WEBVTT - What is the quantum internet? 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.920 If you want to talk about your sincere awe and 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:13.000 wonder at the incredible physical universe, I'm here for that. 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:15.360 If you want to have cold water throne of your 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.959 dreams of space colonization, Kelly is at your service. Today 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.720 we're going to flip that script a little bit. It's 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.360 my turn to be a wet blanket about overhyped technology. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.280 But along the way you learn just how amazing and 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:33.920 weird our universe really is. No hype necessary, that's right. 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:39.040 Today we are tackling physics buzzwords two of my favorites, actually, quantum, 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.800 probably the most overused word in pop side journalism, and 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.400 the Internet, the classic woid make anything sound more high 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.000 tech Internet of Things was supposed to make your toaster 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.400 seem like something from the future. Right, So today we'll 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.680 explore the science and the hype and the actual amazing, 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.960 beautiful physics behind a pair of buzzwords that have come 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:03.520 together to make a splash in the news. The quantum Internet. 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.880 It's not the latest ant Man movie, it's today's topic. 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.880 Welcome to Daniel and Kelly's Extraordinary quantum Universe. 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.600 Hello, I'm Kelly Wiener Smith. I study parasites and space 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.120 and when we come up with quantum parasites, you all 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:32.040 better be worried. 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:36.960 Hi, I'm Daniel, I'm a particle physicist, and the only 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:38.920 kind of parasite I want is a quantum one. I 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.640 don't want two point seventy two tapeworms. I want zero 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:43.199 or one, preferably zero. 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:45.960 Oh, but you really don't know until you actually look. 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:50.160 You know, until you put the scope down your digestive system, 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:51.960 you don't actually know if there's one in there or not. 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:53.920 That's true Schrodinger's tapeworm. 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:55.080 Oh fantastic. 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:56.960 But now I have a real question for you. Can 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.240 you have a non integer number of parasites? They pit 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:01.880 in some weird way where you're like, hm, I'm not 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:03.360 really sure if that's another one, But. 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.040 You gotta have hard to count things. So, the way 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.360 tapeworms work is they've got a head. The head holds 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.320 onto part of your body, and then they form segments 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:14.200 called proglottieds, and each proglotted makes its own sets of eggs, 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.480 And sometimes the proglotted dissolves away and the eggs pass 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.280 with your feces into the environment. Other times, the proglotted 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.600 just pops off and passes with your feces, and sometimes 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.320 it looks like pieces of rice walking around in your feces, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.800 and that's proglotted, and so you can have you know, 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.720 like pieces of the tapeworm that sort of like separate 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.239 but are still moving. But we usually count how many 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.160 tapeworms an organism has based on the number of heads 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.760 that you find. So that's pretty straightforward. 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.799 So parasites are quantized. There you go, amazing. We went 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.000 from quantum physics to parasites to poop in record time 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.080 on the podcast. That's what happens when you have a 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:51.919 particle physicist and a parasitologist. 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:53.720 Yeah, but you're right, we got there pretty fast. Today. 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:55.799 I'm having a good day. We're having a good. 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:57.880 Day, all right, and we are moving at the speed 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.680 of information, trying to understand how the universe works and 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.079 sending it to you down the Internet tubes. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:05.639 So there's a lot of misinformation out there about parasites. 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:07.800 So there's also a lot of misinformation out there about 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.880 what the word quantum means. So, Daniel, today we're talking 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:12.720 about quantum Internet. 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.200 Yeah, that's right, the latest word to have quantum slapped 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:16.840 in front. 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:18.520 Of it, that's right. So today we're gonna find out 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:20.760 if that makes any sense, and if it's nearly as 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:25.000 exciting as it sounds like it is on social media. 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.640 And I'm not actually that upset about the misinformation about 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.600 quantum mechanics because it gives me an opportunity to clarify 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.880 how amazing the universe actually is. It's not really a 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.280 wet blanket moment where you're like, this sounded amazing, but 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.480 it's really actually boring and nothing. It's like this sounds amazing, 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.600 but the reality is even more cool. 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:43.240 I mean, I don't know why you gotta sound so 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.800 down on wet blanket people, but all right, fine, I 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.240 know you like to keep things upbeat around here. 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.360 Oh I see you thought I was throwing a wet 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:51.640 blanket on the wet blanket people. 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.200 Well, on me in particular. I felt seen, but not 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:57.680 in no way. 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:00.800 I wasn't talking about you, but I think it says something. 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.200 He responded that way. 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:04.640 Yeah, you might be right. 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.200 All right, So let's hear how our listeners responded. I 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.440 went out there and asked them if they knew anything 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.600 about the quantum Internet, if you would like to contribute 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:15.880 your thoughts for future episodes, we would love to hear 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.120 from you. Please write to us two questions at Danielankelly 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.440 dot org and you can join the choir. In the meantime, 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.400 think about it for a minute. What is the quantum Internet? 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.760 What does it mean? Here's what our listeners had to say. 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.680 What is the quantum Internet? Now you're just making stuff up. 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:37.320 I have no idea, but I'm willing to learn. 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.719 I assume the quantum Internet is the Internet that joins 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:46.040 together quantum computers. Well, it sounds like the interconnected web 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:52.000 of sub atomic consciousness, or maybe where Antman hangs out. 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.159 The quantum Internet is great and all, but every time 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:58.360 I check my emails they're both read and unread at 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.760 the same time. I would guess that's internet that can 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:06.200 travel the quantum realm to go faster than the speed 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:06.479 of light. 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:11.880 I would assume that it is a network of computers 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:17.480 that have all been based on quantum computing infrastructure and 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.000 quantum computing nodes. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.679 Maybe the quantum Internet is to do with the Internet 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:27.400 being both truthful and untruthful at the same time. I 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:32.080 suspect mostly untruthful. The quantum Internet will know what you're 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.640 searching for before you type it in. If someone asks 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.400 me what quantum Internet is. 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.640 I would say that that is the current structure of 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:44.520 our Internet. 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.240 It's either your email sent or not sent. At the 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:52.599 same time, It's probably a place where astiophysicists and people 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.080 who use quantum data exchange information. 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.200 I've never heard of the quantum internet before, but perhaps 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:04.000 use of quantum computers on the Internet. I'm assuming it 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.680 could do all sorts of neat things that we can't 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.400 even imagine now. It could just be an entire Internet 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.560 filled with cats in boxes, and I'm okay with that. 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.760 The quantum Internet is a marketing term that's really just us. 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:20.839 I can't say what the quantum Internet is, but I 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.120 can calculate various probabilities of what it might be. The 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:27.240 quantum Internet is the name for the observation that any 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:29.760 fact you find on the Internet is equally likely to 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:31.240 be true or untrue. 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.840 There were some really fantastic answers here where your emails 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.560 are both read and unread at the same time. I 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.480 love that. I wonder if you get out of trouble 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.160 if you're like, well, I know it was read and 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.360 it was unread, and so I answered it and didn't 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.039 answer it, but like, you know, move on. 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.760 Yeah, as usual, people either knew the answer, were wildly 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.880 off or hilarious. I love this mixture. I always look 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:54.720 forward to listening to these. There's so much fun. 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:55.839 Yep, I love y'all. 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:57.040 Thanks everybody. 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.040 This I think gave a really nice overview of the 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.080 various thoughts that people have about quantum internet, what it does, 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:05.240 or whether or not they have any idea at all 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.440 what it does. So let's just start from the beginning, like, 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:10.920 what is quantum internet. 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:15.200 Yeah, quantum internet is actually a real thing. It's not 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:19.440 total nonsense. It's the idea that you could take quantum computers, 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.840 which we'll dig into in a minute, and you could 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.200 connect them in a quantum mechanical way, not in the 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.000 same way that we connect normal classical computers that ship 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.760 bits back and forth, but you could connect them using 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:35.400 a fancy technology called quantum teleportation, which helps you move 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:39.560 quantum information between one computer and another. And it makes 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.040 sort of sense, like we used to develop computers, and 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.920 then we networked all the computers together because that has 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:48.320 obvious advantages, sharing information, working in parallel, et cetera. And 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:51.600 now we're developing quantum computers, and so you might think, oh, 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.880 it could be beneficial to connect quantum computers to each 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.200 other because maybe they could take over the world and 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.240 enslave us. No, I mean calculate our taxes faster, whatever 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.080 quantum computers are supposed to do. So the quantum Internet 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.440 really is two different ideas. It's quantum computers connected together 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:08.160 with quantum teleportation. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.960 Oh that sounds very star treky. But so my understanding 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.920 of quantum computers is that we sort over getting a 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:17.960 handle on it. But this is not something that you use, 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.160 like every day to solve normal problems. Yep, connecting quantum 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.200 computers it feels like you're jumping ahead five or six steps, Like, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.320 shouldn't we get the computers to work first? 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:28.640 Well, I don't know. I think we should work on 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.080 all the problems at the same time. Right, It's not 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.160 like we should finish physics before we get started on biology, 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.319 because it's the colvision of everything, right, right, I'm agreeing 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:37.600 with you. 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:39.520 I mean, you need to be motivated, and how can 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:41.679 you stay motivated if you're just doing physics. You need 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:42.480 the good stuff too. 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.760 You're right, we can't use the quantum Internet without quantum computers. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.160 But we also don't want to wait until quantum computers 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.480 are a full fledged thing before we start thinking about 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.520 how to connect them. And you know, everybody out there 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.719 is excited about different stuff. So there's a group out 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.200 there that recently made a splash because of their advance 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.880 in quantum connection quantum computers, and we're going to talk 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:03.920 about that in a minute, and that's why it's in 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:05.520 the news. But I think it's a good idea to 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:07.439 push on all fronts simultaneously. 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.120 All right, fair enough, there's enough people excited about the question. 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.560 You can work on more than one front. Can you 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.160 give us a quick explanation of what a quantum computer is? 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.640 Right? So, the quantum Internet is a quantum connected bunch 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.560 of quantum computers. The core that is a quantum computer. 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:25.000 What is a quantum computer? And so there is so 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:29.520 much misunderstanding and misinformation about quantum computers, especially recently because 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.680 of Microsoft results and Google's claims and clickbait writing articles. 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.079 Quantum computers are not computers that do infinite number of 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.040 computations in parallel. They are not computers that tap into 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.480 the multiverse. There are computers that use quantum mechanics to 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:48.640 do calculations instead of using classical physics. Or just normal bits. Right, 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.480 So in a classical computer, the one that I'm using 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.679 right now to record this podcast episode, and the one 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.360 that's inside your phone or whatever device you're listening on, 0:09:57.679 --> 0:09:59.760 there's a bunch of bits. There's zeros and ones, and 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.720 all of computation involves calculating new bits and flipping bits. 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:05.640 You know. For example, when you take a picture, it's 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.720 stored in terms of those bits. When you add two numbers, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:12.440 it expresses those numbers in binary form, where every digit 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:14.560 is a bit, a zero or one, and it adds 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.520 them in binary form. So the lifeblood of normal computers 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.400 are these bits that are zero or one, and we 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:23.520 use the rules of logic to build up a bunch 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.080 of stuff that computers can do. But that's just one 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:30.800 kind of computer, right. Technically, anything is a computer, like 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.240 a baseball is a computer. It just calculates only one thing, 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.240 like what a baseball can do. The cool thing about 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.480 digital computers, the ones we know and love, is that 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.160 they're programmable. We figure it out a way to take 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.360 advantage of this very basic operation and map into lots 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.560 and lots of really interesting problems. Cool, but there's some 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.680 things that classical computers are slow at you know, just 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:53.880 because you can map them into lots of things doesn't 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.200 mean that they're very good at things. You know, like 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.400 counting to a super high number. It can take a while. 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.960 Anybody who is like run a piece of code over 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.000 massive data that knows it can take a day or something, 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.080 even on fast computers. And so quantum computers say, well, 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.600 what if there's another way to do computation. Instead of 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.320 starting from something like a zero or one, let's start 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.320 from a state that's more ambiguous, like a cubebit. A 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:19.000 cubit is something that doesn't have to be zero or one. 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.040 It can have a probability to be zero and a 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.120 probably to be one, and so there's like more fuzz there. 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:26.800 And the rules of quantum mechanics are different from the 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.480 rules of digital logic, and so that maps to a 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.680 different set of problems that quantum computers can do quickly 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:33.840 or do slowly. 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:36.040 Maybe this was when we were talking to Scott Arenson 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.319 the other day. He said something about how quantum computers 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.680 are better when you want to solve quantumy problems or 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.760 things like protein folding, Like if I have a question 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.559 about parasites, I wouldn't make a computer out of parasites. 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.559 Why is using cubits make it easier to solve those 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:53.440 kinds of problems? 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:57.480 Well, actually, I disagree with you, Kelly. I think you 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.000 should build a parasite computer. And let me tell you why. 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:02.440 You know, Let's say you wanted to know what happens 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.480 on a certain quantum process, right, Well, one thing you 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.000 could do is you could try to simulate that process 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.760 on a classical computer. You could like represent it abstractly 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.640 using zeros and ones, and then encode the rules of 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.600 quantum physics into that digital logic and run it. It might 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.520 be kind of slow, or you could just ask the 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.839 quantum object itself. You're going to do the experiment, right, say, oh, 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:26.920 I'm just going to ask the universe. I'm gonna put 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.200 the quantum objects in that situation. I'm going to see 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.720 what happens, and then behind the scenes, the universe is 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:33.960 following those rules of quantum mechanics for you, and the 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.680 universe of the computation is free and kind of infinitely fast, 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.079 and so in comparison, if you wanted to know, Kelly, 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.520 like what happens if you drop a tapeworm into a 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.040 can of coke, Just drop the tapeworm into a can 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:48.160 of coke. That's a parasite computer right there. We think 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.760 about computing sort of narrowly, like what it can be 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.679 done in Excel. But computing is really just like getting 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.520 the answer to a question, and sometimes building the system 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:58.720 itself that you have a question about is the most 0:12:58.760 --> 0:12:59.959 natural way to get the answer. 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:02.520 Okay, so one, I don't expect that Coke is going 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:05.719 to be running any ads on our website for our 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:07.360 podcast for the foreseeable future. 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:09.880 You don't think tapeworms like coke? What you think they 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.600 prefer something else? Are they pepsi fans? 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:13.199 I was going to make a joke about coke being 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.679 no worse once a tapeworm has dropped in there, But 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:17.199 I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.280 Wait, have you done that experiment? Do you know the 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:21.240 answer to that calculation? 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.040 I would never do something like that to a parasite. 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:27.920 Do I have dropped some ethanol and formaline? 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.680 So then, backing up to Scott's comment, is natural to 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.840 calculate quantum things using a quantum computer because it's simpler 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.880 to express them. It's likely to be fast. Now, in principle, 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.200 anything you can calculate on a quantum computer, you can 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.520 also calculate on a normal computer. Why because you can 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.920 simulate a quantum computer on a normal computer. Right, just 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.080 design one in your symbolic logic and let it run 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.480 and simulate the laws of quantum mechanics. It's going to 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.079 be slower the same way, like calculating exactly what happens 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.400 to a baseball could be slower than just throwing the baseball. Right, 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:00.920 let the universe do the computation. So the thing they 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.240 know about quantum computers is that it's a different way 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.000 to represent problems we might want to solve, and they're 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.760 fast or slow at different things than baseballs or tapeworms 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.160 or normal digital computers. So they're like a radically different 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:17.000 way to do computation, and potentially they're very powerful at 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.520 some problems. So, you know, there's some problems that we 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.200 think classical computers are going to be very very bad at. 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.080 For example, finding out if a number is prime. If 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:26.480 I give you a number, how do you know if 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:28.960 it's prime? Like if I ask you ninety seven, is 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.680 it prime? Well, technically you have to check all the 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.320 factors that might go into it. Well, undt a time. 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.240 I mean, there's some clever ways to do it to 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:38.560 be a little bit more efficient, but it's slow, and 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.200 as the number gets big, that stays slow. And amazingly, 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.640 there's a guy who figured out an algorithm to do 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.880 that on quantum computers much more rapidly than on digital computers. 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.880 So that's an example of a kind of problem which 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:53.680 for weird reasons, because of the way quantum bits come 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.360 together and the way we can map that problem to 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:59.920 mathematical problems, there are some things that would happen fast 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.960 on a quantum computer than on digital computers, but there's 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.080 a very small number of those problems. People think like, oh, 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.880 quantum computers can solve anything, you know, they can break 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.760 into anything, and they're often used as like the mcguffin 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.240 on these action movies, Right, don't let the terrorists get 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.280 the quantum computer, or they'll get your bank account. In reality, 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.800 cryptography is better protected than is often described in those movies, 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.840 and nobody has a quantum computer that's powerful enough really 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:28.120 to do anything more quickly than classical computers. So quantum 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.000 computers are a real thing. They're awesome in the future, 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.160 and we have bigger quantum computers with more bits, they 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.880 can maybe solve really interesting problems that otherwise would be 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.120 very slow on normal computers. But no, they're not proof 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.120 that the multiverse exists. They can do infinite computation in parallel, 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:46.520 and they're currently not really useful for anything. 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.240 A couple questions, all right, First, so you were talking 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.400 about bits being zero in one, and you're like, so 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.160 we're going to use something a little fuzzier that to 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.960 me doesn't necessarily seem like an easy way to get 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.560 a better answer. So our quantum computers. You said they're 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.720 better for some questions. Are they worse for a lot 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:04.520 of other questions? 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:04.680 Oh? 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.640 Yeah, okay, so they don't always beat classical computers. No, okay, 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.119 all right? And then you said they're not necessarily computing 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.920 in the multiverse. Do all of the quantum computer people 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.080 believe you, because I feel like I've heard some who 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:21.120 are like, maybe this does prove the existence of the multiverse. 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.480 Are you not teaching the controversy here, Daniel. 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:29.840 That's a fair question. I don't know anybody who I 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.920 take seriously in quantum mechanics who thinks that quantum computers 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.640 prove that the multiverse exists. I mean, how would you 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.600 even steal man that argument? I think the argument is 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.960 that quantum computers require superposition of multiple states. You know, 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:47.360 for example, like your baseball can only have one energy, 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.040 but an electron maybe it has a probability to have 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.200 two different energies. It could have this energy or the 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:54.800 other energy, or maybe it has two possible spins. It 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.680 can simultaneously be in two states, or more accurately, you 0:16:57.680 --> 0:16:59.720 can say you can have the probability to be in 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.320 two states at the same time. This is something weird 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.280 that quantum objects can do. Quantum computation relies on this 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.960 because the law of quantum physics predicts what will happen 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.560 to each of those probabilities, and we map our problems 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.120 onto those quantum physics and use the outcomes of those 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:17.120 probabilities to get the answer. So it relies on superpositions existing. 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.040 But we've known superpositions exist for a long long time, 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.120 you know, like we have obvious examples of quantum superposition, 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.919 all the Bells experiments about quantum entanglement that we'll talk about, 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.760 the interferometer experiment, the double slid experiment, Like we have 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.400 proof that superposition is a real thing before quantum computers, 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.840 So like, I don't think because superposition is real, that 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.240 means there's any strong argument that the multiverse is real. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:41.879 So I'm ninety nine point nine numb percent sure that 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:44.119 quantum computing folks would say that this is just hype. 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:45.840 Have you let the Marvel folks. 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:49.520 Know there's a universe in which the Marvel folks have 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.240 reached out to me for physics consulting, But it's not 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:53.040 this universe. 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.439 Oh bummer, bummer, all right, that might have been the 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.879 best universe to live in. But okay, so we've wrapped 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.920 our heads around quantum compute. So let's take a break 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:03.600 and when we get back, we're going to talk about 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:24.840 quantum teleportation. All right, and we're back, Daniel in Star 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:28.120 Trek is quantum teleportation how they move people from one 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:28.800 place to another? 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.120 You're gonna ask me about the physics of something totally fictional. 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:34.440 I love that. 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.840 That reminds me of when I used to give presentations 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.320 in elementary schools, and my favorite part about that was 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.080 always opening the Florida questions. 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:41.440 Uh huh. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:43.640 And I remember one day getting a question that totally 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.560 stumped me, and the question was just very similar to 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.639 your question. Actually, it was Hey everyone, just a note. 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.360 While we were recording this episode, a minor earthquake hit 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.840 southern California and my office shook a little bit. We 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:00.520 decided to keep that audio in the record for the 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.120 sake of transparency about life in California. 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.719 They just got quake, Aleric, Oh do you feel it? 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:09.879 Yeah, I'm like literally shaking. 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:12.760 Are you still shaking? 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:15.520 Nope? We're done. Wow, that was cool. 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:16.800 Do you need to check in with anyone? 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:22.919 No, just run in the mid day in California. Some 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:27.199 kidner gardener asked me if lightsabers were real, would they 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:28.520 be made of liquid nitrogen? 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:29.479 Wow? 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:31.639 Wow, I don't even know how to answer that. 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:32.879 Yeah, where do you start. 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.159 Here's a kyber crystal, Like you want to walk you 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.240 through the physics of kyber crystals? Like, I don't know anyway, 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:40.840 I don't know how they do it in Star Trek. 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.560 But teleportation is a really interesting question philosophically, and you 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:46.359 probably know that because every time we have a science 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.120 fiction author on I ask them what they think teleportation means. 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.679 Even does teleportation mean like your actual bits disappear and 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.840 appear somewhere else, like these atoms are now there? Or 0:19:57.920 --> 0:19:59.960 is it enough to tear you apart and rebuild you 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.080 at of different atoms with the same arrangement. Right, Is 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:04.840 it like a cut and paste? Is it like an 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:09.360 email of what's going on? What is required for teleportation? Anyway, 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:11.760 it's kind of a deep philosophical question. Where do you 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:12.960 stand on that, Kelly. 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:13.520 Yeah, you're dead? 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:14.680 Yeah? 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:16.960 Yeah, No, you die and you get brought back somewhere else. 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:18.120 You couldn't get me in one of those. 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:20.640 But that's only because I think you're assuming that they 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:22.920 get torn apart and rebuilt. What if there was an 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.920 actual teleportation device that took your actual atoms and appeared 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:28.600 them somewhere else, would you get into that? 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.679 I would be the one millionth person in line for that. 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.280 Okay, that was a yes. I heard a yes. We 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:35.960 have it on the air. 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:38.400 If you're in line in front of me, Daniel, then 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:39.480 I will give it a shot. 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:43.879 I would like my ashes teleported into the center of 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:44.840 the sun. How about that? 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.919 Oh? Interesting? All right, quantum teleportation. Let's step out of 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:51.959 Star Trek and into the real world. How does quantum 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:52.880 teleportation work? 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:58.600 Right? So, quantum teleportation is arguably not teleportation. I mean, 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.080 it depends again exactly what do you mean by teleportation 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.879 in that sense? But quantum teleportation is a way to 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.320 transmit a quantum state. You know, there's a difficulty here, 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.840 which is, like, let's say I have a particle in 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:13.760 some quantum state, And by a quantum state, I mean 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:15.760 like it has a probability to be this and a 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:18.680 probability to be that. Right, take an electron, for example, 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.879 and say it can just have two states up or down. 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:24.120 So let's say I have an electron and I've done 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:26.119 some complicated thing to it so that it has a 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:28.320 seventy percent chance of being up and the thirty percent 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:29.200 chance of being down. 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.399 Can you actually do that? Like, you can tinker with 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:34.000 the probability that it's up or down. 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:36.240 You can do lots of different stuff. Yeah, you can 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:39.359 construct an experiment so that electrons have whatever probability you 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:43.560 want of doing basically whatever. That's what experimentalists do. Yeah, exactly. Wow, 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:46.720 force the universe to do something cool. And so let's 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:50.080 say that's like the outcome of your calculation or whatever. Now, 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.200 maybe you want that information somewhere else, right, Maybe you 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.160 want this quantum state to exist not here in California, 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:59.520 but in some quantum computer in Virginia right where you're 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:02.360 gonna use that as the basis of your next colcolition 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:04.400 or I don't know whatever you folks do in Virginia 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:05.200 with quantum states. 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:07.320 I know that we don't get earthquake alerts. 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.679 Wow, too soon to superpoint. I'm sorry, No, it's fine. 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:17.680 And so if you want to copy a quantum state 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:20.280 from here to there, it's a little tricky because if 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:23.400 I interact with that electron, if I like measure it, 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:25.080 or if I touch it, or if I put in 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:29.200 a box, I risk collapsing its state. Right, the universe 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.520 allows things to stay in superposition till they interact with 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:35.359 something that can't be in superposition, like a classical object 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:37.919 like my eyeball or my detector or whatever, and then 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:40.760 the universe picks okay, spin up or okay spin down. 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:43.080 And that could be fine. But if what you want 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:46.840 to do is preserve the quantum superposition, not to collapse it, 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:49.439 and to copy that information somewhere else, then you do 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:53.199 something called quantum teleportation. So that's really what quantum teleportation 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:56.320 is is it transmits a quantum state from one system 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:59.600 to another without collapsing it, which is pretty cool. I 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:01.960 don't know over it really qualifies as teleportation. 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:05.840 Are you actually moving the electron from one place to another. 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:08.600 You're not at all moving the electron. You're moving the arrangement, 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:11.160 the quantum state. And so I have an electron here 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:13.440 in California, you have an electron in Virginia. I want 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:15.560 to get your electron in Virginia to have the same 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:18.359 quantum state as my electron. I'm not like putting it 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:20.840 on a ups truck and driving across the country. I 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:22.800 could do that, that's no big deal. But if I 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:25.960 just want to transmit the information the arrangement the quantum state, 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:29.320 that's what we call quantum teleportation. And some of the 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:32.040 folks I know in the foundations of quant mechanics really 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:35.040 hate that name. They're like, why they call it teleportation? Okay, 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:36.919 I know why, because it sounds cool, but it's not 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:40.199 really teleportation. It's misleading, and so it's important to understand 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:42.520 like what it actually means. But it kind of makes sense, right, 0:23:42.600 --> 0:23:44.879 Like if you have a network of quantum computer it's 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:46.680 one basic thing you're going to want to do is 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:48.880 take a quantum state from one and copy it over 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:51.120 to another one so it can like continue the calculation 0:23:51.320 --> 0:23:54.120 or whatever. So whatever you call it, it's an important 0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:56.400 part of having networked quantum computers. 0:23:56.480 --> 0:23:58.080 I feel like it's one of those darned if you do, 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:00.119 darned if you don't situations. You know, like you call 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:02.080 it teleportation and now it's awesome and I want to 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:04.840 hear more. Or you could be like, oh, Jupiter's rings 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:06.680 or ABC and D and I know I keep using 0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:08.919 it as an example, but like that is so boring. 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:11.040 You've got to be kidding me. So trying to find 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:13.160 the sweet spot for naming these things is tough. 0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:15.560 What would you call Jupiter's rings, Kelly. 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:17.320 Well, I'm going to need some time to think about that. 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:17.800 I don't know. 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:20.400 I'm sorry you've been complaining about the name for weeks. 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:23.320 You're right, oh, man, putting me on the spot. 0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:25.120 I'm just calling your bluff, that's all. 0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:27.640 Yeah, you are calling my bluff. Hmm. What's the name 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:31.280 of the ring and Lord of the rings? Crashous that's 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:32.240 what Gollum calls it. 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:34.919 That's what Gollum calls it. Yeah. The efficient name is 0:24:35.160 --> 0:24:36.359 something in Elvish, isn't it. 0:24:36.520 --> 0:24:36.560 No? 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:40.720 Yeah, anyway, all right, focusing again, Okay, quantum teleportation we 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:42.919 understand what that is now. And you said that we 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:47.680 can connect an electron in California to an electron in Virginia. 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:49.960 Mm hmmm, how does that process work? 0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:52.119 Yeah, so to do that, we're gonna have to use 0:24:52.160 --> 0:24:56.080 something called quantum entanglement. So we're three layers deep. Now. 0:24:56.400 --> 0:25:00.520 Quantum Internet requires quantum computers connected by quantum teleport rotation, 0:25:01.040 --> 0:25:04.160 which rests on the principle of quantum entanglement. All right, 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:05.760 So now we're going to dig into what is quantum 0:25:05.880 --> 0:25:08.920 entanglement fundamentally, and then we'll come back and explain how 0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:12.240 you use quantum entanglement to do quantum teleportation to connect 0:25:12.240 --> 0:25:15.680 your quantum computers on the quantum Internet and play quantum 0:25:15.720 --> 0:25:17.160 doom with your quantum friends. 0:25:17.440 --> 0:25:19.480 Oh nice, but that probably would be easier on a 0:25:19.480 --> 0:25:20.320 classical computer. 0:25:21.400 --> 0:25:23.280 You can put doom on anything, though, right the day 0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:24.880 they pour doom to something, that's how you know it's 0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:25.520 a real computer. 0:25:25.760 --> 0:25:26.000 Yep. 0:25:26.200 --> 0:25:26.560 Amen. 0:25:26.800 --> 0:25:29.560 All right, So what is quantum entanglement? And this is 0:25:29.640 --> 0:25:32.040 again something you hear a lot about in the Internet, 0:25:32.359 --> 0:25:34.199 and I know people are confused about because I get 0:25:34.240 --> 0:25:36.960 lots of emails from people saying like, why can't you 0:25:37.040 --> 0:25:39.800 use quantum entanglement to transmit information faster than light, and 0:25:39.840 --> 0:25:42.000 you can't. And we'll talk about why that is. But 0:25:42.040 --> 0:25:44.639 you should also understand the quantum teleportation is not faster 0:25:44.720 --> 0:25:48.800 than light. It's slower than light transmission of quantum information. 0:25:49.040 --> 0:25:51.119 But before we get to that, let's understand what is 0:25:51.240 --> 0:25:54.960 quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement has to do with the superpositions 0:25:55.000 --> 0:25:58.480 we talked about earlier, the probabilities for various outcomes. So 0:25:58.600 --> 0:26:01.040 let's say we have, instead of just one particle that 0:26:01.080 --> 0:26:03.240 can be spin up or spined down, say we have 0:26:03.280 --> 0:26:06.280 two electrons in California. Each one can be spin up 0:26:06.440 --> 0:26:09.280 or spin down. So how many possible states can they 0:26:09.280 --> 0:26:13.320 be in. Well, there's four. There's plus plus, plus minus, 0:26:13.520 --> 0:26:18.280 minus plus and minus minus, right, so there's four possible states. Cool. 0:26:18.320 --> 0:26:20.159 And if you just like scrambled the electrons, they can 0:26:20.160 --> 0:26:22.719 be in any of those states with equal probability. Cool. 0:26:22.840 --> 0:26:25.359 But let's say we've done something clever. We're an experimentalist, 0:26:25.680 --> 0:26:28.399 and we've prepared these electrons in such a way that 0:26:28.440 --> 0:26:30.560 there's a constraint on them, like they have to have 0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:33.280 opposite spins. And this isn't so hard to do. If 0:26:33.280 --> 0:26:35.720 they come from some state that has a total spin zero. 0:26:36.160 --> 0:26:39.720 The universe conserves angular momentum, and so when you create 0:26:39.760 --> 0:26:42.359 these two electrons, their spin has to add up to zero. 0:26:42.640 --> 0:26:44.640 It's not so hard. And so if you do that, 0:26:44.680 --> 0:26:46.840 it means that only two of the states are possible, 0:26:47.000 --> 0:26:49.679 the one that is plus minus or minus plus the 0:26:49.680 --> 0:26:52.800 plus plus state and the minus minus state no longer allowed. 0:26:53.000 --> 0:26:54.960 So we've crossed two of the states off the list, 0:26:55.240 --> 0:26:59.199 and boom, those two particles are now entangled. Why do 0:26:59.280 --> 0:27:02.440 we say they're entangled because their faiths are connected? Right? 0:27:02.480 --> 0:27:04.320 If one is plus, the other one is minus. If 0:27:04.359 --> 0:27:06.760 one is minus, the other one's plus. And this is 0:27:06.800 --> 0:27:09.880 not some mystical thing where like you force one particle 0:27:09.880 --> 0:27:12.040 to be minus and it reaches out through the universe 0:27:12.080 --> 0:27:14.280 and makes the other one plus. It's just that you 0:27:14.320 --> 0:27:16.320 have a list of options, and that list is limited, 0:27:16.359 --> 0:27:19.680 and in every possible outcome they have the opposite spin. 0:27:20.080 --> 0:27:23.240 I'm keeping track of, like how complicated all of these 0:27:23.240 --> 0:27:25.800 steps are. So you said it's pretty easy to get 0:27:26.440 --> 0:27:29.159 an electron that's entangled, so that one is plus and 0:27:29.160 --> 0:27:32.439 one is minus. What does pretty easy mean? Do you 0:27:32.480 --> 0:27:35.080 have to like go into the lac after spending billions 0:27:35.080 --> 0:27:37.320 of dollars, or is this something that can happen in 0:27:37.520 --> 0:27:39.880 a lab on a UC campus. 0:27:40.080 --> 0:27:43.119 This happens all the time, like every time a photon 0:27:43.359 --> 0:27:47.040 turns into an electron and a positron. Those are entangled, 0:27:47.359 --> 0:27:50.280 like it's constantly happening all of the time, and it's 0:27:50.280 --> 0:27:52.520 not actually that hard to do in the lab. The 0:27:52.560 --> 0:27:54.840 thing that's tricky to do in the lab, and the 0:27:54.880 --> 0:27:59.359 thing that's important is separating those two and maintaining their entanglement. 0:28:00.000 --> 0:28:02.800 You create those particles, they're entangled, and it's a really 0:28:02.800 --> 0:28:05.480 cool state because it's not yet determined. Right, they could 0:28:05.480 --> 0:28:07.840 be plus minus, so they could be minus plus. But 0:28:07.960 --> 0:28:10.520 then you could separate the particles. You can say, i'm 0:28:10.520 --> 0:28:13.280 gonna take particle B and i'm gonna drive it to Virginia. 0:28:13.400 --> 0:28:17.560 I'm gonna leave particle A in California. They're still entangled, right, 0:28:17.760 --> 0:28:19.919 And then if I measure particle A when it's in 0:28:19.960 --> 0:28:23.200 California and I get plus, then I know instantly what 0:28:23.240 --> 0:28:26.520 particle B in Virginia has to be. Because they're entangled. 0:28:26.760 --> 0:28:30.200 The thing that's hard is keeping them entangled, because to 0:28:30.280 --> 0:28:32.639 keep them entangled, you have to avoid them interacting with 0:28:32.680 --> 0:28:35.640 anything else. Like these electrons, they like to interact with stuff. 0:28:35.640 --> 0:28:37.200 You put them in a box, they'll interact with the box. 0:28:37.200 --> 0:28:38.880 You put them on a truck, they'll interact with a truck. 0:28:39.040 --> 0:28:42.280 So keeping these particles in that state while separating them 0:28:42.440 --> 0:28:45.600 means isolating them from everything else, because if they touch 0:28:45.680 --> 0:28:47.760 or interact with anything else, then they get entangled with 0:28:47.840 --> 0:28:50.080 that thing, or they get entangled with you. And now 0:28:50.160 --> 0:28:53.080 you were part of that quantum entanglement state to do 0:28:53.160 --> 0:28:54.640 the things that we want to do in a minute 0:28:54.640 --> 0:28:57.280 to transmit information, and we need them entangled with each 0:28:57.320 --> 0:28:59.760 other and with nothing else. And that's where the sort 0:28:59.760 --> 0:29:02.560 of onto magic comes from. Right, these two particles are 0:29:02.560 --> 0:29:05.080 now really far apart. They can be a kilometer apart, 0:29:05.080 --> 0:29:08.240 a light year apart, and they both maintain the uncertainty 0:29:08.240 --> 0:29:11.240 of being in plus minus or minus plus. Then you 0:29:11.320 --> 0:29:13.800 measure one of them, you get a minus boom. The 0:29:13.840 --> 0:29:16.120 other one is a plus. You know it, it's gone 0:29:16.120 --> 0:29:21.000 from uncertain to certain. That's the incredible thing about quantum entanglement, 0:29:21.120 --> 0:29:24.280 so that you can maintain the connection across distances, that's 0:29:24.320 --> 0:29:26.720 the non local part of quantum mechanics. 0:29:26.920 --> 0:29:28.520 Can we dig in a little bit more about how 0:29:28.600 --> 0:29:30.880 you make them not interact with anything. Do you use 0:29:31.000 --> 0:29:34.000 like electric fields to hold them in the center of 0:29:34.040 --> 0:29:34.560 a box? 0:29:34.920 --> 0:29:36.440 Electric fields are an interaction? 0:29:36.640 --> 0:29:39.320 Oh man, yeah, exactly what do you do? 0:29:41.360 --> 0:29:43.200 It's very hard. I mean, with the simplest way you 0:29:43.200 --> 0:29:45.120 can think about it as a thought experiment. It's like 0:29:45.360 --> 0:29:48.280 you're out in space. You have a photon. It turns 0:29:48.320 --> 0:29:50.640 into an electron and a positron, and they're going in 0:29:50.680 --> 0:29:53.520 opposite directions already naturally, right, Like if it had a 0:29:53.520 --> 0:29:55.760 lot of energy, then that energy is going to get 0:29:55.760 --> 0:29:57.760 transmitted to those particles. They're just going to fly apart, 0:29:58.320 --> 0:30:00.560 and so along the way they're not they interact with 0:30:00.560 --> 0:30:03.120 anything if it's really empty, and so they'll get further 0:30:03.160 --> 0:30:05.800 and further apart and still stay entangled. So on Earth, 0:30:05.800 --> 0:30:09.120 of course, it's much more complicated, and people have all 0:30:09.160 --> 0:30:12.520 sorts of tricks for keeping these things separated and keeping 0:30:12.560 --> 0:30:14.960 them isolated. It's not easy. It depends a lot on 0:30:15.000 --> 0:30:18.280 the details of the quantum system exactly the particles. We 0:30:18.320 --> 0:30:20.000 can dig into that in a future episode. I think 0:30:20.000 --> 0:30:22.440 that's a cool idea, but it's not easy. Right. The 0:30:22.480 --> 0:30:26.440 particles like to interact with everything else. And to decohere, 0:30:26.600 --> 0:30:28.680 this quantum state is very very fragile. 0:30:28.920 --> 0:30:31.560 All right, So that is really awesome. You mentioned that 0:30:31.680 --> 0:30:35.160 this can't be used for faster than light communication. Could 0:30:35.160 --> 0:30:37.000 you dig into that a little bit more. 0:30:37.400 --> 0:30:40.000 Yeah, it sounds like you should be able to use 0:30:40.040 --> 0:30:42.600 it for faster than like communication because there is something 0:30:43.040 --> 0:30:47.280 non local and instantaneous happening. Particle a's in California, particle 0:30:47.280 --> 0:30:50.160 b's in Virginia. Both of them are maintaining their superposition. 0:30:50.240 --> 0:30:52.640 Both of them could still be plus or still be minus. 0:30:52.840 --> 0:30:55.120 The entanglement just says they have to be opposite. Both 0:30:55.160 --> 0:30:57.560 of them could still be plus or minus. Right, I 0:30:57.640 --> 0:31:00.800 make a measurement in California, I get plus instantly know 0:31:01.400 --> 0:31:03.520 that you would get a minus if you measured yours 0:31:03.560 --> 0:31:07.200 in Virginia. So there is some sort of instantaneous across 0:31:07.240 --> 0:31:10.200 space and time thing happening there, which is very very cool, 0:31:10.240 --> 0:31:12.080 and it sounds like you should be able to use 0:31:12.120 --> 0:31:14.640 that for faster than like communication. And a lot of 0:31:14.640 --> 0:31:17.400 people write it and say, well, what if Daniel measures 0:31:17.440 --> 0:31:20.360 his and Kelly is watching, and so she knows, and 0:31:20.400 --> 0:31:22.720 you have a series of these things and Daniel measures 0:31:22.720 --> 0:31:24.400 them at a certain time, and Kelly is watching the 0:31:24.400 --> 0:31:26.720 pattern or something. It feels like you should be able 0:31:26.720 --> 0:31:29.280 to maybe use that for faster than like communication. The 0:31:29.360 --> 0:31:31.960 problem is if I measure mine in California and I 0:31:32.000 --> 0:31:34.840 get plus, I know that you're going to get a minus, 0:31:35.240 --> 0:31:37.880 but you don't know that. The Only thing you can 0:31:37.920 --> 0:31:40.120 do is look at your particle and measure it, and 0:31:40.200 --> 0:31:42.160 you don't know if it's collapsed or not. You can't 0:31:42.280 --> 0:31:44.440 tell that it's collapsed. I know that it's collapsed, but 0:31:44.440 --> 0:31:47.080 there's nothing about the particle itself that shows you that 0:31:47.120 --> 0:31:49.960 it's collapsed. You can measure it and get a minus. Cool, 0:31:50.160 --> 0:31:51.920 but you don't know if you got a minus because 0:31:51.960 --> 0:31:55.080 I already collapsed it, or because it was not collapsed 0:31:55.120 --> 0:31:58.240 and you collapsed. It's no like your particle has been collapsed. 0:31:58.320 --> 0:32:01.720 Light that goes on. There's no way to manipulate these things. 0:32:01.760 --> 0:32:03.480 And I also can't change it. It's not like I 0:32:03.520 --> 0:32:05.280 can say, oh, I have a plus, I'm gonna flip 0:32:05.320 --> 0:32:07.520 it to a minus to make Kelly's go the opposite. 0:32:07.560 --> 0:32:10.760 And as soon as I've measured mine, I break the entanglement. 0:32:10.880 --> 0:32:13.520 Right it's over. It's interactive with something that was a 0:32:13.560 --> 0:32:16.520 one time deal. So in science fiction novels where they 0:32:16.560 --> 0:32:18.120 have like entangled particles and they put one on a 0:32:18.160 --> 0:32:19.880 ship and they take them to Alpha's centauri and then 0:32:19.920 --> 0:32:21.720 they can use it as the basis of some answerable 0:32:21.760 --> 0:32:25.120 technology where they do FTL communication. Yeah, that's pure nonsense. 0:32:25.280 --> 0:32:27.400 It's fun. I'd love it, but it doesn't work. 0:32:27.640 --> 0:32:30.640 Okay, so it can't be used for helpful communication. But 0:32:30.880 --> 0:32:35.280 does the bit flip at a rate that's faster than light? 0:32:35.400 --> 0:32:37.440 So you bring them to opposite sides of the universe, 0:32:37.840 --> 0:32:39.720 do they communicate faster than light? 0:32:40.920 --> 0:32:43.720 Great question, Yes, but I wouldn't say bitflip. So the 0:32:43.800 --> 0:32:47.120 collapse is instantaneous, right, If I measure mine in California, 0:32:47.280 --> 0:32:50.120 then instantaneously yours collapses faster than light. 0:32:50.320 --> 0:32:51.120 Okay. Wow. 0:32:51.280 --> 0:32:53.600 Yeah, and that's weird and that's cool. And that's the 0:32:53.600 --> 0:32:56.479 thing about quantum mechanics that we call non local, right, 0:32:56.520 --> 0:32:59.760 there's something global that's happening there, and people who've heard 0:32:59.800 --> 0:33:02.720 of Bell's experiment. Bell's experiment proves to us that it's 0:33:02.720 --> 0:33:04.840 not like one particle was always plus and the other 0:33:04.880 --> 0:33:07.160 one was always minus. We just don't know it. It 0:33:07.200 --> 0:33:09.600 means that this uncertainty is real, that they really do 0:33:09.720 --> 0:33:13.600 maintain the possibility of both outcomes until you do measure it. 0:33:13.720 --> 0:33:17.200 Bell's experiment proved that there's no like hidden information there 0:33:17.280 --> 0:33:20.160 that determines the outcome. It really is uncertain or at 0:33:20.280 --> 0:33:22.440 least and this is important, but it proved that there's 0:33:22.480 --> 0:33:25.840 no local hidden information. Quantum mechanics has to be non 0:33:26.000 --> 0:33:30.440 local in some way either. It really is probabilistic, and 0:33:30.480 --> 0:33:34.120 it maintains these probabilities and collapses instantaneously across space time 0:33:34.160 --> 0:33:36.160 when one of them is measured. So you should really 0:33:36.160 --> 0:33:38.320 think of it as like not two particles but one 0:33:38.440 --> 0:33:41.360 big quantum state. You collapse it anywhere, the whole thing 0:33:41.400 --> 0:33:45.320 collapses or there are some other crazy theories about global 0:33:45.560 --> 0:33:49.760 quantum information, you know, like super determinism or whatever that 0:33:49.760 --> 0:33:51.520 we can get into another time. But you know, the 0:33:51.560 --> 0:33:53.920 way most people think about it is that it does 0:33:54.000 --> 0:33:57.640 collapse instantaneously across space and time, which is crazy. But 0:33:57.720 --> 0:34:00.640 you can't use it to transmit information because you can't 0:34:00.680 --> 0:34:03.640 control it. Right. You can ask it, you can query it, 0:34:03.640 --> 0:34:05.720 you can collapse it. I can't even tell whether you've 0:34:05.720 --> 0:34:07.480 collapsed it or not. And you can't tell whether I've 0:34:07.520 --> 0:34:08.359 collapsed it or not. 0:34:08.719 --> 0:34:11.960 Okay, so it's not useful for faster than light communication, 0:34:12.640 --> 0:34:17.920 but it is useful for quantum teleportation. So after the break, 0:34:18.000 --> 0:34:20.960 let's jump back up a level to quantum teleportation and 0:34:20.960 --> 0:34:40.239 try to understand that. All right, we're back. So we 0:34:40.600 --> 0:34:45.440 now have a firm understanding of quantum entanglement. Maybe we 0:34:45.480 --> 0:34:47.480 have a firm understanding, and then we have two quantum 0:34:47.480 --> 0:34:49.960 computers and we want them to be able to communicate 0:34:50.000 --> 0:34:52.960 with quantum teleportation. Yes, tell us some more about how 0:34:52.960 --> 0:34:53.400 that works. 0:34:53.600 --> 0:34:55.440 Right, So remember the problem we want to solve is 0:34:55.520 --> 0:34:58.200 I have my electron. It's in some state, maybe it's 0:34:58.200 --> 0:35:00.400 like seventy thirty plus or minus or whatever, and you 0:35:00.400 --> 0:35:01.960 have an electron in Virginia, and I want to put 0:35:02.000 --> 0:35:04.560 your electron in the same state as my electron, and 0:35:04.600 --> 0:35:06.759 I don't want to collapse it, and I also don't 0:35:06.760 --> 0:35:08.120 want to put in a truck and drive it across 0:35:08.160 --> 0:35:11.160 the country. How do I get that quantum information without 0:35:11.160 --> 0:35:14.279 collapsing it and make your electron have it? Right? And 0:35:14.320 --> 0:35:17.480 so the way we do that is through quantum entanglement, 0:35:17.680 --> 0:35:20.239 because I can interact with my electron without collapsing it 0:35:20.280 --> 0:35:23.319 if I use with another quantum particle. So if I 0:35:23.400 --> 0:35:25.239 touch the electron, or if I poke it with something 0:35:25.239 --> 0:35:28.120 classical that can't be in a superposition, it will collapse 0:35:28.120 --> 0:35:30.839 the electron. But if I let that electron interact with 0:35:30.880 --> 0:35:33.520 some other quantum thing that can be in a superposition, 0:35:33.960 --> 0:35:36.520 it'll get entangled with that quantum thing. So I have 0:35:36.520 --> 0:35:39.840 my electronics in the special state. I bring in another particle, 0:35:40.120 --> 0:35:43.000 and I have those two interacts somehow, and now they're entangled. 0:35:43.160 --> 0:35:45.440 You have the particle we want to copy and some 0:35:45.600 --> 0:35:48.840 other particle entangled with it. Now if I planned ahead 0:35:48.920 --> 0:35:52.480 and had entangled this other particle with a third particle 0:35:52.840 --> 0:35:55.440 that we then sent to Virginia, we'd be ready to 0:35:55.480 --> 0:35:58.400 do quantum teleportation. So here's the setup. I have the 0:35:58.440 --> 0:36:01.520 original source particle I want to copy, and a pair 0:36:01.560 --> 0:36:04.520 of particles that are entangled with each other but separated, 0:36:04.760 --> 0:36:08.200 one in California and one in Virginia. I entangle my 0:36:08.400 --> 0:36:12.800 California particle with the source particle without breaking the entanglement 0:36:13.080 --> 0:36:16.120 because it's a quantum particle, and so the entanglement just spreads. 0:36:16.239 --> 0:36:18.319 It doesn't break like it would if it interacted with 0:36:18.360 --> 0:36:21.680 a classical object or with the whole environment. So I 0:36:21.719 --> 0:36:25.200 have my California end of our entangled particle pair, and 0:36:25.320 --> 0:36:27.879 now I've entangled that with the source particle I want 0:36:27.880 --> 0:36:30.279 to copy, and I can see what happens to the 0:36:30.280 --> 0:36:33.600 California end of the entangled pair. They can use the 0:36:33.600 --> 0:36:36.360 information in that new special particle. I can read that 0:36:36.520 --> 0:36:39.960 off and send you some information. I can email it 0:36:39.960 --> 0:36:41.480 to you, or I can send it to be a 0:36:41.520 --> 0:36:45.479 carrier pigeon or whatever some slower then like process, because 0:36:45.520 --> 0:36:48.280 everything is slower than night. I send you that information, 0:36:48.560 --> 0:36:51.480 and there's a recipe for using that information to copy 0:36:51.520 --> 0:36:54.840 the state of my particle onto your electron. I'm telling 0:36:54.840 --> 0:36:56.440 you what you have to do to your end of 0:36:56.480 --> 0:37:00.000 the California Virginia entangled pair to make it a quantum 0:37:00.239 --> 0:37:03.960 copy of my original source particle. So, to summarize, we 0:37:04.120 --> 0:37:08.280 entangled two particles, separate them while keeping them entangled, entangle 0:37:08.440 --> 0:37:11.319 my California end of it with the source particle, read 0:37:11.360 --> 0:37:13.680 off some information about that, and send it to you, 0:37:14.040 --> 0:37:16.799 so you know how to manipulate your Virginia end to 0:37:16.880 --> 0:37:18.880 make it a copy of my source particle. 0:37:19.080 --> 0:37:21.960 Okay, so you have something going on in your computer 0:37:22.000 --> 0:37:26.239 where you've got entangled cubits, Yes, and you send me 0:37:26.280 --> 0:37:28.080 an email with instructions for how to do that on 0:37:28.160 --> 0:37:32.520 my computer. Yes exactly, and now my computer has the 0:37:32.560 --> 0:37:35.520 same entanglement stuff going on as your computer. 0:37:35.800 --> 0:37:38.640 Yes exactly. There's a lot of little bits that we've 0:37:38.640 --> 0:37:40.960 skipped over because the math is a little complicated. But 0:37:41.040 --> 0:37:44.120 the crucial thing to understand is that I've avoided collapsing 0:37:44.280 --> 0:37:47.759 my cubit by interacting with a quantum particle, which now 0:37:47.840 --> 0:37:50.799 stores the information from it. And I can extract that 0:37:50.840 --> 0:37:53.560 information from my quantum particle and send it to you, 0:37:53.960 --> 0:37:56.319 so you can reverse the process. If we have kept 0:37:56.320 --> 0:37:59.680 our entangled pair nicely entangled, you can prepare some fond 0:37:59.680 --> 0:38:01.640 of part of in that state, have it interact with 0:38:01.680 --> 0:38:04.319 your electron, and then your electron will be in the 0:38:04.360 --> 0:38:07.239 same state as my original one was. And so this 0:38:07.320 --> 0:38:10.800 is what quantum teleportation is. It's a way to interact 0:38:10.800 --> 0:38:13.759 with the quantum objects, extract their information without collapsing it, 0:38:13.960 --> 0:38:16.759 encode it into something that we can transmit across the 0:38:16.800 --> 0:38:19.160 world or whatever, and then reverse the process. 0:38:19.600 --> 0:38:23.239 But when your quantum particle entangles with an electron in 0:38:23.280 --> 0:38:25.520 your computer, and then you look at what the quantum 0:38:25.520 --> 0:38:28.360 particle is doing, so that you can tell my computer 0:38:28.440 --> 0:38:30.880 what to do. When you look at your quantum particle 0:38:30.920 --> 0:38:33.520 because it was entangled, doesn't it mess up the system? 0:38:33.640 --> 0:38:36.120 It does actually mess up the system. And so when 0:38:36.160 --> 0:38:39.120 you copy the state, it destroys the original state. So 0:38:39.320 --> 0:38:42.360 the electron that I had in California is no longer 0:38:42.400 --> 0:38:44.160 going to be in that state that we both wanted. 0:38:44.360 --> 0:38:47.520 So I extract that information, I send it to you. 0:38:47.520 --> 0:38:49.480 You use that to create the quantum state over there 0:38:49.480 --> 0:38:52.279 in Virginia. But there's a no cloning theorem that says 0:38:52.320 --> 0:38:55.400 that you can't extract that information without also destroying it. 0:38:55.440 --> 0:38:57.399 But here we are extracting it in such a way 0:38:57.440 --> 0:39:00.799 that we can recreate the state in Virginia. Yes, we've 0:39:00.840 --> 0:39:03.279 destroyed the state of the California electron. So I'm not 0:39:03.320 --> 0:39:05.920 like just emailing you a PDF where like I also 0:39:05.920 --> 0:39:08.680 still have it. I have to like shred that PDF 0:39:08.760 --> 0:39:11.680 somehow and send it to you so you can recreate it. 0:39:11.840 --> 0:39:14.600 So the teleportation, and maybe this is where we discovered 0:39:14.600 --> 0:39:17.919 that teleportation actually wasn't a great term for this, But okay, 0:39:17.960 --> 0:39:21.680 so the teleportation is actually just that you've used entanglement 0:39:22.120 --> 0:39:24.399 to figure out what's happening with another electron. You're sending 0:39:24.480 --> 0:39:27.200 me that information and you are like teleporting it by 0:39:27.239 --> 0:39:31.440 email quote unquote, and that's where the teleportation is happening. 0:39:31.600 --> 0:39:34.759 Yeah, it's very equivalent to saying, like, hey, Kelly, I 0:39:34.840 --> 0:39:37.399 built a really cool Lego house over here, and I'm 0:39:37.400 --> 0:39:39.319 going to send you the recipe to do so. I 0:39:39.320 --> 0:39:41.120 need to like tear apart my Lego house so I 0:39:41.120 --> 0:39:43.680 can keep track of exactly how you're going to build it. 0:39:43.880 --> 0:39:45.680 Then I'm email you the recipe and you guys are 0:39:45.680 --> 0:39:48.000 going to build the same Lego house over there. I 0:39:48.040 --> 0:39:50.480 had to destroy my Lego house to develop the recipe, 0:39:50.719 --> 0:39:52.480 and I just emailed it to you, or I send 0:39:52.480 --> 0:39:54.200 it to you via mail or whatever. But now you 0:39:54.239 --> 0:39:56.879 have the recipe to create exactly the same thing. And 0:39:57.160 --> 0:39:59.480 this is tricky only because these are quantum particles and 0:39:59.520 --> 0:40:02.120 it's not to read them off and to create these states. 0:40:02.160 --> 0:40:04.960 But this essentially is quantum teleportation. And I'll kind of 0:40:05.040 --> 0:40:06.960 argue the teleportation it's not a terrible name for it. 0:40:07.000 --> 0:40:10.520 I mean, if the Star Trek teleporter is scanning you 0:40:10.680 --> 0:40:12.880 and reading the quantum state of all your particles and 0:40:12.880 --> 0:40:15.560 then beaming that information to another machine that can reverse 0:40:15.600 --> 0:40:17.879 that process, then Yeah, that's kind of what we're talking 0:40:17.920 --> 0:40:18.399 about here. 0:40:18.600 --> 0:40:22.920 So everything we've just talked about sounds pretty complicated. Can 0:40:22.960 --> 0:40:24.960 you give me some situations where you would want to 0:40:25.000 --> 0:40:27.680 go through that process? Like, why would you create something 0:40:27.680 --> 0:40:29.839 in one computer destroy it just so you can create 0:40:29.840 --> 0:40:32.520 it on another computer. Couldn't you just create it and 0:40:32.600 --> 0:40:36.080 the second computer from scratch without making it on the 0:40:36.200 --> 0:40:36.960 other one first? 0:40:37.440 --> 0:40:41.120 Yeah? Maybe, but perhaps it's the outcome of a very complicated, 0:40:41.280 --> 0:40:45.160 very expensive quantum computation, you know. And like, let's say 0:40:45.200 --> 0:40:47.920 I have a quantum supercomputer and you ask me to 0:40:47.960 --> 0:40:50.360 do some calculation about your tapeworm simulation. 0:40:50.480 --> 0:40:51.760 I don't know, you have my attention. 0:40:53.040 --> 0:40:54.319 I do it for you, and I want to send 0:40:54.320 --> 0:40:56.920 you the result, right, I want to use the quantum 0:40:57.000 --> 0:40:59.760 Internet to send you this quantum answer to your quantum 0:40:59.760 --> 0:41:02.440 could computer from my quantum computer. And yeah, you could 0:41:02.480 --> 0:41:04.880 recreate it, but it might be really really slow, and 0:41:04.920 --> 0:41:07.080 so might well just copy the answer in the same 0:41:07.080 --> 0:41:09.879 way that your computer can calculate your taxes much much 0:41:09.920 --> 0:41:11.920 faster than you can. And you might think, well, why 0:41:11.920 --> 0:41:14.439 do I need that? I can just do it myself. Yeah, 0:41:14.480 --> 0:41:15.920 but you might as well skip ahead and get the 0:41:15.960 --> 0:41:18.920 answer so in that way, the quantum information here represents 0:41:18.920 --> 0:41:22.879 the results of a quantum computation, which could be extraordinarily valuable, right, 0:41:22.920 --> 0:41:25.200 and so you might want to save that. And people 0:41:25.320 --> 0:41:28.319 thought about ways to build super powerful quantum computers by 0:41:28.360 --> 0:41:33.080 tying together quantum bits across the quantum cloud, right the 0:41:33.120 --> 0:41:36.040 way you like, we make very powerful computers by spreading 0:41:36.040 --> 0:41:39.080 information and computation across them. You ask Amazon to do 0:41:39.120 --> 0:41:42.080 a complicated calculation, it doesn't just run in a one computer. 0:41:42.120 --> 0:41:44.480 It runs on ten fifty one hundred, so that you 0:41:44.520 --> 0:41:46.880 get the answer faster. In the same way, maybe you 0:41:46.920 --> 0:41:49.280 take a big quantum problem, you break it into pieces. 0:41:49.560 --> 0:41:51.359 Each quantum computer does a piece of it, and then 0:41:51.360 --> 0:41:53.160 they want to send the answer back to some central 0:41:53.200 --> 0:41:55.600 node which puts it together to get the final answer. 0:41:55.880 --> 0:41:59.319 That requires a quantum internet of quantum computers that can 0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:02.600 send quant states back and forth to each other. And 0:42:02.680 --> 0:42:05.120 so that's why this is a stepping stone to some 0:42:05.480 --> 0:42:08.000 future awesome globally linked quantum computer. 0:42:08.239 --> 0:42:10.799 And so where are we now? Has somebody recently done 0:42:10.840 --> 0:42:12.160 this quantum teleportation thing? 0:42:12.360 --> 0:42:14.160 Yeah, so people have been working on this for a while. 0:42:14.200 --> 0:42:16.320 And the bit that we talked about the quantum entanglement 0:42:16.320 --> 0:42:21.120 and sending information usually requires really specialized hardware. Keeping our 0:42:21.160 --> 0:42:23.839 two particles entangled is hard because we have to keep 0:42:23.880 --> 0:42:27.600 them isolated from any classical object. And what happened recently 0:42:27.800 --> 0:42:30.440 is a lab at Northwestern in northern Chicago managed to 0:42:30.480 --> 0:42:34.720 do quantum teleportation over normal fiber optics. Right, So usually 0:42:34.719 --> 0:42:39.359 like keeping that information pristine and clean is very very hard, Right, 0:42:39.560 --> 0:42:42.360 you have specialized hardware to transmit this information because it 0:42:42.360 --> 0:42:44.160 has to be just right. But they were able to 0:42:44.239 --> 0:42:47.719 use fiber optic cables that were thirty kilometers long that 0:42:47.880 --> 0:42:51.560 already also had normal Internet traffic, so like people randomly 0:42:51.560 --> 0:42:54.360 emailing and texting pictures of their cats and whatever, and 0:42:54.400 --> 0:42:56.800 they were able to send this information to do quantum 0:42:56.880 --> 0:43:02.239 teleportation across this noisy, totally and fiber optic cable. And 0:43:02.280 --> 0:43:04.800 so that was the excitement recently about the quantum Internet, 0:43:04.880 --> 0:43:08.040 is that we went from like you need specialized, dedicated 0:43:08.080 --> 0:43:10.480 hardware to do it for a single electron, to like, 0:43:10.560 --> 0:43:12.800 oh no, we can do it over long distances using 0:43:13.080 --> 0:43:15.400 standard equipment that already exists. 0:43:15.719 --> 0:43:20.439 But you're not sending entangled electrons through fiber optics. You're 0:43:20.480 --> 0:43:23.600 just sending instructions through fiber optics that then set up 0:43:23.640 --> 0:43:25.120 the next computer on the other side. 0:43:25.160 --> 0:43:27.040 Is that right, Yes, that's exactly right. 0:43:27.120 --> 0:43:29.200 Okay, still totally awesome. I just wanted to make sure 0:43:29.200 --> 0:43:30.960 I was understanding all right, awesome. 0:43:31.360 --> 0:43:34.080 Yeah, And so this is the first demonstration of quantum 0:43:34.160 --> 0:43:38.000 teleportation of entangled photons through busy optical fibers that are 0:43:38.040 --> 0:43:42.680 also carrying conventional telecommunications traffic. So, you know, it brings 0:43:42.760 --> 0:43:45.200 us a step closer. It's not like we have the 0:43:45.239 --> 0:43:47.640 quantum Internet. It's not like you can log on right 0:43:47.640 --> 0:43:49.880 now to the quantum Internet and do your quantum taxes 0:43:50.160 --> 0:43:52.200 or anything like that. But you know, this is an 0:43:52.239 --> 0:43:55.560 important step forward in making this realistic because if we 0:43:55.600 --> 0:43:57.640 want to build a bunch of quantum computers and connect them, 0:43:57.680 --> 0:44:00.200 it'd be nice if we could use standard equipment to 0:44:00.239 --> 0:44:02.400 do so and not have to build a whole separate 0:44:02.480 --> 0:44:06.520 quantum Internet. So it's cool, it's like, very experimentally awesome. 0:44:06.760 --> 0:44:09.520 Taxes are so complicated it wouldn't surprise me if next 0:44:09.560 --> 0:44:12.839 year we need to be doing our taxes on quantum computers. 0:44:12.840 --> 0:44:14.120 But I hope we're not getting there. 0:44:14.280 --> 0:44:15.680 Yeah, well, you should think about whether you want to 0:44:15.680 --> 0:44:17.720 pay your taxes or not pay them or both. 0:44:18.080 --> 0:44:21.640 Whoa, I know which one I'd rather do. But on 0:44:21.680 --> 0:44:24.800 the other hand, I really like my government services, so 0:44:25.280 --> 0:44:26.600 I feel complicated and. 0:44:26.560 --> 0:44:27.880 I like not being in jail. 0:44:28.239 --> 0:44:30.319 Yeah, me too, Me too. There's a lot of things 0:44:30.360 --> 0:44:33.319 that would be hard to do from jail, like this podcast. 0:44:34.520 --> 0:44:36.560 Actually that might be possible. We'll find out maybe. 0:44:36.600 --> 0:44:37.000 Yeah. 0:44:37.040 --> 0:44:39.480 So the quantum Internet is a real thing, right. Quantum 0:44:39.520 --> 0:44:42.360 computers are real and they're awesome, not always in the 0:44:42.360 --> 0:44:44.600 way people say they are. They're not the multiverse, but 0:44:44.640 --> 0:44:47.320 they are a new way to do computation. And quantum 0:44:47.320 --> 0:44:50.560 teleportation is a real thing. It's not faster than light, 0:44:50.640 --> 0:44:52.680 it's not Star Trek, but it is a way to 0:44:52.760 --> 0:44:56.400 transmit quantum states across vast distances, which is very cool. 0:44:56.640 --> 0:44:59.480 Bring them together and you get the quantum Internet. Quantum 0:44:59.520 --> 0:45:04.440 computers connected through quantum teleportation to do massive quantum problem solving. 0:45:04.680 --> 0:45:05.640 I think it's pretty cool. 0:45:05.800 --> 0:45:07.680 The future is now, and so. 0:45:07.640 --> 0:45:09.399 I hope I didn't throw too much of a wet 0:45:09.440 --> 0:45:12.080 blanket on the quantum Internet. There is really a lot 0:45:12.120 --> 0:45:14.719 of awesome physics happening there. And if one day we 0:45:14.760 --> 0:45:17.719 do have very powerful quantum computers. They may be able 0:45:17.719 --> 0:45:20.160 to solve problems that do stomp us today. So I 0:45:20.160 --> 0:45:22.000 look forward to the first time an episode of this 0:45:22.040 --> 0:45:24.360 podcast is released on the quantum Internet. 0:45:24.520 --> 0:45:26.920 Well, you are now a member of the Wet Blanket Club. 0:45:26.960 --> 0:45:28.720 But it's going to be a while before your president. 0:45:29.320 --> 0:45:31.319 But I enjoyed spending this time with you. 0:45:32.160 --> 0:45:33.839 Are you dictator for lives that hot works? 0:45:33.920 --> 0:45:39.880 Yeah? Yeah, that's right, and Zach's first husband of the Dictator. 0:45:41.440 --> 0:45:43.239 I'll start as as secretary, work my way up. 0:45:43.320 --> 0:45:44.080 Oh right, good luck? 0:45:44.520 --> 0:45:46.560 All right, thanks everybody for listening. I hope we didn't 0:45:46.680 --> 0:45:49.320 entangle your minds at least not too much. 0:45:56.360 --> 0:46:00.200 Daniel and Kelly's Extraordinary Universe is produced by iHeartRadio. 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