Re: Quantum computer using using artificial atoms.

jstevh_at_msn.com
Date: 02/27/05 

Date: 26 Feb 2005 19:36:11 -0800

Douglas A. Gwyn wrote:
> jstevh@msn.com wrote:
> > What a quantum computer can do, a gp computer with the appropriate
> > algorithms can do.
>
> Not really. The point of quantum computing is that the
> physics allows testing of myriad possibilities *in parallel*,
> which means that some problems can be solved more effectively
> (in the complexity sense) than on a classical computer.
> The main drawback at present is that the technology for QC
> is not as advanced as for classical computing. But there are
> lots of people working on that.
>
> Any simulation of QC using a classical computer has to
> time-share the myriad possible paths.

I've demonstrated systems that do not time-share, as the mathematics
does all of the background work, probably in the same way as it does in
a quantum mechanical system.

The idea is that there is a mathematical basis for the behavior of
quantum mechanical devices.

That mathematics can be worked out in detail to the point that it's no
more connected to electrons or atoms than counting is to an abacus.

With that mathematical system in hand you can program a general purpose
device, and it will behave just like a quantum computer, with all of
the same characteristics, including simultaneous processing.

So you'll have a program run in one process where the logic of the
program itself creates the equivalent of simultaneous processing.

That is, the single program will just like a quantum mechanical system
come up with answers that other programs on other devices need to chase
down multiple paths to get, while going down a single processing path.

If you accept that quantum mechanical systems follow rules, then a
Turing machine can follow the same rules. Then the program for that
Turing machine can be used on another Turing machine--your computer--to
do the same thing.

Arguing here is just arguing for some kind of quantum weirdness or
special case for quantum where against all logic quantum is just
different, and it doesn't follow mathematical rules.

It's either/or. Either quantum mechanics follows logical rules, or it
does not.

If it follows logical rules, then a gp system can trace out the same
process and give the same behavior.

If you say it doesn't follow logical rules, then you're no longer in
physics, but into mysticism.

So how can a system following one processing path make calculations
that are equivalent to other systems chasing down multiple paths?

Mathematics. And the math isn't even all that hard.

The entire discussion reminds me of one of those fun physics facts,
which goes to EM theory, and the guy who worked out most of
it--Faraday--with imaginary rubber bands.

He sat there and using his imagination he worked out electromagnetism,
thinking about rubber bands. Hardly knew a lick of mathematics.

Maxwell came along, and took Faraday's rubber band inspired musings,
and mathematicized them, and today we don't have to learn about rubber
bands to understand EM!

When he was done, as he greatly admired Faraday and his genius, he
showed him the equations, I guess with high expectations.

Faraday couldn't follow them. The math escaped him.

He was still a genius, who made extraordinary contributions to our
knowledge, helping make things like the gp devices we call computers
possible, but he just wasn't good at math.

Mathematics underlies this world. What is mechanical here is also
mathematical. And the mathematical can go onto a Turing machine.

James Harris

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