OK, here's another field that defies understanding by this common man...
NY Times
Quantum Computing Reaches for True Power
Quote:
In 1981 the physicist Richard Feynman speculated about the possibility
of “tiny computers obeying quantum mechanical laws.”<snip>
Since then there has been sporadic progress in building this kind of computer.
Classic computers are built with transistors that can be in either an “on” or an “off” state, representing either a 1 or a 0.
A qubit, which can be constructed in different ways, can represent 1 and 0 states simultaneously.
This quality is called superposition.<snip>
There is, of course, a catch.
The mere act of measuring or observing a qubit can strip it of its computing potential.
So researchers have used quantum entanglement —
in which particles are linked so that measuring a property of one instantly reveals
information about the other, no matter how far apart the two particles are — to extract information.
But creating and maintaining qubits in entangled states has been tremendously challenging.
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My first reaction when I read this article was "What the ... ???"
For me, I need "real world" images to make any sense at all
out of anything beyond Algebra 101, but Wikipedia comes pretty close.
Quote:
Sometimes, two particles will act together and become a system.
They behave like one object, but remain two separate objects.
It is as if they now sit on the same teeter-totter seesaw.
No matter how long the seesaw is, even if it is one million miles long,
if one end is down the other end must be up, and this happens instantly.
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I'm just glad I'm not a young sprout planning to get my education in Computer Sciences.