Google says its new quantum chip indicates that multiple universes exist
Google says its new quantum chip indicates that multiple universes exist
Google announced its latest quantum chip, Willow. But what really caught the industry's attention was a wild claim tucked into the blog post.
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That a natural phenomenon occurs with precision that would require enormous computation to simulate isn't proof of parallel universes.
EVERYTHING IN THE NATURAL WORLD IS THAT WAY!
Roll a ball down an inclined plane and measure the time to attoseconds. Now try and simulate the exact results. Friction and air resistance for that level of accuracy make it a computationally enormous problem.
OMG a rolling ball is evidence of parallel worlds!
For the downvoters analog computers were a thing. For my particular rolling ball example, while never used in practice, it's a squaring calculator. You can program logic gates to calculate X^2 or roll a ball down an inclined plane and measure the result.
A quantum computer maintains several states simultaneously allowing for parallel computations faster than simulation with digital circuits. It's the in nature of quantum states that allows parallel computations just like the nature of a rolling ball can calculate a square.
To be fair, the title here draws more confidence than the actual quote from the Google engineer.
The actual quote, about one factor (speed):
It lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that we live in a multiverse, a prediction first made by David Deutsch.
"Indicates" is too strong of a word, and was used to click bait.
The whole “parallel computations” thing is really largely an oversimplification.
The “multiple universes” thing is the “many worlds theory of quantum mechanics” which is just one philosophical interpretation of statistics.
But also having a system that’s hard to simulate is kinda useless as a benchmark. I once attended a quantum computing talk where the speaker said “I can show you a large quantum system that is impossible to simulate classically” and they held up a rock “This rock is a quantum system that’s too big for us to simulate. It doesn’t do anything useful, but we can’t simulate it!”
Yup any system that can stimulate another system would have to be larger and more complex than the system it's stimulating.
That a natural phenomenon occurs with precision that would require enormous computation to simulate
This isn't the argument put forward by the article. Nothing about the precision of the measurement is made to be something of significance.
Also even if that was the case your analogy of it being like a rolling ball is totally inadmissible because a computation is not the same thing as a measurement.
Your attempt to liken the two shows some serious level of stubbornness in rejecting what possibly could be a very meaningful advancement in technology and metaphysics.
It's totally ok to brush this article off as poorly written sensationalist crap but the problem is you don't seem to understand the argument for why quantum computing capabilities are indicative of the possibility of a multiverse in the first place.
Setting up a rolling ball at a particular height to calculate a square is performing a computation in the same way setting up the voltages on a set of transistors that you preconfigured to give you the square of the inputs.
Without measurement, you don't get the results of the ball rolling or the transistors. Reading the output of the transistors is the measurement of a physical system.
very meaningful advancement in technology
I didn't criticize the technology at all!
It was 99+ years ago that Quantum Mechanics resulted in all manner of explanations for why QM is the way it is. This new chip does not change any of that. It is a technological advancement, not science or philosophy.
Dropping a ball is not an effective means of computing a square.
A quantum computer is such an effective means of performing its computations, that it brings into question how it can even be possible that the electronic signals forming the intermediate results can all simultaneously exist and be consumed in the first place.
You doubling down again on comparing these two just proves you don't understand anything about the claims being made.
Dropping a ball is not an effective means of computing a square.
I specifically said it wasn't. But I referenced analog computers which are.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball-and-disk_integrator
can all simultaneously exist
Again that's the question of why does QM work the way it does which started 99+ years ago.
you don't understand anything about the claims being made.
Stop with the insults. You aren't even reading.
If you have an analog computer that simulates a ball falling, you have an analog of a ball.
In this case your analog computer would literally have some kind of ball as part of the apparatus. Thus you would be able to argue that the result is proof of a ball having been dropped and having taken exactly x.seconds to fall.
If you have an analog integrator you literally produce cyclic motions of the constitute frequencies of some signal in order to form the output graph.
What you are doing is trying to use the above statements to argue some statement about quantum computing. Clearly any attempt to do so is complete nonsense.
If anything reconsidering the argument above just lends MORE credence to the idea of a multiverse. Wherever you have an analog computer producing a result the intermediary compontents of the result physically exist. If the same applies for a quantum computer the space in which different permutations of intermediate results must physically exist.
I'm not trying to insult you but you're clearly forcing some nonsense argument just to match the conclusion you've already had in mind before understanding the argument put forward.
Edit: I realized now I confused the "ball and disk" integrator for a similar physical apparatus that was used to compute fourier transforms but the point still stands
The ball dropping is computing x^2. You setup the ball at the height you need like setting up the voltages of a set of configured transistors. You could measure the output to get the answer like you measure the output of the transistors.
A ball integrator is computing an integral that required so much computation that missile guidance systems used ball integrators instead of digital computers even in the early 1970's.
Computers aren't magic. They are physical machines that require setup to perform a computation and measurement to get the output.
A quantum computer can perform many operations in parallel. That is a feature of QM. Parallel worlds is one of many ideas as to why this is possible. It's not a theory because it has made no testable predictions. It's just as valid as claiming, "Angels did it."
A quantum computer can perform many operations in parallel. That is a feature of QM.
You're trivializing the capabilities. This is not something you can just simulate on classic hardware while maintaining the O(n) performance of an actual quantum computer.
The fact that it is probably possible to do this stuff in the first place with a quantum computer is the point.
It's not a theory because it has made no testable predictions. It's just as valid as claiming, "Angels did it."
I don't disagree with this statement as stated but try and have some appreciation for the fact that this sort of reality-bending invention is possible.
It's ok to start speculating.
This is not something you can just simulate on classic hardware while maintaining the O(n) performance of an actual quantum computer.
You can simulate on a classic computer and it's still faster on a classic computer.
That's why I made the analog computer analogy. Analog computers were faster than digital for a while.
Just like digital computers had the potential to vastly outperform analog, Quantum has the potential to vastly outperform digital.
That quantum has the potential to be faster than digital isn't any proof of parallel worlds. It's the nature of quantum to hold many states which if setup carefully allows parallel computations. Just like it's the nature of a ball rolling on a disc that can allow it, if setup carefully, to perform integration calculations.