| Tuesday, 13 June 2023 |
Deep dives into deeptech. More PhD than MBA, more hacker culture than compsci grad. Someone sent you this? Sign up here
Good Morning edwardlorilla1986.paxforex@blogger.com,
Let's play a game. All we need is a coin, and the rules are simple:
- The coin is placed in a black box, with its heads side up.
- The players have three chances to flip the coin over—without anyone seeing what state it's in.
- The computer has the first turn and flips the coin.
- You have the second turn, and you can decide whether to flip the coin or skip the action. Because you have free will.
- The computer has the third turn and flips the coin.
- If the coin has its heads side up after the adjustments, then the computer wins.
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Can you beat the machine? Maybe. If your opponent is a classical computer, then your chance of being the victor is 50%.
But if you're playing against a quantum computer, then you will lose, no matter what your choice is when it's your turn to flip the coin over. This breaks most people's intuition. And it's a humbling experience when you realise that your choice doesn't matter.
That's one of the amazing qualities of quantum computing. This type of processing uses quantum mechanics, which transforms the rules of probability in ways that feel alien.
The coin flip challenge is mind-bending, but it's a straightforward demonstration of how quantum computers can be used. The fact is, they're already being applied in commercial contexts. The goal is to solve problems that are beyond the capabilities of conventional computers. It's a highly experimental space, so I spent some time with Tommaso Demarie, the CEO and co-founder of Singapore-based Entropica Labs, to find out more about the developments that will change how we interact with computers in the future.
Demaries leads a team of "technology optimists" who are accelerating the arrival of fault-tolerant quantum computing and creating software tools to unlock the potential of quantum hardware.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Demarie's journey into quantum computing is one that mirrors the field's transition from academic endeavour to real industrial technology. After completing his PhD in quantum information and quantum computing at Sydney's Macquarie University, he landed in Singapore and became a postdoctoral research fellow at Singapore University of Technology and Design.
A momentous development came in 2016, when IBM put the first quantum computer on the cloud. There wasn't a quantum computer in Singapore, so this gave researchers a way to turn theory into practice, changing everything overnight.
Eventually, Demarie decided it was time to depart academia and form Entropica Labs with his co-founder, Ewan Munro, to figure out ways that make quantum computers useful.
But what does that mean exactly? To explain what quantum computers can do, Demarie started by describing the difference between a bit (which we're familiar with in classical computers) and a qubit (which forms the basis of quantum computing):
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That's already a lot to process. But think of it like this: if a bit can be in one of two states at any given moment (0 or 1), then a qubit can be in state 0, state 1, or a linear combination of 0 and 1.
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And when two qubits are in a close state of superposition, they are linked to one another via a process called entanglement, meaning their outcomes are mathematically related. An analogy may help: an individual page torn from a book isn't that useful, but the full collection of pages—the entire book—relays information in a meaningful way because the reader can understand the correlation between pages.
Here's the exciting part: A quantum computer with just 10 qubits can store 1,024 values in parallel. A classical computer would need 16,000 bits, or 2 kilobytes, to express that same information. But take it up to 500 qubits, and a classical computer would need more bits than there are atoms in the universe to handle the same expression.
That's why the realm of quantum computing is so rich, so powerful.
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However…
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Quantumania
That hasn't stopped Demarie and Entropica Labs from coming up with ways to make quantum computers useful.
When Demarie was prompted to explain what sort of problems are being solved by Entropica Labs, he spoke of "primitives," or functions that tend to appear in most computations. The company is creating the foundations for quantum algorithms, which will make quantum computers accessible for a broader set of users.
In the early days of Entropica Labs, Demarie and his team started by attempting to solve problems in computational biology, but practical considerations quickly dispelled that notion. Without expertise in this field, the team couldn't immediately identify entry points to problems and define target solutions that would be valuable.
Demarie and his co-founder circled back to the question of what could make Entropica Labs a unicorn, and decided to drop the application side completely. This set the company on a path of building software development tools for the enabling layer that sits between hardware and users, specifically to enable quantum error correction.
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This is a highly technical niche that few people are even aware of. If the company succeeds in accomplishing what it set out to do, then Demarie's team will plug a gap in the software stack for quantum computing, making quantum computers accessible for anyone who wants to use them—first corporations like Honeywell which have invested hefty sums in such machines, and then eventually consumers who may have their own personal quantum computers.
Anyone Can Quantum
If you feel like it's difficult to wrap your head around quantum computing, you're not alone. Even measurements of quantum computing systems' performance are not defined in a way that creates a standard. The authors of a report published by McKinsey put it this way:
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That isn't stopping researchers from developing new quantum algorithms and applications for cryptography, search optimization, and processes to improve supply chains. It's critical to have a layer that makes quantum computers usable, even intuitive to harness. That's why Entropica's work is important. The team's outlook points squarely to a world where anyone anywhere can tap into immense processing power and solve problems at a pace and scale that no human was ever able to before.
It's an exciting perspective, one that doesn't feel too far away.
Regards,
Brady Ng
brady@the-ken.com
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