November 2023 Cosmology of Light Newsletter

Volume 3 | Issue 11 | November 2023

Cosmology of Light Newsletter

Hello Friends,

Physics Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard Feynman posed a challenge five decades ago to build a quantum computer that would process the same way Nature processes - quantum mechanically. Power of this kind where a challenge results in the making of an industry is the privilege of a visionary and has far reaching effects. It has to result in unexpected developments, and this will always remain the sign that the organic truth represented by vision indeed still has power.

While the quantum computing industry continues to proceed down a path in line with a practical rendering of quantum computation offered by Feynman himself, paradoxically strict adhesion to it may stifle organicness, and in this Newsletter I suggest another quantum computing path that equally needs to be followed, to increase the likelihood that harnessing quantum mechanical power computationally may indeed open up richer vistas of exploration.

I also draw attention to an upcoming Forbes event where alternative paths will be discussed in more detail.

Best Wishes,

Pravir

The Current Quantum Computational Trajectory

In today's rendering of quantum computation, qubits (the quantum equivalent of digital bits) could be based on a variety of quantum objects - ions, electrons, photons, amongst others - that display quantum mechanical properties such as superposition and entanglement.

In one approach, by grouping together a threshold number of qubits, learning to map a real world problem to them, and learning to leverage superposition and entanglement to process the possibilities, a variety of traditionally intractable computational problems may possibly be solved.

In a second approach, the qubits can be made to represent atoms and molecules, or perhaps even atoms and molecules can be harnessed to operate as qubits within a controllable gate-based quantum computational environment, to quantum mechanically process new possibility from the bottom-up.

Quantum Computation at the Level of Wholes

In themselves today's quantum computing foci remain important possibilities and need to be further developed. By my estimates this is what the quantum computing industry is currently focused on.

Paradoxically, in focusing on the mechanics of manufactured quantum-objects though, the "quantum whole" that keeps silver operating as silver, or the integrity of a particular protein in tact, can easily escape us, and a different approach to quantum computation is required to begin to leverage the wholes natural to the quantum level. Hence:

The model of 'measurement' of quantum wholes has to be such that it will allow arbitration at the level of wholes in contrast to the current arbitration taking place at the level of reduced quantum objects
Gates too, will need to be created differently to propagate property or function derived from the quantum computational whole
The mathematics of combining what is perceived is not therefore based primarily on probability and statistics, but on function, and a function-based mathematics that allows manipulation of function will need to further developed and leveraged
Then even, it becomes possible for two distinct or related wholes to computationally create new possibility

Read more about minimum viable quantum computational wholes, here.

Forbes Event: From the Near to the Far

Quantum computing is an area with massive potential. This derives from the promise of exponentially speeding up computing by leveraging quantum mechanical properties (Current Quantum Computational Trajectory) and the fact that the quantum realm separates the visible from the invisible (Quantum Computation at the Level of Wholes).

The latter implies that no matter how much we know, there will always be more that we do not know. This, in turn, will always be a source of new technologies that will continue to drive us far into the future.

This session hosted by Forbes Technology Council quantum computing Group Leader, Pravir Malik, will provide an approach to penetrating the unknown, and the possible technologies that will derive from such exploration.

Key Areas of Focus include the following:

A simple framework based on the famous double-slit experiment to make an exploration into the quantum unknown
Potential technologies that will surface from such an exploration
A possible quantum computing roadmap leading from the near to the far'

Selected Links

Visit Our Website