Director of Biophysics, School of Medicine, announces Huge Computing Breakthrough

I wonder how large of an increase of time the breakthrough created? 1,000 times as long would seem to mean a great deal of time.

From 1 to 1,000 Seconds? Minutes? Hours?

reply to post by TurkeyBurgers


I think it means we can now compute 1000 times faster than we are current capable of? so it would mean faster smaller computers/devices/robots/etc

not sure

I thought it meant the amount of time they are able to keep the information stable before it was lost. I think that quantum computing is what they are working on. A break though of computing power on the magnitude of 1,000 would be MASSIVE!

You know, i'm so excited for the future of computing(especially for gaming). The things we'll be able to do just....wow...i literally can't even imagine half of it. I'm hoping that it'll all coalesce soon so that we'll have everything we need to start really exploring our solar system and maybe even beyond.

When i joined this place back in 2006, most people who frequented science and technology board were very pessimistic about quantum computing, sayin it'd take decades maybe even a hundred years or more before we got it off the ground. and look at the world now, we're so close! and only three years have gone by! i'm 25 now, and maybe by the time i'm 30 we'll have quantum computing in everything we see, from home computers to nav controls for spacecraft. what a cool universe we live in.

i only wish there were things in every part of life to be this excited about( i'm lookin at you economy, get your act together ).

I was reading en.wikipedia.org... to try and understand this more but I think I'm even more confused then when I started.

This seems like it could possibly unlock codes that we previously couldn't like symbols that have been found in hieroglyphics and such. The computing power could be pretty dang amazing.

At the same time it could also put in danger many of the things that are digital encrypted now.

reply to post by whoshotJR


oh no doubt, modern cryptology would be shot. quantum dna cryptology is the future man!

Hey all - somebody, it seems, has found this thread and given it a bump ...



My point with this OP was to show that at the 'highest level' ( in a civilian sense, anyway ) of research, the boundary between medical expertise and computational expertise is disappearing ...

I am more than old enough to realize that this probably means nothing very good at all for the 'average guy.'

Quantum Computation and the Qubit
A qubit ( for 'quantum bit' ) is analogous to the traditional binary bit.

In the binary world we all know and love, a bit, or smallest element of information can either be on or off, hence it is a binary, or two-state piece of information.

If we were to represent the binary bit by a geometric model, the binary-bit model would simply be a straight line segment with two points defined, a 'zero'-point, and conversely a 'one-point.'

The qubit is essentially the theoretical computer scientist's wet dream because the geometric model for a qubit is not a one-dimensional line segment anymore, but is a three-dimensional sphere -

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3c7fb7a59bc2.jpg[/atsimg]
The traditional 'on-off' information states of the binary-bit have now become merely the sphere's north and south poles ...

All the greek letters are just the three spherical coordinates which specify a unique position on the sphere's surface. This is the beauty of the qubit, and its awesome potential for information representation ( and also why the computer scientists get so very, very excited about them ... ), for now instead of an information capacity of just only two-states, the qubit has essentialy the ability to represent an 'infinite' number of information states - anywhere on the surface of the sphere.

So, the theoreticians believe that with only a very few of these qubits they will be able to exceed the computational power of even the biggest and baddest of today's supercomputers.

It's very advanced stuff ( in a relative way, of course ) involving 'quantum entanglement' effects which keeps all the qubits coherent with each other during the computational process ...

If you ask me, they probably got this off of a crashed flying saucer, but what the heck do I know ...

What's the point ?
Why is the Director of Biophysics at the University of Michigan listed as an expert in optically driven quantum computers ?

I don't know about anybody else, but the answers I get cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up ...

[edit on 14-7-2009 by visible_villain]

reply to post by optimus primal


someday soon we will all be able to live in self created virtual realities where we are the ruler of the realm and it will be so realistic and enthralling that people will simply stop living in the real world

it could be fun but I can see some scary implications



[edit on 14-7-2009 by warrenb]

reply to post by visible_villain


wow i didn't even think about that untill i read your second to last sentence. and then i had to think about it .....and then it hit me "Directer of Biophysics" and "optically driven quantum computers" and that is really freaking creepy.

I mean that basically means he's part of research for quantum computers for brains( or i suppose in any other spot of the body) right? Otherwise....what's the point of a biophysicist dealing with the development of quantum computers?

unless these are some kind of artificial brain concept designs....which is cool, but equally creepy...

reply to post by optimus primal

Originally posted by optimus primal
reply to post by visible_villain

 

wow i didn't even think about that untill i read your second to last sentence. and then i had to think about it .....and then it hit me "Directer of Biophysics" and "optically driven quantum computers" and that is really freaking creepy.

I mean that basically means he's part of research for quantum computers for brains( or i suppose in any other spot of the body) right? Otherwise....what's the point of a biophysicist dealing with the development of quantum computers?

unless these are some kind of artificial brain concept designs....which is cool, but equally creepy...

Consider this -

If this is in the 'open media' just think about what the 'classified' projects are up to these days ...

Impressive, eh ?

wow, this is great stuff!!! where do you guys consistently find this kind of stuff, for real? its too bad you never see anything like this in the headlines. To be quite honest, i think anyone thet is more interested in the latest celebrety fashion trends over the future of quantum computing and the such is simply a fool.

:edit: double post...idk why it did that....LAME

[edit on 15-7-2009 by BrainPower]