It feels like 6 months ago, I couldn’t go a few hours without being exposed to some new wild claims from Microsoft or Google, or any of the other companies working on this. Lately nothing comes up in any of my feeds.

  • Eq0@literature.cafe
    15·
    4 days ago

    Mathematician: can confirm. Some of my colleagues are extremely excited at the prospect of working on a quantum machine, some small groups of programmers and mathematicians are working on some really fringe and really cool ideas. Even the theory of working on a quantum computer has produced unexpected results for binary computers. By outside of these small clicks, there are no other applications.

      • Eq0@literature.cafe
        4·
        4 days ago

        That’s exactly the section of math loosing their mind on the topic 😂

        There is still quite a divide between the needed computational power and the available one, though.

      • Krudler@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        There is a proposed Shor’s Algorithm. To use a sloppy analogy, this arrangement would be the equivalent to fully planning out a trip to the center of the Earth, just waiting for the digging machine to be done and we’re groovy.

        Worth a read; Emphasis mine:

        …quantum algorithm for finding the prime factors of an integer. It was developed in 1994 by the American mathematician Peter Shor

        …It is one of the few known quantum algorithms with compelling potential applications

        …If

        …If

        …If

        …If

        …If

    • Krudler@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      As a dude that has walked away from tech madness… I reflect now, and as much as I did some insanely challenging and rewarding stuff in my career, and as much as I was addicted to solving those problems, I seriously do not envy anybody having to do novel research in this area. The amount of work to realize a dead end would be existentially draining to me. But there’s also something about being on the bleeding edge…

      • Eq0@literature.cafe
        2·
        3 days ago

        I am a mathematician, and yes to everything. I had a couple of research lines that, after months or years turned out to be useless/inapplicable/… and it is a rough blow to handle when that happens. Usually compensated by the other research lines or the thought of all you learned along the way. Overall, I am still in love with research, but it’s not for everyone.

        • Krudler@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          Thank you for sharing your personal story! I relate so much!

          I was a major contributor to the underlying technology and game systems that drove the world’s first internet-enabled touch screen game network. We had crazy score comparison patents, all kinds of shit going man - we were hitting on all cylinders. Partnership with American Games, AMOA, Monolith, major PC distributors like Compaq, tie into in-house developed probability contest back-end … we were exhibiting at the computer game developers conferences.

          After three and a half years, it alllllllllll ended up in a puff of smoke. Although I developed some amazing technologies, not one of those things ended up seeing the light of day. Fuck. Me.

          I worked on so many firsts in the gaming sector and the truth is, 90% of them at minimum were a complete waste of resources in terms of bringing a product to bear.

          But through it all, it was the passion to find problems that needed solving, and then solving them that really drove me so at least I had that!