[13893] in Cypherpunks
Re: quantum Computing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Paul E. Baclace)
Wed May 18 18:09:12 1994
Date: Wed, 18 May 1994 14:58:29 -0700
From: peb@netcom.com (Paul E. Baclace)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Seth Lloyd has an interesting paper, "A Potentially Realizable
Quantum Computer", available at ftp.santafe.edu (I don't know
the exact path). It is based on a cellular automata material
that receives pulsed/phased array strobing light. It uses
reversible logic so it dissipates little energy. As I understand
the proposal assumes future materials and manufacturing abilities,
although Lloyd says that quantum dots may be the right direction.
As gtoal mentions, the P vs. NP question is speculative. My
intuition is that the many worlds hypothesis will not be a
holy grail of computation (because similar theories about
faster than light communcation ended up not being useable
due to very low level conservation rules).
Then again, we may be surprised.
Paul E. Baclace
peb@netcom.com
