OK, that may sound a little bizarre; you can’t “borrow” a qubit. For clarification, a qubit is the basic unit in quantum computing so borrowing one is an absurd idea. And even if you could, what would you get? Qubits are funny, but not laughable. Our normal reality is things are either on or off. That is certainly true in classical computing, which is built on that concept (only one of two possible states). The same is true for your car, your house lights, your ability to swim, etc. On or off, you can swim or you can’t. But wait, along comes this “thing” we reference as a qubit, and it can be on or off or both at the same time! Now, what do we do with it? Good question.
Before we start trying to answer it, we need to think about those states. Considering a single ol’ regular bit, it can represent 1 of 2 states (on or off, 0 or 1). Two of those regular bits can represent 1 of 4 different states (e.g., 00, 01, 10, or 11). So far, so good. But just two of our mysterious qubits can represent any of those all at once. The meaning or power in this, is that qubits can compute many possible outcomes at the same time. The way they can compute more possibilities is through something referenced as quantum entanglement (one qubit is connected to others). No disrespect to the traditional bit, but qubits are certainly interesting!
OK, so back to what can you do with it? As alluded to earlier, qubit’s multiple states in a quantum computer scenario allow for massive parallelism. In relative terms, that means numerous possibilities can be evaluated much more efficiently than a classical computer. Complex tasks can get solved much more quickly (e.g., pharmaceutical research, financial industry, etc.) While that sounds promising, there is concern that a quantum computer could be used to break data encryption keys, which, practically speaking, classical computers can’t — or would need centuries to do it.
So, no, you cannot borrow a qubit. Even if you could, you would still need quantum gates, quantum circuits, quantum hardware, and quantum measurements to have something resembling a quantum computer. It isn’t something you would put together in your garage. Again though, what are the possible uses for qubits and quantum computing? The initial thoughts certainly focus on how it can turbo-charge artificial intelligence. And while there are concerns about breaking current encryption models, we’re also developing post-quantum cryptography to prepare.
That was a lot to cover in a short article and hopefully it has piqued your curiosity. Look for AI and quantum computing to be coupled in the future as it can provide faster processing and should be instrumental in tackling highly complex problems. So, while you cannot borrow one, qubits are indeed fascinating!
Dan Kempton is the Sr. IT Advisor at North Carolina Department of Information Technology. An accomplished IT executive with over 35 years of experience, Dan has worked nearly equally in the private sector, including startups and mid-to-large scale companies, and the public sector. His Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science fuel his curiosity about adopting and incorporating technology to reach business goals. His experience spans various technical areas including system architecture and applications. He has served on multiple technology advisory boards, ANSI committees, and he is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Industrial & Systems Engineering school at NC State University. He reports directly to the CIO for North Carolina, providing technical insight and guidance on how emerging technologies could address the state’s challenges.
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