With fear of being -- for appearing off topic, I want to comment on the difference between quantum computing and using quantum technology to create a faster classical computer. I will tie it in with Perl for those who are patient enough to read on.

The article that rdfield mentioned here is an example of shortening the "effective" wavelength of a laser using quantum mechanics to create "regulary" circuitry that is smaller and faster. This is a great example of how something theoretical can have practical applications in our world. In case you are thinking this is something new, you might want to do a google search on the origins of the computer or television and how they relate to quantum mechanics.

Quantum computing is much different. To explain fully would take a whole lot of math and physics. (For those interested in research on your own, check google for things like Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Schrodinger's wave equation). The basic premise is this, in the weird world of quantum mechanics, sub-atomic particles do not exist in the absolute sense until they are observed. From a strictly physics point of view, this means that the particle may mysteriously appear, when you decide to look for it, hundreds of miles from where you were expecting it to be without ever actually traveling the distance in between. From a programming perspective, this means that you could design a program to crack cryptography.....until you check something (128 bit encryption) for its "truth" (correct key), it is both true and false (all possible keys). The second you check the state, the false values collapse to a probability state of 0, while the correct solution becomes exactly 1. Without number crunching - you let quantum particles find your key in one iteration. Sound like magical mumbo jumbo? It is closer than you might think.

So what does all of this have to do with programming and Perl and tangible real world applications today?

If you haven't already done so, check out the handouts from Damian's talk on Quantum Superpositions and the First Virtue. Remember "easy things should be easy and hard things should be possible"? Damian has provided a taste of the possibile. Unfortunately, this is not true quantum processing. It is more like using quantum technology on classical computers. This is because the theory is still being applied on computers that are either 1 OR 0(pun intended), but not both at the same time. This doesn't mean that his parallel processing techniques are not faster than iteration processing or that a software approach is not a wonderful idea.

Who knows, when computers with the right hardware (quantum systemboards) are available and Perl is ported to it, we will be able to reproduce the meaning of life program that ran for so many years by the mice in h2g2.

Limbic~Region