies and then go on to construct a computer which can manipulate these occurrences in the quantum world for our benefit. “Quantum physics is a bit of a passion of mine. It’s extraordinary. There’s a branch of mathematics that is based on lunacy, and that’s wonderful.” - Bob Hoskins As We Speak And yet it’s happening. Right here, right now, in 2019. As of speaking, we are at the starting point, admittedly, but nonetheless, we are getting there. Somewhere down the line, just as many AI researchers espouse about the approaching , or Elon Musk’s SpaceX programme of manned missions to Mars, quantum computers will be here. Singularity But will they be for everyone? And if so, will they be as useful as classical computers have been for humanity over the last five or so decades? The New PC? One of the key areas computer scientists believe quantum computers will be useful in the future is in cryptography. Currently, classical computers — as is the case with cryptocurrency and the underlying technology of how it operates, blockchain — are unable to break the codes. Scientists and cryptocurrency advocates fear, and quite rightly so, that the introduction and widespread use of quantum computers and the power they have will make blockchains secured by classical computer cryptographic operations breakable, rendering them useless in a security sense. This, in turn, is motivating researchers to develop encryption methods (based on the idea of quantum blockchains, a simple case of like for like) that oppose the threat of quantum attacks and other virtual malefactions. As well as in cryptocurrency, specialists also surmise quantum computers will have their uses in medicine, the future applications of neural networks for artificial intelligence and other areas of science. Yet what about us? Will they affect our lives? Will we, like with classical computer models, be able to use them? For Everybody The answer to the last question, at least, can be answered. In 2016 the tech giant IBM created the quantum computer which possesses two 5-qubit processors and a 16-qubit processor as well as being open access and free to use for everybody. Measuring it up to what they will probably be able to do and how they will look in the years to come, it isn’t very powerful, but this device, based in the cloud, can be used by anyone with the ability to construct and run quantum circuits. Not bad, methinks. Q Experience Google, however — in a prime example of oneupmanship — has created its own quantum computer, called , a 72-qubit gate-based superconducting system that beats IBM by a mile and also confounds the specialists who believed 50 qubits was entering Bristlecone ‘quantum supremacy’. Even more recently is the case of , a quantum computing hardware and software company based in Maryland, which late in 2018 claimed it is developing a quantum computer which could go up to 160 qubits, smashing current claims on processor capacity. IonQ Whatever happens, it’s surely a wild west scenario. So, mirroring the late 70s and early 1980s, when the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad 64 became the norm in people’s homes, maybe soon enough — or is that a pipe dream — quantum computers will be in everybody’s living rooms or some other conveniently located place. ZX Spectrum, a classic PC. Source: Wikipedia The age of quantum computers has begun. As we shift from the classical model to this new, quantum model, only time will tell how we will use them. But whatever it is, I hope it is for the moral side of creative.

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