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So, this is it!
This... this is a quantum computer?
This is a quantum computer!
Here I am seeing a real life quantum
computer for the very first time, with
my friend and king of tech YouTube Marques
Brownlee. And I'm finally understanding why
quantum computers are such a big deal.
"Quantum computers..."
"Quantum technology..."
"What on earth is a quantum computer?"
"Bits! Qubits!"
"Try all the codes at once!"
"Whichever nation first develops a
practical quantum computer
will have a tremendous advantage..."
"Quantum Supremacy..."
I see a lot of news about quantum computers
and it's always extremely confusing
"That was really well done and
I still need to re-hear it..."
But also it's often wrong.
Quantum computers aren't super
computers. They aren't bigger, faster versions
of what we use now. They're something totally
different. And that difference is actually the
key to understanding why they're such a big deal,
why governments around the world are battling it
out to build them the fastest. Quantum computers
are wild. They're on track to change what we can
build and how we understand the world. They're
kept at temperatures colder than space... but if you
think you really understand how they work...
you're probably wrong. At least, I didn't.
And that's where this video starts.
Marques and I both realized
that there was this big important technology
that we really didn't understand. So we decided to
go on an adventure to figure out the truth about
quantum computers - what they can really do and
why we should care. And of course we're taking
you on that adventure with us, to show you what we
learn as we learn it and more importantly to show
you how these crazy computers might
actually impact your life...
...and sooner than you think.
It's a very niche skill we
just got, which is being able
to hear when a quantum computer is working.
What does it sound like?
Sh-pp-sh-ppp-sh-ppp-sh...
[Confused sounds]
So it works, it's not broken. I swear
I'm usually good with tech but...
The only function of this screen is to
provide directions... you're getting this?
So we're going to visit IBM's quantum computer.
This is really exciting that
they're letting us see this computer because
it is to my knowledge the largest quantum
computer that exists which I say with
confidence like I know what that means...
I was gonna say, what is "biggest" because like
super computers, they're massive rooms
full of computers and I
when someone says "we have the biggest
supercomputer," I'm like oh I can picture
that. The largest quantum computer...
I'm not even sure what to picture.
I imagine the golden octopus...
You know that Biden looked at like [confused]...
The press images, yeah.
And I know that in order to see that they
have to shut down the computer, so this
took some real logistics on their part
to allow us to see it...
This is the real deal.
What is most interesting to you about
quantum computing?
It's definitely on the edge of my
expertise, I would say. I'm really curious about
when it's actually going to touch like regular
people. My whole concern is purchase decisions.
at some point in the future quantum computing will
come into play with a real purchase decision. Someone
will have like a device that they can buy where
quantum computing is a part of it or maybe went
into its creation at least. When are we
going to get to that point?
One thing I think is think is
very important to make clear is
this is a different kind of explainer. You're just
coming with us as we figure this out.
Exploratory explainer!
Exactly. A whole new genre.
Along for this adventure are
Cody and Nicole. Nicole is an associate
producer on this episode who is also
studying quantum communication for her PhD. And
Cody is our DP, the man behind the camera.
Thank god they're both here.
So when I started doing this episode,
I spoke to a really famous quantum
physicist. He was really frustrated at the way that
people were talking about quantum computers and I
was like, okay, how do you
want people to think about them?
Okay, here's the analogy that helps me understand
what quantum computers are good for:
Imagine that you're on a video game map
and how you get around depends on
how good you are at doing math...
(You may not want to play this
video game, bear with me...)
So first there were no computers.
Things like geometry and astronomy took forever.
So you have your little pencil and paper and you're
traveling across the mathematical map by walking.
It was slow and there were lots of areas that
we just couldn't explore because it was beyond our
computational ability. But then we developed early
computers, and that allowed us to input larger data
sets and answer problems that had previously
been out of reach. These new computers unlocked
new areas on our mathematical map. Instead of
walking everywhere we can now ride horses. We
can get farther faster and we can access areas
that were previously inaccessible. But there were
still parts of the map that our computers couldn't
access. Luckily, computers just kept getting better
and they allowed us to solve more and more complex
math problems. As a result, our virtual map has
transformed: We have roads and cars and we're just
reaching areas that were previously unreachable.
Better computers mean traveling across this map
faster and more easily than ever. The thing that he
said was really important to understand is that
quantum computers are not faster cars. They're
BOATS. A boat is not necessarily better than a car,
they're just built for totally different terrain.
So with our new quantum computers, we're beginning
to navigate these new mathematical waters, solving
problems and discovering areas that traditional
computers just can't. My question for IBM is:
What's in the water?
Oh wow...
Like, what are the oceans
that we're all of a sudden able
to explore with our quantum computer-boats?
I love this. I'm an analogy person,
so I'm like fully absorbed in this now.
This is why I think a quantum computer
is never gonna "beat" an iPhone. But I think that
this is a better thing to offer the audience,
like to offer you guys instead of like "quantum
computers or just another exciting computer."
I guess what people are probably
clicking on this video are
thinking in their head is, "well is there
really never ever be a quantum computer in my
pocket?" And I guess that would be,
"will there ever be a flying car-boat?"
You know, is the tech ever
going to get to that point?
I just want to say I really appreciate
your commitment to this analogy.
I love it. I love the analogy.
Guys, we have arrived.
... where we have arrived to...
This does not look like there's a quantum computer here.
IBM Research Division...
Here we go.
Okay before we get to IBM, I want to show you
something: So I travel a lot for Huge If True
episodes. I went to Spain recently to visit behind
the scenes at Formula E testing which was really
really fun. But often when I travel I want to make
my computer believe that I'm still in the United
States. Just so that everything online feels
normal to me: the websites that I visit are in
dollars, the TV shows that I like never get blocked,
that kind of thing. The way to do that is with a
"virtual private network" or VPN. Specifically, this
one: Surfshark. If I'm using Surfshark and I set
it to the United States, I can be at home online
even when I'm traveling, which is really nice. But
sometimes I want the opposite: I want my computer
to think that I'm somewhere else when I'm actually
at home. You might not realize that a lot of
things (like airline flights especially) are priced
differently depending on where they think you are
when you're buying them, which... GRRRR. But also you don't
have to put up with that. When I use Surfshark,
I can set my location to one of 100 different
countries and then hopefully spend less. If you
don't already use a VPN, you might find it useful.
I know I do. If you want to try it out, click the link
in my description and use the code "CLEO" for 83% off
and three months free, which is just a crazy good
deal. I think you'll probably like it but if you
don't they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
So go check them out. Now back to the story...
Alright...
Let's go!
Let's go see a quantum computer.
We made it, we're here. Here we go.
Do you want to introduce yourself first?
Olivia, audience. Audience, Olivia.
Hi! I'm Olivia Lanes.
I'm a researcher at IBM and
I also work on the education and
the community team. We're gonna
go look for a quantum computer.
What's goin' on here?
This is our Watson setup... no please go ahead...
this is where the Watson AI was displayed
and it competed on Jeopardy with Ken Jennings...
"Watson?" "What is shoe?" "You are right!"
This is Brent. It's Brent's lab,
so it's very nice of him to...
Great to meet you. Thanks for having us!
So this is the lab...
That's a quantum computer?
Yeah. Actually, this is a dilution refrigerator.
This whole thing is basically constructed to
keep the quantum computer very very cold:
15 millikelvin. It's the coldest thing basically
in the universe. It's colder than outer space.
So inside that is 15 millikelvin? Yep.
[That is very cold]
So here, let me show you the one
that we can like play with...
This is it...
This... this is a quantum computer.
This is a quantum computer.
[Ohhhh yeahhhh]
The quantum computer is a chip
in this one here but this whole thing
keeps the quantum computer working at insanely
cold temperatures like we talked about.
So this is all refrigerator technology?
All of these cables that you see
here on the side carry signals
down through the fridge into the processor and then
they do their their quantum stuff and it comes
up and it goes to these room temperature control
electronics and they turn it into things
that humans can understand.
That is a quantum computer.
We were allowed to touch it which was cool.
Oh my god...
So I think it's really funny that when people
generally talk about like the difference between
classical and quantum computers people are like
"okay well you know how a classical computer
works, right?" but like the truth is that like
nobody knows that. A simplification
of it is it comes down to bits.
[BITS]
and bits are made out of pieces of silicon and
you have you know tens of thousands to millions
of them in your computer. And they can either be in
the state zero or one. We call it the ground state
or the excited state. And everything that you type
into your computer, all words, all numbers, all
colors, get translated into computer speech. But
it's very binary, right. A quantum computer is run
on qubits. Qubits aren't like bits. They aren't a
one or a zero. They're more complex. Think of this
like a wave: A qubit could be really likely to be
zero which means a lower energy wave. Or it could
be really likely to be one which means a higher
energy wave and each qubit has a probability of
being each. When a quantum computer is working,
the probabilities of multiple qubits interact.
And they add constructively or destructively
just like waves would if you
were to tap two places in a pond...
You know how when you explain
something to a two-year-old
and they just keep going "why?" and you have to
explain again and they go "why?"... my question
is: As the controller of the computer,
you decide what about those probabilities?
Basically, you are altering the probabilities
while you're running an algorithm...
It's a common misconception that quantum
computers "try all the options." That's not right.
This is simplified but it's more like a quantum
computer kind of watches the pond...
it watches how all of those waves interact
and then finds the most likely answer. If this is
all confusing, don't worry, all you really need to
know is that quantum computers calculate things
very differently than classical computers do and
that makes them good at different things.
Quantum computers are not going
to be faster at everything
than a classical computer. Like, it's not good for
addition right, because your calculator and your
phone is perfectly good at that. But the things
that quantum computers are good at is finding
structure in tons of data. And if you're interested
we can close it back up...
Absolutely. Put us to work.
Let's go back to our virtual map:
So we have our boats, and we're floating around
discovering new parts of this map. One of the
first new areas of interest is "simulating nature."
Simulation of nature seems really interesting.
Why is nature one of the things?
So nature fundamentally is quantum
and it obeys quantum physics.
We just don't normally see it but if you
look at like a molecular level and like the atomic
structure of molecules, everything has to follow
the laws of quantum physics. It's really hard
to calculate what a material or what an atom is
going to do a certain size. So at a certain point
it just can't do it. But if you're interested in
like developing battery technology or creating
new materials that have you know long chains of
molecules, you're going to need a quantum computer.
This is why people are so excited! Think of the
new materials or medicines or molecules that
we could make if we could better predict the
way that nature behaves at a molecular scale.
There you go! Boom.
Okay so simulating nature is
something that quantum computers
could be amazing at but we're also getting
closer to another use for quantum computing,
one that people and governments
are more concerned about...
"Completely new encryption algorithms"
"Break encryption..."
"Quantum resistant encryption..."
"A fully functional quantum computer could be
built with code breaking capabilities that could
render all forms of online encryption unreliable..."
Okay now this is the one that
I've been waiting to ask about:
why is everybody so obsessed with talking about
quantum computers and encryption?
So the first major algorithm that was developed for
quantum computers is Shores Algorithm, named after
Peter Shore, super nice guy. He invented an algorithm
which basically can find factors, prime factors, for
really large numbers. Why does anyone care about
this? Because that's the basis for "RSA encryption"
which is basically how all transactions on the
internet are conducted and the entire reason
that all of our encryption schemes today work that
way is because it's basically impossible to crack
that with a brute force classical algorithm.
It would take I think it's like billions of
years. But a quantum computer could do that way
more efficiently, we're talking hours to days.
So this global race now makes a
ton of sense. Whoever gets a
quantum computer to actually do
this has a big, obvious advantage.
But we haven't done that yet.
That's one of the ones that requires probably like
a million qubits or more to do,
but we're working up to it.
So we're not going to be using quantum computers
to break all internet security right now.
Today, we're at 433 qubits, the record set by IBM.
400 to a million qubits is a big difference but Olivia
is confident that we'll get there sooner than you think.
In the next five or even
less years, we're going to see people switching
over to quantum safe
algorithms because of this reason.
So RSA goes away and
we have quantum safe encryption instead?
Probably. Not all at once
yeah but gradually you're going to see people
do it. We're progressing at an incredibly fast
rate. We're solving problems that people didn't
even begin to know how to crack two years ago. But
we've done it! Every single year, everything
that we say we do, we do. Nothing mathematically
or physically prevents it. And so if the physics
says it's allowed, the engineers will find a way.
That's sick. I'm picturing that - I'm adjusting the
analogy slightly that it's a "submarine" because
there are sort of different levels of quantum computing...
Yeah, we are just skimming the surface.
We're going to keep iterating and improving
upon this technology every single year and
we're probably going to discover like new
applications that we haven't even considered yet.
It's a bottomless ocean...
It's a bottomless ocean!
The tour was amazing and as
we left we thought about what we learned:
Awesome. Let me just get on the highway
and then I will have thoughts...
Quantum computers do look exactly like I
imagined they look! They look like the pictures.
But something about being
in person with it was just like, oh... helped me
understand that this is a fundamentally different
technology. Like it just looks so weird.
I'm really glad I got to finish exploring that analogy
and fully understand it too and adjust it
a little bit to like a really encapsulate at
least everything that I currently understand
about quantum computers, in that there is an
evolution to the future of them and that they
are specialized and really good at certain things.
I like a good analogy so that helped a lot.
Okay so what is your summary of the analogy now?
I think we can keep almost all of it which is that
our exploration of other fields of mathematics
and physics and science was equivalent to other
steadily advancing forms of transportation
around our imaginary video game island but
I like adjusting to "submarine" because there are
levels to it. It's more of a bottomless ocean in
that we're just going to keep going! The tech
gets better, there's no physical limit.
It just continues to improve.
Here's how Olivia put the dream of
how we'd actually use quantum computers:
It's beautiful because like of course
we all want to make the world a better place, we
want to develop technology that's going to
enable us to do fundamentally different and
better things. But it's also beautiful because
like part of the human experience is you just
want to learn what we are and like learn
more about the world we live in. And the fact is:
The world is quantum mechanical.
There you have it! Thanks for coming. Peace!
This episode was so much fun to make.
Huge If True is a genuinely
optimistic, journalistically rigorous show about
finding ways to use technology to make the world
better. If that's something that you believe in,
the best thing that you can do to support us is
to subscribe. And if you like this episode you
definitely should subscribe because Marques and
I already have another adventure planned. Also if
you subscribe leave a comment and let me know.
I'd love to meet you. See you for the next one!
(thank you <3)
Please play the YouTube video first