1. Quantum Technology Essential Question:
Will Quantum technology revolutionize computers so much as to change how everyone in the world goes about completing tasks and achieving their goals?
By: Carey LaLiberte

2. Quantum Computers

3. What is the basic idea behind most if not all Quantum Technology?
Quantum technology is the application of the area of physics called quantum mechanics or Quantum Theory to solve useful problems for us. The ideas behind quantum theory have their roots in the early work of Albert Einstein 100 years ago.
Quantum Theory is based on a few very surprising discoveries about the way the world appears to work One principal is that what appears to us as a particle of matter is also equivalently a wave of energy, or a mere probability of being at any one place. This ties in with the uncertainty principal that says we cannot know both the position and the velocity of a particle at the same time. And quantum computing takes advantage of the infinite number of possible states that a property of matter can be in to solve problems.

4. What is entanglement?
Entanglement gets right into the least understood aspect of Quantum Theory, but it can be briefly described as being the idea that two particles are linked by nature so that when one is affected, the other is as well. The distance between the two particles makes no difference and they are always in opposite states of matter. For example, if one particle is in the spin-up state, the other will typically be spin-down.

5. Spin States
There are two possible values for a spin-1/2 particle which are the positive and negative values for S sub z (+1/2, -1/2).
These two values correspond to a particles quantum states in which the spin points in the +z and –z directions.
These states are most commonly known as “Spin-Up” and “Spin-Down”.

6. Does entanglement have anything to do with the advancement of Quantum computing?
Yes, in fact, the way that quantum states are determined in the process of narrowing down the possible solutions makes use of entanglement between the state of the qubit and the way in which the state is determined.

7. Why is Quantum Computing so much better than any other way?
Quantum computing can take advantage of how matter and energy work to solve problems orders of magnitude faster than current computer components can. It is not so much that they solve different kinds of problems but that they make some kinds of very difficult problems easier to solve in a time frame that makes them practical.
One difficult problem is encryption and decryption. We always want to find ways of making data more secure through better encryption, and on the other hand, other people always want to find ways of breaking the security of encrypted data. This is a race on both sides to build the fastest computers for these tasks. Another kind of problem that quantum computers might address is simulating how protein molecules fold up into the form that we find in our bodies, which would be very useful in finding better ways to keep us healthy longer.

8. How does Quantum Computing work?
The best analogy is the game 20 Questions. The common way of doing quantum computing now is to reduce the set of all possible answers to a smaller and smaller set until there is only one possible answer left.
Basically, instead of being equal to 24, we already know that 3 * 8 is equal to 24. This application makes very little difference in the time required to execute, but the same idea is used on a much larger scale like sequencing the human genome.

9. Moore's Law
Moore's Law predicts that the current accelerating increase in computer power will continue, but in order to do so, at some point we will have to be using quantum computing technology. When that will happen is unknown, and in fact, we can rarely see beyond the next 5 to 10 years to guess what technology will be practical to use. It might be another 20 to 40 years before quantum computing is practical, or we might be surprised to discover an easy way to build them in 5 years.

10. Quantum based Computers
Currently, quantum computing is still very much in the laboratory, with very tiny numbers of quantum computational bits, called qubits. A few very specialized applications can make use of this level of advancement. But it does seem inevitable that more widespread applications will be possible eventually.
We won't see Quantum computers in common use around our homes and work places until it is clear, from a business standpoint, that practical manufacturing processes can be created. There are too many unknown variables to predict this. Long before then, we would see quantum computation used in special applications.

11. Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind
If we want to merely simulate how our brains work, then quantum computing could help with that extremely difficult problem, but even if we succeed, we might end up with something very different from how our minds actually work. We can also think of artificial intelligence as merely advanced problem solving in a way that appears to be human, and certainly quantum computers can help make advanced problems much simpler. Or we can think about what it means to be conscious, and build quantum computers that directly address the nature of consciousness.
We still know very little about how the human mind works, but it seems we solve problems in a way that is similar to quantum computing. All the possible solutions to a problem seem to be available to us in our unconscious processes, just as quantum computation makes use of the infinite possible solutions to problems.

12. Conclusions
Just as current computers already are helping us increase our knowledge of the world, and be more productive in our work, quantum computing will continue that trend. But also, as some kinds of very difficult problems become practical to solve at all, this will change the kinds of things we can do.
We know very little about how quantum mechanics works, and there could very well be connections between how our minds work and how quantum computing would work, such that we may have an influence on quantum computers. This could be a desirable outcome, if we can control it.

13. Bibliography
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