- Crackpot tech: Virtual worlds
- Crackpot tech: Enterprise supercomputing
- Crackpot tech: Direct brain interfaces
- Crackpot tech: The $100 laptop
- Crackpot tech: Wireless power
- Crackpot tech: Pervasive computing
- Crackpot tech: Optical computing
- Crackpot tech: Nanotechnology
- Crackpot tech: Quantum cryptography redux
- Your turn: Predict the next big thing
February 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Crackpot tech: Quantum computing and quantum cryptography
The manipulation of subatomic particles at the quantum level has raised eyebrows in computer science research departments lately — so much so that several approaches to incorporating quantum mechanics into computing have been launched to varying degrees of success.
The most advanced field of research is quantum cryptography, a bit of a misnomer given that it doesn't rely on anything resembling traditional codes or ciphers. Instead of locking up data in a mathematical safe, the technique encodes messages in the clear by tweaking the quantum properties of photons — a 1 may transform into a photon with "left" spin; a 0, into a photon with "right" spin.
The technique offers security because it is believed to be impossible to detect the spin of a photon without destroying or significantly altering it. So any eavesdropper would annihilate the message or change it enough for the recipient to notice. Two leaders in the field, IBM and Los Alamos National Laboratory, have built working devices and have demonstrated the transmission of photon streams through fiber optics and even the air.
Another technology based on the principles of quantum mechanics, quantum computing, attempts to model computation with quantum states. The field has produced tantalizing theoretical results that show how such a computer instantly could solve some of the most complicated problems such as factoring exceedingly large numbers.
Quantum computing is much further from having an impact in the lab or the enterprise than quantum cryptography. No one has built a particularly useful quantum computer yet, though some researchers have built machines that work with one or two bits. One group recently announced it is building machines that work with problems that take around 1,000 bits to describe. At least that’s a start.
-- Peter Wayner
What's your take on the prospects of quantum computing and cryptography?
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Posted by Jason Snyder on February 19, 2007 03:00 AM
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Quantum Computing + RNAi = Singularity
Ray Kurzweil wrote a book in 2005 predicting advances in computing and biology would lead to immortality and evolution of humans. Many recent advances do seem to parallel his predictions. A Nobel prize was awarded for RNAi research in 2006 which may soon transform medicine.
Quantum computing may use Grover's Algorithm to search Genomic databases to match treatments to disease. A Quantum Genomic computer could use RNAi to match disease to RNAi sequence length and specificity.
Quantum computer using Grovers Algorithm to search databases may rapidly accelerate drug discovery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover's_algorithm
The first Quantum computer is now available:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5I0PMWVBUHUFAQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=197004661
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=BD4EFAA8-E7F2-99DF-372B272D3E271363
http://www.qubit.com
Quantum Genetic Computing - QGC
Drug companies bought more supercomputer power than defense contractors in the US in 2006. This trend will continue worldwide. The quantum computer will soon replace conventional systems in drug research and sequence analysis (shotgun cloning).
Quantum computers may enable understanding of RNAi now using conventional genetic database techniques. DCA drug found for cancer using RNAi.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070116134001.htm
Could a quantum computer based DNA/biochip search engine automate medical diagnostics?
Could Greene chip be the first chip to update quantum computer database.
http://www.mailman.hs.columbia.edu/news/Lipkin_GreeneChip.html
India/China could use this technology to rapidly scan blood samples in the field for AIDS, Malaria, Bird Flu, etc.
Many health care diagnostics systems could be replaced. This could drive costs down for rural health care.
Customers might include Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
drug companies, biotech, WHO, CDC, DOD, Homeland Security, etc.
Quantum Genetic Computing - QGC:
Use Grovers Algorithm to correlate genetic information.
Could biotech create a Quantum Genetic Computer (QGC) from D-wave system?
Could a lab-on-a-chip/QGC technology sample patient blood and draw diagnosis similar to Mycin (AI)?
Machine based medical diagnostics?
Could D-wave pioneer Mycin/QGC for the physician and for the home?
How will Genbank and Human Genome data (Oracle) integrate with QGC?
Could R language for microarrays be used for matrix correlations?
Quantum Genetic Computing -(QGC)
Use Quantum Database search to solve genetic problems.
Comparative Genomics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_genomics
Mycin:(medical expert system)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycin
http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~alison/ai3notes/section2_5_5.html
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~laza/Software/Mycin/mycin.html
RNAi:(assembly language of the cell)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3210/02-cure.html
R Language:
http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~lshiue/bioc/BioCintro.ppt
Singularity:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Kurzweill
Books:
The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Kurzweil, Ray
Rainbows End, Vinge, Vernor
Quest for Quantum Computers, Brown, Julian
rnai:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3210/02-cure.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/07/020705091216.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050124005930.htm
Henry Brown
hbrown@mail.sisna.com
A 1000 bit quantum computer is quite impressive. To the average user 1000 bits is not a lot. But because of the architecture of a quantum computer, each additional bit doubles the amount of computing power. A 7 bit computer can factor the number 15 (which requires 4 bits to represent). Thus, it might be expected that a 1000 bit computer would be able to factor 512 bit integers in polynomial time. This is not quite a danger for the banking industry, nor at the level of cracking 1024-bit RSA keys. However, given that the seven bit computer was state-of-the-art in 2001, if they finish that 1000 bit computer in a few years (say by 2011), that is very little time to raise the power of quantum computer implementations by a factor of 2^993. They will have doubled the processing power available for a given price every 4 days. That rate of growth beats Moore's law (doubling every 18 months) hollow. Quantum computing may well change the enterprise within the next decade.
Posted by: Eric Moyer at January 30, 2008 04:05 PMA slight addendum on my previous post. I had forgotten about error correction. Thus the number of bits factorable by Shor's algorithm does not scale linearly, but polynomially. Wikipedia says that the number of quantum bits required to factor a given number is believed to be between the 4th and 6th powers of the number of bits to be factored. So a 1000 bit integer requires between 1000^4 (10^12) and 1000^6 (10^18) quantum bits to factor. That level of power seems a bit further off.
Posted by: Eric Moyer at January 31, 2008 06:41 AMYour turn: The next big thing? From the far-fetched to the practical, we highlighted 12 technologies that have a history of riding the thin edge between harebrained and brilliant. Yet each has the potential to significantly shake up some aspect of the enterprise down the line.
So, bust out your crackpot meter and weigh in on whether these could-be pie-in-the-sky notions have a future by commenting on them on this blog. If you don't see a past or present contender you'd like to nominate and want to predict the next big crackpot thing... HAVE YOUR SAY HERE |
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