[ExI] Quantum computers in just a few years

[Jason Resch]

On Fri, Feb 21, 2025, 9:44 AM BillK via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Feb 2025 at 14:28, Jason Resch via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >
> > Will quantum computers be useful for anything?
> >
> > - They're too low memory to have any utility in AI training.
> >
> > - By the time they're large enough to crack RSA or ECC keys, we will
> have moved to Post-Quantum-Secure cryptography.
> >
> > The only claimed benefit I have seen that seems to hold any water is in
> simulating very small scale particle interactions. But you need at least as
> many q-bits as there are particles being stimulated.
> >
> > So this seems to limit utility to simulating nanoscale molecular
> interactions, but AlphaFold is already quite adept at this, and is
> improving all the time.
> >
> > So what actual problems will quantum computers solve?
> >
> > Jason
> > _______________________________________________
>
>
> As we don't have quantum computers yet, it could be a bit tricky to
> say what they will be capable of or in what applications they will be
> used.  :)
>

We have a good grasp of the kinds of tasks they can accelerate. Before
quantum computers were invented we had a number of quantum algorithms, for
example. But they seem so specialized that I wonder if there will be any
real world benefits.

I suppose they will be useful to governments who can use them to decrypt
previously recorded communications. But are there use cases besides that?

I'll ask around.
>

Thanks!

Jason
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