A little over a week ago, Google announced they had achieved something called “quantum supremacy”, a powerful new way of computing that makes use of quantum principles.
Google claims it’s quantum processor can tackle a really difficult computational problem in about two and a half minutes–a task that would take the fastest classical supercomputer about 10,000 years.
Researchers at IBM have contested that estimate and dialed it back to only two and half days. Whatever the true number is, we know Google’s processor is really fast–faster than any other computer preceding it and powered by quantum technology.
Our guest in this episode, science writer George Musser, helps us unpack what quantum means and how quantum computing works. George has been writing about astronomy and physics, for over 25 years. He’s a contributing editor at Scientific American magazine and author of the book “Spooky Action at a Distance” all about the strange phenomena called quantum entanglement.
More to explore
George’s article on AI and quantum computing for Quanta
https://www.quantamagazine.org/job-one-for-quantum-computers-boost-artificial-intelligence-20180129/
George’s website
http://spookyactionbook.com
Quantum entanglement videos for Scientific American
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z34ugMy1QaA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM3GOXaci7w
The Integral Theory of Ken Wilber
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_theory_(Ken_Wilber)