1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:02,400 Speaker 1: Hey, please take a second and leave us a review 2 00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:06,279 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to the podcast. 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:10,240 Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, Hey, Happy New year. In case you 4 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:13,320 Speaker 1: didn't know, twenty twenty five was the Year of Quantum, 5 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: the year where we celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of 6 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: the development the theory of quantum mechanics. So to end 7 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: the year, we're going to re air our episode that 8 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:26,639 Speaker 1: answers the question what is a quantum computer. It's a 9 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:29,880 Speaker 1: good episode because it's a nice introduction to quantum ideas 10 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: and you'll hear what it's like to go inside an 11 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: actual quantum computer lab. We'll be back next week with 12 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,320 Speaker 1: a new episode about the science of imagination, What is 13 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: it and how does it work in your brain? So 14 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: be sure to come back next week for that, But 15 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 1: until then, please enjoy this field trip into the quantum world. Hey, 16 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:55,680 Speaker 1: welcome to Sigence Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. My name 17 00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: is hoorheitch Ham and to the end of the program, we 18 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:01,280 Speaker 1: are talking about a technology that made potentially impact the 19 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: life of every single human on Earth and might change 20 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:07,720 Speaker 1: how we protect data and come up with passwords. It 21 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 1: might help us make new and exciting materials, and it 22 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:16,400 Speaker 1: might render cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and dotgecoin totally useless. I'm 23 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: talking about quantum computers. What are they, how do they work? 24 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:23,000 Speaker 1: And most exciting is that we're going to get to 25 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:26,040 Speaker 1: visit one of them and actually hear it in action. 26 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,279 Speaker 1: So power up your curiosity, log in, and let's answer 27 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 1: the question how do quantum computers work? Hey? Everyone? Okay, 28 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: So when I started this episode, I was both terrified 29 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: and excited. Terrified because explaining anything with the word quantum 30 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 1: is really hard, but excited because I had heard that 31 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:52,920 Speaker 1: a friend of mine was making quantum computers just ten 32 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 1: minutes from my house and this was a great excuse 33 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 1: for me to go take a look at them. So 34 00:01:57,440 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 1: we're going to go see these quantum computers in person 35 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: at the end of the episode, but before that, I 36 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that I understood what they were, 37 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:08,440 Speaker 1: how they work, and also what they're potentially going to 38 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,280 Speaker 1: be used for. So this episode is split into three parts. 39 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: What is a quantum computer and how does it work? 40 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:18,160 Speaker 1: What are quantum computers for? And then we're going to 41 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:20,680 Speaker 1: go see the quantum computers. We're going to talk about 42 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: how they're made and why they're so hard to get 43 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: them to work. Our guide through all of this is 44 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:28,040 Speaker 1: going to be my friend who's making the quantum computers, 45 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:31,760 Speaker 1: Professor Oscar Pater. He's a professor of physics and applied 46 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:35,119 Speaker 1: physics at Caltech and he's the head of quantum hardware 47 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: for Amazon. He does research on nanophotonics, quantum optics, and 48 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:51,160 Speaker 1: of course, quantum computers. Here's my visit to Oscar Painter's lab. A. Hey, 49 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:52,240 Speaker 1: os Care, how. 50 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,200 Speaker 2: Are you good to see you after so many years. 51 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a while. Huh yeah, well thanks so 52 00:02:56,639 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: much for talking with me. 53 00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a while. Happy to try to fill 54 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:02,079 Speaker 2: you in on some of the things we've been doing 55 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:03,240 Speaker 2: in the areas of quantic computing. 56 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: Okay, so the first thing I wanted to talk to 57 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,400 Speaker 1: him about was just what does the word quantum mean? 58 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 1: Because I feel like we're going to need that to 59 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: understand what a quantum computer is. 60 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:15,160 Speaker 2: Now. 61 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 1: The word quantum is the word we used to describe 62 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 1: how things behave at the level of atoms and the 63 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: tiny little particles that make up the atoms. So in 64 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: our everyday lives, we're used to things being solid and 65 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:29,680 Speaker 1: us being able to hold them. Like, for example, if 66 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:31,960 Speaker 1: you take a piece of wood or a ball. But 67 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:33,880 Speaker 1: if you take that piece of wood or ball and 68 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: you chop it up, and you keep chopping it up, 69 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: you get down to atoms, and then you'll notice that 70 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,440 Speaker 1: those atoms don't behave in the same way that a 71 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:44,360 Speaker 1: piece of wood or a ball do. Here's how Oscar 72 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:45,839 Speaker 1: explains it. 73 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 2: It turns out that down to the microscopic scale, so 74 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:51,560 Speaker 2: not our everyday scale of things, the laws of physics 75 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 2: that dominate in that regime is quantum mechanics, and quantum 76 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 2: mechanics is our theory that has some strange attributes that 77 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 2: we don't experience every day. Exact ample, it postulates that 78 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,680 Speaker 2: things can be in superposition, so you can have objects 79 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:07,440 Speaker 2: being in sort of what we think of as two 80 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:10,560 Speaker 2: distinct realities at the same time. Imagine having a particle 81 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 2: in one position and another position simultaneously. That seems very 82 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,360 Speaker 2: odd to us, but in quantum mechanics it's very natural. 83 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:20,599 Speaker 1: Like, for example, I grabbed this piece of wood in 84 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 1: front of me, and it's a piece of wood. It's 85 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:24,719 Speaker 1: not two things at the same time, right, It's in 86 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: one location. 87 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:27,800 Speaker 2: Right, it's sitting there firmly right in front of you. 88 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:29,479 Speaker 1: Right, if I had an atom in front of me 89 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 1: or an electron, it wouldn't exactly. 90 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:35,000 Speaker 2: You would find that if you repeated the measurement or 91 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,120 Speaker 2: finding its position multiple times, you might find that, Oh, 92 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:40,920 Speaker 2: I get this weird outcome that sometimes I measure it here, 93 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 2: sometimes I measure it there. And that's because it's actually 94 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:46,480 Speaker 2: in many places at once, all right, And that's fundamental 95 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 2: to the description of quantum mechanics. The way I like 96 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 2: to think about quantum mechanics is really as waves and amplitudes. 97 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:55,640 Speaker 2: So think about you're at a pond and you throw 98 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:57,400 Speaker 2: a rock in a pond, and you see this ripple 99 00:04:57,440 --> 00:04:59,960 Speaker 2: of the rock. Right, That's how I think about, Like 100 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,800 Speaker 2: the rocks are sort of the particles, and these wave 101 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 2: phenomena are sort of the actual physical quantum mechanical description 102 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 2: of that particle. 103 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: Like the particle, the thing, the atom, or the electron. 104 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: It's not the rock you throw into the pond, no, 105 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: but it's actually the ripple of the ripple. Yeah, that's right, 106 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: it's this wave. 107 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 2: So I may have started with something that was very local, 108 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:22,159 Speaker 2: like that rock, but then it becomes very quickly it 109 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,720 Speaker 2: sort of propagates out and is actually better described as 110 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:27,120 Speaker 2: this wave on the pond, because. 111 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:28,720 Speaker 1: Like a ripple and a wave in a pond like that, 112 00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: it's kind of in a lot of places at the 113 00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:31,320 Speaker 1: same exactly. 114 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 2: That's right. And then the interference is important to understand. 115 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:36,960 Speaker 2: If I throw two rocks in the pond, then I 116 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,640 Speaker 2: see the sort of interference of the ripple patterns coming 117 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:41,839 Speaker 2: from each rock that flashed in the pond. 118 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:44,800 Speaker 1: Right, Like each ripple starts at simple, but then they 119 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: start to mix together and form this complex pattern on 120 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:49,880 Speaker 1: the surface of the pod. 121 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 2: Exactly, like how do they evolve in time? 122 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:56,840 Speaker 1: Okay, so when you get down to the level of atoms, 123 00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:01,080 Speaker 1: things behave really strangely. Scientists think of things at that 124 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 1: level not as little tiny balls, but as waves or 125 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 1: ripples of energy, like the ripples in a pond. Now 126 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: you may think, wait a minute, if things are kind 127 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:13,760 Speaker 1: of wavy and strange at the level of atoms, why 128 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:15,800 Speaker 1: isn't it that way when you get to big stuff 129 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 1: like a piece of wood or a ball. And the 130 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:21,320 Speaker 1: answer is that they are that way. There's just a 131 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,200 Speaker 1: lot of atoms in a piece of wood, and from 132 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:27,240 Speaker 1: a distance, it gives you the impression that it's solid. 133 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:31,080 Speaker 1: It's sort of like how some clouds from Afar they 134 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:33,599 Speaker 1: might look solid, once you get up close to them, 135 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:36,440 Speaker 1: they're actually kind of fuzzy and wispy, and all the 136 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 1: water droplets are moving around. So that's quantum. Now, a 137 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:43,919 Speaker 1: quantum computer is what happens when you make a regular computer, 138 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:47,840 Speaker 1: but you make the circuits out of individual atoms or 139 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:49,599 Speaker 1: particles like electrons. 140 00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:53,839 Speaker 2: Classical computers are formed from things that are very very 141 00:06:53,839 --> 00:06:55,080 Speaker 2: classical in nature. 142 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:57,040 Speaker 1: And they operate kind of on hard switches. 143 00:06:57,240 --> 00:06:59,679 Speaker 2: Yeah, like, yeah, that's right. The transistors on your phone 144 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,360 Speaker 2: what we call these types of elements. The transistors are 145 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:06,039 Speaker 2: used to store information or perform calculations, and the transistors 146 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 2: are really set by a bunch of electrons in part 147 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:10,720 Speaker 2: of the circuit. And usually you're talking about quite a 148 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 2: few electrons. 149 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: Because regular transistors are huge. They're bigger than an atom. 150 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:18,640 Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, that's physically what's going on in your phone. 151 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:20,840 Speaker 2: And what I'm telling you is that the way to 152 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 2: think about it is in the quantum case, I just 153 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:24,400 Speaker 2: have one electron. 154 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:27,160 Speaker 1: Like, the circuits are made out of individual electrons. 155 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:29,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, atoms is exactly what you're doing or a quantum 156 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 2: particle doesn't have to be electrons, can be other particles. 157 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:34,600 Speaker 2: That was the sort of very early idea from people 158 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:37,120 Speaker 2: like FIM and others back in the nineteen eighties is 159 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:40,320 Speaker 2: if you're going to do this, and you better make 160 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 2: them out of quantum mechanical objects to begin with. 161 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 1: Okay, So if you make a computer where the circuits 162 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:50,800 Speaker 1: are made of individual quantum objects like atoms or electrons, 163 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,680 Speaker 1: then you get a quantum computer. And what that does 164 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: is that it makes their calculations also quantum mechanical. And 165 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: this is where the concept of a bit comes in. 166 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:04,000 Speaker 1: It's like a regular bit in your computer, and a 167 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:06,600 Speaker 1: bit is like a one or zero, but a cubit 168 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:09,440 Speaker 1: is a quantum mechanical one or zero. 169 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:14,000 Speaker 2: Classic computers are formed from digital bits and they go 170 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:18,240 Speaker 2: between one and zero. A quantum computer doesn't have these 171 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:22,200 Speaker 2: hard zero one states. It has every possibility in between. 172 00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 2: So imagine if we have these two states zero in one. 173 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 2: I told you that a quantum system can be in 174 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,160 Speaker 2: two different states at once, right, So it can be 175 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:32,520 Speaker 2: in zero and one at the same time, and I 176 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:34,880 Speaker 2: can have a different weight of zero or one at 177 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:36,959 Speaker 2: the same time. It could be ten percent zero ninety 178 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 2: percent one. 179 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:39,439 Speaker 1: It's like a shade of gray. 180 00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:42,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, And so you have all those possibilities in between. 181 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 2: It can be zero or one or anything in between. 182 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,240 Speaker 1: It can be black, white, dark, gray, light gray exactly. 183 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:51,080 Speaker 2: So it has all those shades in between. You can 184 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:53,680 Speaker 2: take zero with some fraction and add it to one 185 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:56,640 Speaker 2: with any other fraction. You can have any combination of that. 186 00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:00,960 Speaker 1: So an a regular computer, if you multiply two bits together, 187 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:05,000 Speaker 1: it's like you're multiplying two fixed numbers together, like three 188 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:08,240 Speaker 1: times four. But in a quantum computer, when you multiply 189 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:11,840 Speaker 1: two cubits together, it's like you're multiplying two things that 190 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:14,920 Speaker 1: can be lots of numbers at the same time. So, 191 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: for example, it's like you're multiplying every number from zero 192 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:22,080 Speaker 1: to one hundred times every number from zero to a thousand, 193 00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:26,320 Speaker 1: all at the same time in one operation. That's what 194 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:29,680 Speaker 1: makes quantum computers unique. They take this weirdness of the 195 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: quantum world and it lets you do math with it. Now, 196 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: actually it's not doing all of those multiplications or calculations 197 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:39,080 Speaker 1: at the same time. It's more like how Oscar described 198 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:41,760 Speaker 1: it earlier. If you drop two rocks in a pond, 199 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:45,160 Speaker 1: you see the two ripples spread out and mix together 200 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:48,800 Speaker 1: to form a complex ripple pattern. That's more of the 201 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:51,600 Speaker 1: picture of what a quantum computer does. It doesn't do 202 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:55,720 Speaker 1: calculations with hard numbers. It does calculations with the ripples 203 00:09:55,760 --> 00:10:00,320 Speaker 1: and patterns of quantum numbers. Of course, my next question 204 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:03,320 Speaker 1: for Oscar was what is that good for? Why would 205 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: you want to do math? This way? When we come back, 206 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: I'm going to ask Oscar what quantum computers are for, 207 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: and then at the end we're going to go check 208 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:16,640 Speaker 1: out the ones he's built. You're listening to science stuff. 209 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,320 Speaker 1: Welcome back. Okay, to recap, we learned that a quantum 210 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:30,800 Speaker 1: computer is a regular computer whose circuits are made with 211 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:35,320 Speaker 1: individual atoms or small particles like electrons, and by doing 212 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:38,839 Speaker 1: that you can do quantum calculations. That is, you can 213 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:41,840 Speaker 1: do math, but with numbers that are actually lots of 214 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:44,880 Speaker 1: different numbers at the same time. So now the question 215 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:46,680 Speaker 1: is why would you want to do that? What are 216 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 1: quantum computers? Four? Here's more of my conversation with quantum 217 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 1: physicists Oscar Painter. Let's say it's a few years into 218 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:58,320 Speaker 1: the future and we have quantum computers, yes, in our phones, 219 00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 1: like I have one in my pocket, what can I 220 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:02,680 Speaker 1: do with it? And how is my life different? 221 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:08,199 Speaker 2: I think that's a very unlikely scenario. Okay, I think 222 00:11:08,280 --> 00:11:11,160 Speaker 2: that's the wrong way to think about how quantic computers 223 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,960 Speaker 2: might change our lives, at least as far as I 224 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:18,200 Speaker 2: can project into the future. I think the best way 225 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:21,079 Speaker 2: to think about a quantic computer as we envision it 226 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:24,800 Speaker 2: right now is that it will be more like a supercomputer. 227 00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 2: So a supercomputer is just a very large computer that 228 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:32,480 Speaker 2: can perform calculations beyond what our desktop, our personal computers 229 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,559 Speaker 2: can do. And these are usually very large, almost building 230 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:39,520 Speaker 2: scale computers and computer clusters that have many, many different 231 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:41,960 Speaker 2: processing units that are all integrated together, and through that 232 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:45,600 Speaker 2: scale you can perform a huge number of computations per 233 00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:48,199 Speaker 2: second and therefore compute some of the hardest problems that 234 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:50,160 Speaker 2: are out there. A lot of them are used for 235 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:54,920 Speaker 2: chemistry problems. They're used to study particle physics, so fundamental physics, 236 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:58,080 Speaker 2: trying to understand models of quantum particles that are beyond 237 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:02,200 Speaker 2: the current standard model. There used to compute the properties 238 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:04,520 Speaker 2: of materials, climate modeling, and things like that. 239 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,360 Speaker 1: So usually science and tech, yeahs, and. 240 00:12:07,280 --> 00:12:10,040 Speaker 2: There's always this competition between different nations who has the 241 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:12,319 Speaker 2: fastest or the biggest supercomputer. 242 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,400 Speaker 1: I see, So you envision quantum computers will be sort 243 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:18,520 Speaker 1: of like a specialized version of computer. 244 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:21,239 Speaker 2: It's going to be some very special type of supercomputer 245 00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 2: that can solve specific problems that quantic computers will be 246 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:27,760 Speaker 2: very effective at that we can't do today on classic computers, 247 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:29,840 Speaker 2: no matter how much we scale them up. And the 248 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:33,520 Speaker 2: key is, it's not just a faster supercomputer. It performs 249 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:36,800 Speaker 2: calculations in a fundamentally different way, and therefore it can 250 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:39,880 Speaker 2: tackle problems that are possibly outside of the reach of 251 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:43,280 Speaker 2: these conventional classical supercomputers. What do you mean, out of 252 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,040 Speaker 2: the reach meaning that no matter how fast they get 253 00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:48,040 Speaker 2: or how big they get, they'll never be able to 254 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:48,600 Speaker 2: compute some. 255 00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:52,160 Speaker 1: Of these problems, never or take an infinite Yeah, exactly. 256 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:55,160 Speaker 2: It's just the scaling is so bad for these problems. 257 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:58,679 Speaker 2: You would take way too long and require way too 258 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:01,680 Speaker 2: large on machine. So no matter how hard we work 259 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:05,680 Speaker 2: on our current computing technology, it has limits, and it's 260 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:08,840 Speaker 2: known and you can prove it for certain problems. And 261 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:12,720 Speaker 2: quantic computers when they looked at theoretically these same problems, 262 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:17,160 Speaker 2: they realize that the same restrictions or limitations for quantum 263 00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 2: computers are not there. There's examples where we believe and 264 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:26,520 Speaker 2: strongly believe that certain mathematical problems that are important are 265 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:29,640 Speaker 2: really really hard to perform and can't be solved using 266 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 2: classical means, no matter how much we improve the technology. 267 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:35,160 Speaker 1: No matter if I have a building full of supercomputers, 268 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:37,400 Speaker 1: yeah exactly, you'll never be able to, say, just fill 269 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:37,960 Speaker 1: the world with them. 270 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:40,319 Speaker 2: You still won't be able to do it. Yet a 271 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:42,640 Speaker 2: quantic computer can solve it pretty efficiently. 272 00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:45,840 Speaker 1: Well, step me through some of these problems. 273 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,760 Speaker 2: Like so the example that everyone points to, and it 274 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:53,839 Speaker 2: is pretty amazing that people found this, But there's this 275 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 2: mathematical problem and it just happens to be very applicable 276 00:13:56,800 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 2: to our safety or security of our data. So it 277 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:02,080 Speaker 2: turns out that most of the security of all of 278 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:05,080 Speaker 2: the data you hold, all the data that banks or 279 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:08,240 Speaker 2: various institutions around the world want to be safe and protected, 280 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 2: they typically encrypt it. And those encryption techniques that have 281 00:14:11,559 --> 00:14:15,480 Speaker 2: been used were what are called RSA encryption, where you 282 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:18,199 Speaker 2: want to take a large number and understand what its 283 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:19,040 Speaker 2: prime factors are. 284 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:23,080 Speaker 1: Okay, so the first big thing that quantum computers can 285 00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 1: be useful. The one that got people really excited about 286 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:30,520 Speaker 1: them in the nineties is in breaking password encryption. So 287 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:33,560 Speaker 1: whenever you enter your password on a website or when 288 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:37,560 Speaker 1: you download your bank statement, that information is encrypted or 289 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: scrambled so that if anyone happens to catch that information, 290 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,960 Speaker 1: they can't tell what it says. And the whole scheme 291 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:47,440 Speaker 1: is based on the idea that if I gave you 292 00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:50,760 Speaker 1: a really large number, it's really hard to find what 293 00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:54,840 Speaker 1: its prime factors are. Here's how Oscar explains it, but 294 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:56,920 Speaker 1: just to give you a quick heads up, a prime 295 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 1: number is a number that can't be divided except by 296 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:04,160 Speaker 1: itself or by one. So, for example, thirteen is a 297 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:07,680 Speaker 1: prime number because you can't fight thirteen by anything except 298 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:12,560 Speaker 1: thirteen and one. And the same goes for seventeen, nineteen, 299 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:16,800 Speaker 1: twenty three and so on. Anyways, here's Oscar explaining it. 300 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:19,360 Speaker 2: So I give you a number, and I say, tell 301 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:21,760 Speaker 2: me what the prime factors are, and you have to 302 00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:24,760 Speaker 2: break it down to its prime factors. So you know, 303 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:26,560 Speaker 2: a simple one is, you know, like two, it's just 304 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:28,120 Speaker 2: one times two, one and two those are the two 305 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,440 Speaker 2: prime factors, right, But it gets harder as these numbers 306 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:30,960 Speaker 2: get bigger. 307 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:34,720 Speaker 1: If I tell you one million, three hundred forty three. 308 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:40,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, thirteen, very hard to actually answer what those what 309 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:42,320 Speaker 2: the prime factors are. But if I give you the 310 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:44,640 Speaker 2: prime factors, you can multiply them together and very quickly 311 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:46,600 Speaker 2: get the answer to what that larger number is. 312 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:46,840 Speaker 1: Right. 313 00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:49,440 Speaker 2: And so if you know the prime factors, I can 314 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:51,640 Speaker 2: give you what they multiply to. But if you give 315 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 2: me the number that they multiply to without then I 316 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:56,800 Speaker 2: have a very hard time finding out what the prime factors. 317 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:58,400 Speaker 1: Are because you'd have to get you kind of have 318 00:15:58,440 --> 00:15:58,880 Speaker 1: to guess. 319 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:02,680 Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's mathematical techniques to try to find these, 320 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:06,360 Speaker 2: but they're very inefficient. And so it turns out that 321 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:09,800 Speaker 2: most of the security of the way we encrypt information 322 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:13,280 Speaker 2: is based upon that asymmetry and how hard the problem is. 323 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:16,040 Speaker 1: So now, let's say somebody has a quantum computer. 324 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:20,080 Speaker 2: Right, then they can find those prime factors and they 325 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:21,680 Speaker 2: can now decrypt all that information. 326 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,000 Speaker 1: They can just grab it from the air, yeah and 327 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:25,680 Speaker 1: be like, oh, I. 328 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:28,640 Speaker 2: Know, yeah, I can find the prime factors and then 329 00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:31,760 Speaker 2: I can use that to decrypt the information. 330 00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: That would be easy for a quantum computer you just 331 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:36,000 Speaker 1: press a button and will tell you, Oh, this is 332 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 1: an oscar or his secret decoder. 333 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:43,920 Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, so that would you know. That obviously concerned 334 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:47,160 Speaker 2: a lot of people when that algorithm was developed. 335 00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:51,320 Speaker 1: Okay, this gets a little bit heavy into encryption and 336 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:54,480 Speaker 1: quantum algorithms, but the main point is that most of 337 00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:58,400 Speaker 1: the security of our passwords and our sensitive information, and 338 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,960 Speaker 1: also the encryption of things like bitcoin and all those cryptocurrencies, 339 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:06,000 Speaker 1: they all depend on this one math problem which is 340 00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:10,159 Speaker 1: really hard for regular computers, even supercomputers to solve. And 341 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:13,320 Speaker 1: that is a problem of finding the two prime numbers 342 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:17,200 Speaker 1: that multiply to get a really large number. But then 343 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:20,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety five, a computer scientist named Peter Shore 344 00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:24,400 Speaker 1: publish the paper titled Polynomial time Algorithms for prime factorization 345 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,879 Speaker 1: of discrete logarithms on a quantum computer, which essentially showed 346 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,359 Speaker 1: that if you have a quantum computer, you can solve 347 00:17:30,359 --> 00:17:33,080 Speaker 1: this problem in a short amount of time. And this 348 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:35,639 Speaker 1: is probably the main reason that people have been rushing 349 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:39,400 Speaker 1: to make quantum computers since then, because imagine if everyone 350 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:43,560 Speaker 1: in the world, people, companies, countries are all protecting their 351 00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:46,639 Speaker 1: secrets using the same trick but you had a special 352 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:50,120 Speaker 1: quantum computer that could break that trick, you could rule 353 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:53,719 Speaker 1: the world. Now, the details of how Peter Shore's algorithm 354 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:56,280 Speaker 1: works are a little complicated to explain here, but the 355 00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:59,000 Speaker 1: essence of it is that you're using the ripples on 356 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:02,480 Speaker 1: au pawn nature of quantum numbers on a quantum computer 357 00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:06,760 Speaker 1: to basically try out every possible combination for how to 358 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:10,000 Speaker 1: break your secret encryption, and you use some clever math 359 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:13,800 Speaker 1: tricks so that these ripples combine and mix together until 360 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:17,040 Speaker 1: the right answer pops out. So that is the main 361 00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:20,480 Speaker 1: reason that people are excited about quantum computers. But there 362 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:24,959 Speaker 1: are other reasons and other possible applications, So here's Oscar 363 00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:26,919 Speaker 1: telling me about them. 364 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:30,760 Speaker 2: Another example is maybe more natural to think about, and 365 00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:32,800 Speaker 2: this is where quantum computers were first proposed. It to 366 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:36,240 Speaker 2: be interesting or useful, and that is the simulation of 367 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:41,199 Speaker 2: nature itself. Nature as we know it is not classical. 368 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:44,240 Speaker 2: If you peel the layers of the onion enough and 369 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:46,560 Speaker 2: you get down to the core, right to the atomic scale, 370 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:49,200 Speaker 2: it turns out that the laws of physics that dominate 371 00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:53,240 Speaker 2: is quantum mechanics. Okay, like the actual mathematics of that 372 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:56,080 Speaker 2: When you describe it. When you have many particles, it 373 00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:59,879 Speaker 2: quickly becomes something that you can't simulate with a classical computer. 374 00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:03,080 Speaker 2: So all those interference of all the particles and keeping 375 00:19:03,119 --> 00:19:05,040 Speaker 2: track of all of that. A classical computer, if you 376 00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:07,399 Speaker 2: try to simulate that, you quickly run out of steam 377 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:12,040 Speaker 2: and it becomes an exponentially hard problem. And so you know, 378 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 2: a classical computer is just ill suited to doing that. 379 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:16,560 Speaker 2: But a quantum computer that's made out of the say 380 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:19,240 Speaker 2: those sort of particles that can do with that interference naturally, 381 00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:21,720 Speaker 2: you know, has a natural advantage in terms of using 382 00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 2: it to simulate the natural world at its quantum mechanical core. 383 00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:26,240 Speaker 1: Why would I want to do that? 384 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:28,879 Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's the questions like, okay, so that's great, 385 00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:30,439 Speaker 2: But why would I want to do that other than 386 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:33,959 Speaker 2: maybe I want to understand physics better. Well, this idea 387 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:36,440 Speaker 2: that I want to understand how material behaves is a 388 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:38,840 Speaker 2: very good example. If I'm building an electrical circuit, or 389 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,640 Speaker 2: I'm building a new battery, or I'm building a different 390 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:45,720 Speaker 2: energy process inside of a material or energy storage device, 391 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:47,800 Speaker 2: A lot of times that depends on what the electrons 392 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:50,960 Speaker 2: are doing. If I want to understand is there something 393 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,639 Speaker 2: unique when I describe them quantum mechanically. Maybe there's special 394 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,680 Speaker 2: properties I'm just totally blind to. So if I wanted 395 00:19:56,680 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 2: to make a better superconnecting material, something that can carry 396 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:03,360 Speaker 2: a electricity with no resistance, right, maybe we can have 397 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:07,120 Speaker 2: magnetically livitated trains. Maybe you can have you know, really 398 00:20:07,119 --> 00:20:10,240 Speaker 2: efficient electrical circuits that don't dissipate any energy. All of 399 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:12,000 Speaker 2: these things. Then I would have to use a quantic 400 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:13,440 Speaker 2: computer to model that behavior. 401 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 1: And you said there's some maybe potential applications in chemistry 402 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:17,320 Speaker 1: and biology. 403 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:19,320 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, if I think about what is going 404 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:22,680 Speaker 2: on when I have a chemical reaction, usually it comes 405 00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:24,800 Speaker 2: down to the electrons, and I need to understand what 406 00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:27,199 Speaker 2: they're doing in order to understand, you know, whether this 407 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:30,080 Speaker 2: chemical reaction is going to be efficient or not, or 408 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:32,320 Speaker 2: if I want to describe it with chemical accuracy so 409 00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:34,480 Speaker 2: I can use it to, you know, do some sort 410 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:38,640 Speaker 2: of industrial chemical process. The biological application, it's like, if 411 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,320 Speaker 2: I want to know how molecules are biologically relevant molecules 412 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,639 Speaker 2: lined together, then potentially I need to know more information 413 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,680 Speaker 2: about the electronic behavior in these molecules. If I wanted 414 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,399 Speaker 2: to do that without having approximation or with much higher accuracy. 415 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,240 Speaker 2: Then a quantic computer would be potentially more capable. 416 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:56,800 Speaker 1: There we might be able to predict better how a 417 00:20:56,880 --> 00:21:00,359 Speaker 1: vaccine will work, or whether a certain chemical into this 418 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:01,440 Speaker 1: in your body will. 419 00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:04,560 Speaker 2: Right now, we don't have that sort of level of specificity. 420 00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:07,119 Speaker 2: I mean, we'd love too. People are proposing techniques, but 421 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,560 Speaker 2: that's the right idea, by the devil's in the details. 422 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:13,239 Speaker 2: And you know, you have people saying, well, look, you know, 423 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:16,400 Speaker 2: I think even today there's I won't call them skeptics, 424 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:17,760 Speaker 2: but there's a lot of people that are saying, well, 425 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:21,359 Speaker 2: I can keep improving my classical algorithms, and whether you 426 00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:24,560 Speaker 2: can really gain advantage from the quantum simulations is as 427 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,480 Speaker 2: a practical question. And maybe we don't have as clear 428 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,560 Speaker 2: an example or as clear a win when it comes 429 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,040 Speaker 2: to how quantum computers will will do better or be 430 00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:35,240 Speaker 2: more efficient, or be able to do the calculations fast 431 00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:38,560 Speaker 2: or even do them ones that the classical computers can't do. 432 00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:41,119 Speaker 2: But I think there's definitely something there. It's just that 433 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:43,360 Speaker 2: we still have to work on the quantum algorithms. It's 434 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:44,520 Speaker 2: not as clear cut I would say. 435 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:49,119 Speaker 1: So those are the two main applications or uses for 436 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:53,320 Speaker 1: quantum computers. One is in breaking encryption using a special 437 00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:57,320 Speaker 1: algorithm called face estimation that only works in a quantum computer, 438 00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:01,240 Speaker 1: and the other is to simulate nature, because nature is, 439 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:05,080 Speaker 1: after all, quantum at its core, and so scientists think 440 00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:08,800 Speaker 1: that quantum computers will let us better simulate how atoms 441 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:12,600 Speaker 1: and electrons interact, so that we can design better materials, 442 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:17,280 Speaker 1: better semiconductors, and maybe better medicines. Now, I said so far, 443 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,760 Speaker 1: because this is all still very new, and there might 444 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: be other classes of problems like the encryption problem, where 445 00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:29,280 Speaker 1: quantum computers are just fundamentally and exponentially better at solving, 446 00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:33,000 Speaker 1: but nobody knows for sure. Of course, it's all hinges 447 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:35,679 Speaker 1: on whether or not we can actually make quantum computers 448 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: at the level that they would actually be useful and 449 00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:41,760 Speaker 1: most important, reliable. So now we're going to go actually 450 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,800 Speaker 1: see these quantum computers that Oscar is building, and he's 451 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,159 Speaker 1: going to tell us why they're hard to make and 452 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:51,000 Speaker 1: why they're so prone to making errors. But first let's 453 00:22:51,080 --> 00:23:02,200 Speaker 1: take out quick break. You're listening to science stuff and 454 00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,240 Speaker 1: we're back. Well, I heard you have a quantum computer 455 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:07,160 Speaker 1: in your basement. Well, not in my. 456 00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:10,919 Speaker 2: Basement, but in my my laboratory. Yeah here, can we 457 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:11,840 Speaker 2: go see it? We can? 458 00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:13,480 Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, let's get see it. 459 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:14,320 Speaker 2: Okay, you want to do that now? 460 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:18,280 Speaker 1: Okay, so where are we going? 461 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:20,520 Speaker 2: Just the next door. We don't actually even have to 462 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:23,480 Speaker 2: go down into the basement, into the basement, No, we 463 00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:25,479 Speaker 2: can the basement. 464 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,040 Speaker 1: Sounding is more yeahd scientists exactly. 465 00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:32,320 Speaker 2: So let's so all these labs have different variants of 466 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:37,240 Speaker 2: quantic computers that we're testing. Multiple quantum computers here, yeah, yeah, 467 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:41,639 Speaker 2: not just one. So there's small scale quantum computers, but 468 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:45,960 Speaker 2: the largest ones are you know, ones at Amazon or 469 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,360 Speaker 2: Google or IBM or you know some of the other 470 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:50,600 Speaker 2: startup companies. These get to be maybe a factor of 471 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,240 Speaker 2: ten times larger than the ones I'll show you. Okay, okay, 472 00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:58,520 Speaker 2: so this gives you an idea all of these control electronics, 473 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,520 Speaker 2: right is to use to an about twenty of these 474 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:02,240 Speaker 2: quantum bits. 475 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:07,760 Speaker 1: There's twenty quantum twenty particle made up of twenty quantum 476 00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:09,040 Speaker 1: particles correct. 477 00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:12,159 Speaker 2: Right, which we are manipulating as quantum bits, and that 478 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,200 Speaker 2: circuit lies down inside of this special refrigerator. 479 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,000 Speaker 1: Okay, So if you've ever seen or if you google 480 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,000 Speaker 1: a picture of a quantum computer, most likely what you 481 00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:26,520 Speaker 1: see is something that looks like an upside down metal 482 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:31,280 Speaker 1: wedding cake with circular tears or platforms that get smaller 483 00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,440 Speaker 1: and smaller as they hang down from the ceiling. That 484 00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:39,679 Speaker 1: is basically a super intense refrigerator. The whole purpose of 485 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:41,840 Speaker 1: it is to get the tip of that upside down 486 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:45,240 Speaker 1: cake really really, really cold. 487 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:49,680 Speaker 2: And this refrigerator is under vacuum, under high vacuum. It's 488 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:53,480 Speaker 2: a temperature which is about ten million degrees above apsoute zero. 489 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: Ten million degrees. 490 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:56,560 Speaker 2: So to give you an idea, so if I go 491 00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 2: to the deepest part of space, it's a few degrees calvin, 492 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,640 Speaker 2: a few degrees about that food and zero the coldest 493 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 2: darkest parts of outer space or that universe. But this 494 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:08,600 Speaker 2: thing's about thirty times colder than that. 495 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:12,440 Speaker 1: Even WHOA, So would you say that some of the 496 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:14,600 Speaker 1: coldest places in the whole universe? 497 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,400 Speaker 2: I mean no, I mean you can get and there's 498 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:19,160 Speaker 2: people that do this for a living that make really 499 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:23,480 Speaker 2: cold things. But this is among the very very coldest things. Okay, yeah, 500 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:24,800 Speaker 2: but this is extremely cold. 501 00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:26,119 Speaker 1: What does it need to be cold? 502 00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:29,840 Speaker 2: Because even the lights, even if we turned all the 503 00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,600 Speaker 2: lights off, even just the fact that the room's hot. 504 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:36,560 Speaker 2: It's room temperature, but it radiates radiation, and that radiation 505 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:39,640 Speaker 2: would completely destroy the information in the corner. 506 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:41,600 Speaker 1: Bit I see. So we have to get it really dark. 507 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:43,320 Speaker 2: We have to make sure that there's not any of 508 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:46,240 Speaker 2: this thermal energy that's making it into the circuit, otherwise 509 00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,240 Speaker 2: it'll destroy the manipulation of those count particles. And so 510 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 2: it has to be as isolated as we can from 511 00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:53,879 Speaker 2: the environment. We would ideally seal it off from everything, 512 00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:56,840 Speaker 2: so it would be like zero temperature and there would 513 00:25:56,840 --> 00:25:58,879 Speaker 2: be nothing coming in other than what we want to 514 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:01,239 Speaker 2: send to it to control it. And then you can 515 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:02,880 Speaker 2: see there's all of these cables. 516 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:05,320 Speaker 1: Each of these feeds. 517 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:08,760 Speaker 2: Into a microwave cable that can be used to control 518 00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:11,800 Speaker 2: individual quantum bits or quantum particles on the circuit. 519 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,800 Speaker 1: So what I'm looking at is a room full of 520 00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:20,160 Speaker 1: electronics and cables, and in the center is a massive 521 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:24,560 Speaker 1: structure with two suspended eye beams, and hanging from those 522 00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:27,960 Speaker 1: beams is the upside down wedding cake I mentioned before, 523 00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:31,960 Speaker 1: which in this case is sealed inside a really thick 524 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,720 Speaker 1: metal cylinder, and inside that cylinder, at the very tip 525 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,040 Speaker 1: of the wedding cake cool to almost the coldest anything 526 00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:41,600 Speaker 1: can be in the whole universe. Is a little chip 527 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:46,320 Speaker 1: with a quantum computer. Well, what's in there? So describeting 528 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:48,240 Speaker 1: what's inside the core of it? Is it like a 529 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:49,120 Speaker 1: little chip? Yeah? 530 00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:53,199 Speaker 2: Like we shit, Okay, it's what's called a superconnecting quantum circuit. 531 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:56,520 Speaker 2: So it uses little metal traces on a silicon wafer 532 00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,000 Speaker 2: that we pattern on the surface, and when you get 533 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,720 Speaker 2: them cold enough, they become superconnecting, which means they can 534 00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:06,040 Speaker 2: carry electrical currents without any energy dissipation. Okay, And it 535 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,320 Speaker 2: turns out that you can form these sort of quantum 536 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:12,119 Speaker 2: particles like these atoms where the current is circulating in 537 00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:15,560 Speaker 2: a clockwise way inside of a little tiny ring, or 538 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:18,840 Speaker 2: it's circulating counterclockwise, and the clockwise could be zero when 539 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:21,719 Speaker 2: the counterclockwise could be one, And you can get in 540 00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:24,320 Speaker 2: any superposition of these two circulation patterns, and I can 541 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:27,040 Speaker 2: use that, and I can manipulate what the superposition is, 542 00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 2: and I can have an interact with other circulating currents 543 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,760 Speaker 2: to these little circuits things in our circuit. There are 544 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,280 Speaker 2: a few hundred microns in size, so they might be 545 00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:39,080 Speaker 2: a few times the human hair diameter, so they're pretty 546 00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:44,160 Speaker 2: big relative to conventional transistors. It's made out of many atoms, 547 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,000 Speaker 2: but it behaves like a single atom. Okay, yeah, theod 548 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:48,600 Speaker 2: way to think about it. So there's like a little 549 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:50,560 Speaker 2: array of these things, a little array of these things 550 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:52,800 Speaker 2: on the surface of a microchip, and then each of 551 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,119 Speaker 2: them we can control the current flow. So what are 552 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:57,639 Speaker 2: called single cubic gates. We bring them together and then 553 00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,639 Speaker 2: let them interact them bring them apart. So I need 554 00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:01,919 Speaker 2: to build to manipulate the single particle, put it in 555 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,199 Speaker 2: any sort of superposition I want. And then you have 556 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:06,000 Speaker 2: to read out the state of these cubits too. You 557 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:07,840 Speaker 2: have to know after I do my computation, are you 558 00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:10,080 Speaker 2: in state zero or state one? All right, I have 559 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:12,000 Speaker 2: to ask that question for all my cubits and that 560 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,920 Speaker 2: will give me the answer I see hearing. 561 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:17,720 Speaker 1: So this is called the pulse tube cooler. 562 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,160 Speaker 2: Some oder sounds like if you were ever a kid 563 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:22,600 Speaker 2: growing up in the eighties and you watch Battlestar Galactica, 564 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:24,800 Speaker 2: there were the cylons and Battlestar Galactica. 565 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:26,680 Speaker 1: They walk and they would. 566 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:28,199 Speaker 2: Have this flashing light and they'd have this sort of 567 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:30,400 Speaker 2: sound coming from them. This is a similar sort of sound. 568 00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:32,399 Speaker 2: This is a pulse tube cooler and is shooting a 569 00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,880 Speaker 2: slug of helium gas onto a cold plate, and then 570 00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:38,640 Speaker 2: in doing so, when it expands, it can cause cooling. 571 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,240 Speaker 2: It's analogous to what you do with the regular refrigerator. 572 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:43,880 Speaker 2: That's the first stage of cooling, though that only gets 573 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,800 Speaker 2: you down to maybe a tenth of the temperature of 574 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:48,560 Speaker 2: the room. And then if I want to go even 575 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:50,760 Speaker 2: cooler down and by another factor of ten or one hundred, 576 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:54,680 Speaker 2: then you have to use a recirculating gas. In this case, 577 00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,800 Speaker 2: it's a dilution fridge that takes mixtures of isotopes of 578 00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:00,360 Speaker 2: helium helium three and helium four, and when they mix 579 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,200 Speaker 2: there's an entapley of reaction and that's what gets you 580 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:04,880 Speaker 2: down to this lowest temperatures I mentioned. 581 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: So it's several stages. Something like take a fridge, put 582 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:09,400 Speaker 1: it inside of another fridge. 583 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:12,320 Speaker 2: There's actually like sort of three or four stages. 584 00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:14,840 Speaker 1: If you're inside of a fridge, you have because of 585 00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:15,840 Speaker 1: the fridge, the. 586 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:18,320 Speaker 2: One fridge is too hot for the other fridge, so 587 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:20,600 Speaker 2: we have to isolate them, and then we have to 588 00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:22,760 Speaker 2: do that for every successive stage. 589 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:24,680 Speaker 1: It's like if I take my freezer and I put 590 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:28,440 Speaker 1: it inside of like a restaurant freezer. Just be colder. Yeah, okay, exactly, 591 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:29,239 Speaker 1: I keep doing that. 592 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:30,320 Speaker 2: I add, you know another. 593 00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:33,320 Speaker 1: Way, the fridge inside of my fridge have a restaurant freezer. 594 00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:34,440 Speaker 2: And I keep you know, each of them has the 595 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:35,920 Speaker 2: ability to get colder and colder. 596 00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:37,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have to do it in stages. 597 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:39,240 Speaker 2: Otherwise, if you try to do a direct shot, it's 598 00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:40,920 Speaker 2: too much of a thermal load on the system. 599 00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:45,680 Speaker 1: I see. So that's a quantum computer in action. Most 600 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:47,360 Speaker 1: of what you see when you look at a picture 601 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: of a quantum computer is all the machinery needed to 602 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:54,040 Speaker 1: keep the actual circuit in the near perfect vacuum and 603 00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,920 Speaker 1: as cold as possible, And all of that is to 604 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 1: completely isolate the quantum computer from the outside world. We'll 605 00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:03,440 Speaker 1: get to why you need to do that with a 606 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:06,320 Speaker 1: quantum computer, but first I was curious how much a 607 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:11,760 Speaker 1: quantum computer like this costs. Here's what oscars it. Well, 608 00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,960 Speaker 1: there is definitely much bigger than my phone. Yes, exactly. 609 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:16,480 Speaker 2: That's why I was saying, you're probably not going to 610 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:17,600 Speaker 2: carry one of these things around. 611 00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:19,880 Speaker 1: How much is this something like this? If I wanted 612 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:20,640 Speaker 1: to build one in my. 613 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,440 Speaker 2: Garage Okay, Well, you know there's always a big difference 614 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:27,040 Speaker 2: between science money and money that you know, when you're 615 00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,600 Speaker 2: talking about conservative products that have large volumes. I remember 616 00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:32,200 Speaker 2: the first time we purchased a big piece of equipment 617 00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:34,120 Speaker 2: from my lab, when I was the first to saculty member. 618 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,320 Speaker 2: It was a bolt the same It was about smaller 619 00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:39,080 Speaker 2: than this thing, so smaller than a few cubic feet, 620 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:40,520 Speaker 2: but it was more expensive than my. 621 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:43,360 Speaker 1: House when I bought it. So there's a big difference. 622 00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:45,800 Speaker 2: But so just keep that in mind. But one of 623 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,480 Speaker 2: these systems today, because it's very specialized, probably costs about 624 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:50,040 Speaker 2: a million. 625 00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:50,520 Speaker 1: Dollars to set up. 626 00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 2: Wow, that's another reason why you will probably won't carry 627 00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:56,520 Speaker 2: it around in your pocket any times soon. But it's 628 00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:59,720 Speaker 2: an important actually point to make, is that people will 629 00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:01,800 Speaker 2: build these systems and go to the larger scales. I 630 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,040 Speaker 2: can and spend a lot of money to try to 631 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,800 Speaker 2: do the first demonstrations, but we'll have to shrink them 632 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:08,760 Speaker 2: and make the more cost effective all the components that 633 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:09,000 Speaker 2: go in. 634 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:11,480 Speaker 1: Eventually, it's like we did for any algorithm. 635 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:14,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, and that part will happen. It just requires 636 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:16,960 Speaker 2: you to start building these larger systems and for you know, 637 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,480 Speaker 2: the companies that are making the individual components for them 638 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:21,600 Speaker 2: to have larger volumes so they can drive down costs. 639 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:25,200 Speaker 2: But where it's particularly challenging right now is actually in 640 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:28,400 Speaker 2: the control electronics. Like the costs about maybe ten thousand 641 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:30,280 Speaker 2: dollars a little more than ten thousand dollars just for 642 00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:34,360 Speaker 2: the control used for every single fubit. Wow, and we 643 00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:36,560 Speaker 2: need to go to maybe a million fubits or something. 644 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:39,640 Speaker 2: So that's like ten billion dollars just in the control 645 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:41,560 Speaker 2: hardware right if we were to scale out what we 646 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:44,040 Speaker 2: have today, So it's very costly to imagine doing that, 647 00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:46,760 Speaker 2: so right now, yeah, but then we'll get better. We'll 648 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,360 Speaker 2: do custom silicon chips, where the costs are in the 649 00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:52,040 Speaker 2: scale of the control electronics is much more efficient, so 650 00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:54,720 Speaker 2: we'll do what are called ASEX or custom circuits that'll 651 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,520 Speaker 2: drive down costs tremendously. But yeah, that that has to happen, 652 00:31:57,720 --> 00:31:59,360 Speaker 2: but it just you know, it's not we're not quite 653 00:31:59,400 --> 00:31:59,880 Speaker 2: there yet. 654 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:03,280 Speaker 1: So there you have it. You can build a quantum 655 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,120 Speaker 1: computer in your garage right now for about a million dollars, 656 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,080 Speaker 1: although for that money right now you could only put 657 00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:13,200 Speaker 1: about twenty cubits on it, which is about as sophisticated 658 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 1: as an abacus, although this case would be a quantum ebicus. Right. 659 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:21,360 Speaker 1: The last thing we'll talk about is why quantum computers 660 00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,240 Speaker 1: are so hard to make. If they can break any 661 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:27,200 Speaker 1: encryption on the planet or potentially let us simulate new 662 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,240 Speaker 1: chemicals and materials, why haven't we done it? What is 663 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:34,760 Speaker 1: so hard about making a quantum computer? Here's Oscar explaining it. 664 00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:38,480 Speaker 2: Probably the thing that makes it most difficult, and maybe 665 00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:41,160 Speaker 2: it's the most relevant to talk about, is that let's 666 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:43,680 Speaker 2: say you want to do a computation with a quantum computer, 667 00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:46,040 Speaker 2: and you want to describe it by a certain number 668 00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:48,080 Speaker 2: of particles, and you want to use those particles to 669 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,400 Speaker 2: do your quantum simulation. Then you need to be able 670 00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:54,000 Speaker 2: to control those particles, to manipulate them to do the 671 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 2: computation you want. But if those particles interact with the environment, 672 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:01,360 Speaker 2: then part of the information that you wanted to control 673 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:05,440 Speaker 2: or manipulate will actually evolve and become connected to these 674 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:09,040 Speaker 2: other particles. And that's the really tricky problem is how 675 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,960 Speaker 2: do I control tiny little quantum particles with my grubby 676 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:15,440 Speaker 2: little hands, so to speak. So I have to be 677 00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:17,640 Speaker 2: able to send in these control signals to midp and 678 00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:21,520 Speaker 2: manipulate these quantum particles. But I can't let in any 679 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,200 Speaker 2: other parts of the environment at the same time, and 680 00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:27,840 Speaker 2: so it becomes a really hard problem to sort of 681 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:30,920 Speaker 2: shield the system you're trying to use to do this computation, 682 00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,160 Speaker 2: but then also allow yourself these control knobs. 683 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,280 Speaker 1: Is it like a question of purity to some. 684 00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:40,640 Speaker 2: Degree, yes, Like the properties electron have to be just 685 00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:42,960 Speaker 2: that electron, and they interact with other things that you're 686 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:47,000 Speaker 2: not able to control, you lose the information, all right. 687 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,320 Speaker 1: So the reason that quantum computers are so hard to 688 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:55,080 Speaker 1: make and run basically goes back to Schrodinger's cat. Might've 689 00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,360 Speaker 1: heard of this analogy when people are talking about quantum things, 690 00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:00,520 Speaker 1: and the idea is that if I take a cat 691 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,040 Speaker 1: and I put it inside a box, and I also 692 00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:06,640 Speaker 1: put in the box a quantum particle that might kill 693 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:10,640 Speaker 1: the cat, then when I close the box, eventually the 694 00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:14,680 Speaker 1: cat becomes both alive and dead at the same time. 695 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,160 Speaker 1: And that's because when I close the box, the quantumness 696 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:22,799 Speaker 1: of that killer particle basically extends to the cat itself. Now, 697 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,480 Speaker 1: a quantum computer is basically like taking a whole bunch 698 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,480 Speaker 1: of those boxes with cats that are alive and dead 699 00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:32,320 Speaker 1: at the same time, and it tries to do math 700 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,520 Speaker 1: with them. And because all those cats are in that 701 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,600 Speaker 1: magical quantum state of being two different things at the 702 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:40,200 Speaker 1: same time, alive and dead, then you can do some 703 00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:44,200 Speaker 1: really powerful computations with them, like multiply a whole bunch 704 00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:47,000 Speaker 1: of numbers all at the same time. But as soon 705 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,560 Speaker 1: as anyone takes a peek inside one of those boxes, 706 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,719 Speaker 1: then the whole thing collapses. As soon as you open 707 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,239 Speaker 1: one box and you see whether the cat is alive 708 00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:59,200 Speaker 1: or dead, then that box loses its quantum magic, and 709 00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:01,080 Speaker 1: all the other boxes is that are talking to it 710 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:04,239 Speaker 1: will also lose their quantum magic. So the reason you 711 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,719 Speaker 1: need to build giant refrigerators and keep these computers in 712 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: an almost perfect vacuum with perfect coldness is to protect 713 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:15,040 Speaker 1: them from any random bit of motion or energy from 714 00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:18,800 Speaker 1: essentially peeking inside your quantum boxes, because if that happens, 715 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,360 Speaker 1: the whole thing collapses and stops working. And this problem 716 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,160 Speaker 1: only gets worse as you make the computers bigger and 717 00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:29,560 Speaker 1: more complicated. But people like Oscar are getting better and 718 00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:33,880 Speaker 1: better at it. Well, that was great, That was awesome. 719 00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,440 Speaker 1: I guess just the last question, what is the current 720 00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:38,359 Speaker 1: state of the art in quantum computers? 721 00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:40,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think that if you can look at 722 00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:42,520 Speaker 2: this song, I would say three axis, So you can 723 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:45,880 Speaker 2: ask how many physical cubits can I make in control 724 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:46,680 Speaker 2: right now? Right? 725 00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:48,319 Speaker 1: What's the highest number somebody has been. 726 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:50,160 Speaker 2: So if you just said I just want to be 727 00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:52,760 Speaker 2: able to control this many cubits, it's a few hundred. 728 00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:56,920 Speaker 2: And people have made systems of more than a few thousand, 729 00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,839 Speaker 2: but maybe not controlled all of them simultaneously. But people 730 00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:03,080 Speaker 2: have definitely made a few hundred and controlled them. So 731 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,080 Speaker 2: we're getting to that level. And you might say, well, okay, 732 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,359 Speaker 2: put that in context, and if we could control them 733 00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:11,839 Speaker 2: with high enough fidelity and not make errors, we would 734 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:13,799 Speaker 2: be at the point where we could actually start to 735 00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:17,640 Speaker 2: access and solve problems of practical utility better than we 736 00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:20,160 Speaker 2: think other computers can. Like we could answer some of 737 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,600 Speaker 2: these questions about how electrons interacted materials, like small toy problems, 738 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:24,400 Speaker 2: but still useful. 739 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:28,520 Speaker 1: So like if I have a thousand cubits working, Yeah, 740 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:31,239 Speaker 1: what kinds of passwords can I break? Right now? Yeah? 741 00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:34,200 Speaker 2: So, like the number of bits and an rsa key 742 00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:36,800 Speaker 2: is like a few thousand, So if I had a 743 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,319 Speaker 2: few thousand cubits, I could crack RSA. 744 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,120 Speaker 1: A few thousand, and we're at one thousand now. Yeah, 745 00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:45,640 Speaker 1: so right now we could maybe crack simple passwords. 746 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,359 Speaker 2: Like yeah, that's right, short short ones that we can 747 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:49,719 Speaker 2: already do classically, so probably not useful, but we're within 748 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,239 Speaker 2: striking distance. But the bigger problem is that we can't 749 00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:56,400 Speaker 2: do those calculations because our calculations are too air prone. 750 00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:59,239 Speaker 2: Then we need to add the air correction. Okay, that's 751 00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:02,440 Speaker 2: the other that's the and that's adding redundancy. And so 752 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:04,440 Speaker 2: really think about this. I need to not have just 753 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:07,319 Speaker 2: a few thousand physical cubits, but I might need a 754 00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,680 Speaker 2: few million, because the redundancy factor is pretty large right now. 755 00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:14,440 Speaker 2: Like if my hardware had no errors, I wouldn't need 756 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:16,879 Speaker 2: to do any air correction, and there's redundancy factors one. 757 00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:19,480 Speaker 2: But I do have errors, and the errors we have 758 00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:22,799 Speaker 2: right now require about another factor of thousand overhead. A 759 00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:26,880 Speaker 2: thousand cubits multiply thousands of times, so it would be 760 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:28,919 Speaker 2: a thousand tuns of thousand, which is a million. If 761 00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:32,319 Speaker 2: I need a thousand cubits do computations with I have 762 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:34,480 Speaker 2: to multiply that by one thousand, and that gives me 763 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:37,200 Speaker 2: how many physical cubits I need to represent? Oh wow, 764 00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:39,040 Speaker 2: So that's why I'm saying we probably needed like a 765 00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:41,719 Speaker 2: million physical cubits. So that's what people are doing right now. 766 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:44,240 Speaker 2: The fact is that we can actually build and control 767 00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:47,560 Speaker 2: on order a few hundred one thousand cubits is amazing, right, 768 00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:48,560 Speaker 2: that's huge progress. 769 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:50,720 Speaker 1: Like ten years ago it was zero cubits. 770 00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:53,880 Speaker 2: I would say we became masters of the individual cubit 771 00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:57,439 Speaker 2: so to speak. Maybe even in two thousand, we're really 772 00:37:57,440 --> 00:37:59,479 Speaker 2: really good at that. It was very hard to first 773 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,000 Speaker 2: even figure like to control a single cubit. But since 774 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:05,760 Speaker 2: then we've been already growing small cubit systems and improving 775 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,160 Speaker 2: how the interacting in the gates that we can implement. 776 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,600 Speaker 2: There is a recent result where scientists at Google showed 777 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:15,719 Speaker 2: that their processor would require ten out twenty years for 778 00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:19,000 Speaker 2: a classic computer to simulate what they've done their processor. 779 00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:23,040 Speaker 2: You know, our own team Amazon, we focused on a 780 00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:27,400 Speaker 2: slightly different hardware implementation that potentially has an ability to 781 00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 2: reduce the hardware overhead by factors on the order five 782 00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:33,200 Speaker 2: to ten, which could be very important. So even though 783 00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:35,160 Speaker 2: it doesn't have a practical application. Yet it's clear like 784 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:38,359 Speaker 2: there's a big difference in the power of what these 785 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:40,120 Speaker 2: things can do. There are a set of problems that 786 00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:41,799 Speaker 2: the classic computers are just not going to be good at, 787 00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:42,960 Speaker 2: and there's going to be a set of things that 788 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,279 Speaker 2: quantic computers can do that classical ones cannot mimic. And 789 00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:48,560 Speaker 2: if you're watching this as a sort of an interested 790 00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:51,480 Speaker 2: techy observer and looking for a turning point or a 791 00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:54,480 Speaker 2: tipping point, I'd be watching for how these air rates 792 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:57,520 Speaker 2: go down, how efficient air correction is in these sort 793 00:38:57,520 --> 00:38:59,600 Speaker 2: of one hundred two thousand cubit systems over the next 794 00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:00,000 Speaker 2: few years. 795 00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:03,880 Speaker 1: Very cool, Well, thank you so much, Oscar. That was fantastic. 796 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:07,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope we got into enough of the detail 797 00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:11,120 Speaker 2: where it's understandable enough. It is definitely a difficult subject, 798 00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:13,799 Speaker 2: and there's a lot of hype around it. Even for me, 799 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:16,200 Speaker 2: it's very hard to read the news and to decipher 800 00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:18,520 Speaker 2: what is really in advance of what isn't. And I'm 801 00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:20,759 Speaker 2: deep in the field, so I can only imagine for 802 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:21,719 Speaker 2: others that read about it. 803 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:24,960 Speaker 1: Very cool, right, all right, thanks a lot, yep, And 804 00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:28,480 Speaker 1: that is how a quantum computer works. Thanks for going 805 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:30,520 Speaker 1: on this field trip. With me. I hope you enjoyed that. 806 00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:36,320 Speaker 1: See you next time. You've been listening to Science Stuff 807 00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:40,400 Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio, written and produced by me or Hitchm 808 00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:44,800 Speaker 1: executive producer Jerry Rowland, an audio engineer and mixer Casey Pegram, 809 00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,440 Speaker 1: and you can follow me on social media. Just search 810 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:50,680 Speaker 1: for PhD comics and the name of your favorite platform. 811 00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:53,719 Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe to Sign Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, 812 00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:57,000 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and please 813 00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:00,480 Speaker 1: tell your friends we'll be back next Wednesday with another episode.