Retrospect
Retrospect
Quantum Computing: The Future Of Technology | Retrospect Ep.179
In this week’s episode we discussed the fascinating world of quantum computing. Exploring how it works, why it’s a game-changer, and what it means for the future of technology. From the basics of qubits and quantum algorithms to its potential to revolutionize industries like pharmaceuticals, AI, and cybersecurity, we break down the big ideas behind this cutting-edge field. We’ll also explore the challenges, ethical considerations, and the race between tech giants and governments to unlock quantum’s true potential.
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Ian
Welcome to the retrospect podcast, a show where people come together from different walks of life and discuss a topic from their generations perspective. My name is Ian, and as always, I'm joined by Stoney,
Stoney
hello
Ian
and Jason,
Jason
hello everyone.
Ian
How's it going? Well, we're doing good. I feel like, like, because we had a lot of different things going on, and you had your your run, you were going, Yeah, I batched an episode. So, like, I feel like we've been out of the loop with this for about a week or so.
Jason
Yeah, it's been a couple weeks now.
Stoney
So how many blisters Do you have?
Jason
Well, you know, I'm gonna tell you that was my first ever marathon. And, yeah, it's full 26.2 miles. You know, for the longest time I would say I would never had a desire to run 26.2 miles,
Stoney
but you've done it.
Jason
You've had I did it. I said I'm gonna give myself five hours, and I finished it in about five hours, like 505, or something likethat.
Stoney
you Did not come in last
Jason
I did not come in last it's so funny. I was, I was running, and, you know, they have some incredible runners out there, not, you know, in our appreciate time, I was talking about having the opportunity to see the lead runner because of the way how the course worked out. So
Stoney
you were that fast, you could see the lead runner. That's pretty good,
Jason
right? Yeah, well, it didn't work out that, oh, that's not,
Stoney
not that.
Jason
I the course, basically started us on one side of the river in downtown Little Rock, and then it took us over the Arkansas River, I believe, and then there's another portion over there on the other side. Then they sent you back. So on your way back right about the midpoint of the bridge, yeah, it was miles
Stoney
one time you're running this away and the other runners correct,
Jason
so that you have an opportunity to see the lead runner, because you see the pace car, the lead car that's in the front of the first runner. And I I hadn't reached mile one, and that person was already at mile three. So I kind of looked at the the overall winners, and it appears at the lead. Whoever won, I believe it would have been him, unless another person to overtook him, but that person was maintaining a pace of about 544
Stoney
so if he was 543 at roughly three miles, that means you were 10 to 11 minutes per mile going into your first mile
Jason
to the first mile. So Wow. I think
Stoney
that's still impressive, right?
Jason
I think the course rules were you had to maintain a pace of 1344, to finish the race in six hours, because you had to finish the race in six hours. And if you maintain that, then you would so there was times I was pretty consistent, up to about the half marathon mark, which was typical, but by the time you started getting into about mile 15, for me, it's when I really started feeling it, yikes. And I've started walking a lot because it started getting a bit hilly, a little bit more hilly on the back end of the course. And it was in the beginning, but we managed to find it, you know, managed to finish it. And as I said, I never was really tired, but my body was hurting and the pounding on my ankles and my quads and my back and, you know, just at my age, it just was, I felt it, and it's so funny. I was probably around mile 17,18, I passed by because I didn't realize this, but Little Rock is home to the World Taekwondo Association. And I passed by the building as because it was on the
Stoney
court. You were like, this is a good time to take up Taekwondo,
Jason
exactly. So it was a neat building. I didn't realize that Little Rock was home and they have international competitions, yeah, in Little Rock, Arkansas. So
Ian
I did taekwondo for probably five or six years, I think when I was younger.
Jason
So yeah. So that was neat to see that and but I about that time I see two older guys that are running, yeah, and these guys are probably in their mid 70s, wow. And they're running a full marathon, and they were just had a nice little clip, and they were just taking their time, doing their thing. And I went, you know, what? If they can do it at that age, I can do it in where I'm at. So, right? It provides some motivation. But about mile 24 then all of a sudden, I was wearing off. It was wearing off. I was, you. Eating was like, I'm hurting, so I just hoping my body holds up. But I was able to to get through and my my girlfriend took pictures of videos of me as I was passing the because she called me, you know, we talk every now and then, where you at I went because she was kind of following me on the on the tracking, because, yeah, shared a deal. Said, Well, I think I'm about 15 right now. And and then she called me again, and she goes, Well, where? Yeah. I said, Well, I think I'm a mile 23 she goes, mile 23 so I want to see you brought the finish line. I said, yeah. So she got there, wow, and was able to film me crossing the finish line. So it was fun. Was a great trip. Accomplished. What I want to accomplish? Yeah, dude, that's really cool. That's amazing. We got to see the the Bill Clinton presidential library. Went to go there. Okay, had dinner. I went. It had dinner on, you know, it contributed to the Clinton Foundation, okay, I guess when we had dinner there, but did have to say the smoked salmon salad was absolutely delicious, okay, and her salad was pretty good too, but mine was better, right?
Stoney
You know, they didn't need the help. They found out that US aid is already given the Clinton Foundation between two and $5 billion
Jason
yeah, there's a lot of money there, and I could tell how much money that building took. Oh, it's quite impressive. Matter of fact, we we have some pictures we took of a complete replication of what the Oval Office looked like. Oh, during Bill Clinton's presidencies, they've got an area where it's literally like you're in the Oval Office. So you could take pictures behind the desk signing some so we have some pictures of me signing something, and she's on the phone next to me, and vice versa. So it worked. I had never been to a presidential library, so it was interesting to see what that was all about. And it was, it was quite impressive seeing his rise from, where he came from, in Arkansas, and kind of the things that that, that you know, influenced him in his younger, you know, life, and propelled him to be governor of Arkansas and and all that. And
Stoney
they have a list of all the assassinations that people, of all the pregnant women that died by suicide, nothing. They don't list all that stuff, nothing
Jason
like that. It really all is good there. But the only thing of the Monica Lewinsky stuff was some unless I missed that part, because there's just so much information about how he apologized about embarrassing and denigrating the office and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, so I don't recall much about it, but they had some pictures of when the the whole presidential library opened, and they had Bush Senior and Bush Junior there. And when did it open? They had Gerald Ford. I mean, Ford there at the time Jimmy Carter was there. So, yeah, so I think it opened back up in the early 2000s really. Okay, yeah, if I, if I recall, but it's an, it's an impressive place, right? So, I mean, if you're in Little Rock Arkansas, I mean, you know, check it out and just see a US President's presidential library. But that was my first time actually being the one, so
Stoney
I'd say it, I think I'd rather see anything but that, yeah, well, there's
Jason
a lot of people feel that way. But Ian, I think we're, I think this was your topic. So,
Stoney
yeah, what's the topic for today? Men,
Ian
women, stumbling across a lot of things in like, the algorithm has been like, like, pushing a bunch of videos and a bunch of articles, a bunch of things to me about quantum computing.
Stoney
So was that quantum computing is that where AI takes over and becomes sky. Now, that is not what that is. It's not. It sounds like it'd be a good movie, though, no
Ian
a quantum computing. It could potentially get us to that point where AI could become self aware AGI, which is what not self aware, but is, is artificial general intelligence enough that it could potentially take over a lot of things, and, you know, put us in a really different space. But yes, I've been watching a couple videos from people that, of course, have kind of dumb this down, really, and I've been reading some things on it because it's been, it's really interesting, and it's, it's the what I think is going to be the next debate. Thing that really pushes technology forward. I've talked about recently about how AI kind of feels like it's at, like, a little bit of a plateau right now, where like it, I think it is increasing, but it's now. It's much we've hit, like the what do you call it? Whenever the law of diminishing returns, like in the initial stages a couple years ago, like the advancements in AI were, I mean, like, doubling and tripling itself, and now I feel like we're getting that point where it's kind of slowing down a little bit. And I think this is that next thing that's going to really just, like, kind of blow that ceiling up and make everything, you know, try and increase to that capacity so
Jason
well, I know they made a big jump. Went with Willow. Of reading something about Willow that God believes Google that created the willow chip. And that's
Ian
the big thing that started a lot of this. Matter
Jason
of fact, you know, it's I uh, yeah, you know, Elon Musk has talked about state of the art quantum computing chip and, you know, just for our listeners out there, what kind of differentiate a quantum computer from a a traditional, digital based kind of system. I mean, it's, it's how it it kind of, it uses quantum mechanics. And none of us here or experts or much about what quantum mechanics are, but I know I've kind of research, a little bit about, kind of some of its kind of underpinnings, and how a you would have to kind of know how a traditional computer takes data and works, you know, I mean, we all know everything's ones and zeros, right? That's how kind of the digital world works and and basically it, it's it kind of, it's got to wait till it, it reaches one, it does something, goes to zero, does something, and just kind of goes back and forth, if I understand it right.
Ian
Classical computers use those things, those ones and zeros that are or everything is. It's like, all that's a piece of data. All data is made up of ones and zeros, either it's a yes or a no and like, like an electrical current, so no being off or zero being off, one being on, and so, like, that's how data is, like, is stored, and they're called bits. That's why, whenever you have like, a 32 bit operating system, 64 bit operating system like that, there's, like, a baseline of how many bits that it can use to, like, calculate data and all that kind of stuff. And it says that quantum computers use what are called quantum bits, or qubits, qubits, right? And which can exist in multiple states simultaneously thanks to something called superposition, right? So it can be, this is where it get. This is where for me, I don't understand how this how this happens, but it can be both simultaneously, a one and a zero at the same time, right?
Jason
I saw something, some of the videos I saw on people trying to explain kind of the underpinnings of quantum mechanics and how this works is sort of like a quarter. You flip it in the air, yeah. Now there is a point in time where it's both heads and tails, versus when it hits the ground, it's either going to be heads or tails, whereas, while it's still in the air, flipping around, you could say it's both, yeah, and another, that's where another
Ian
bit, another thing that another, like analogy that was used that helped me kind of see this a lot better is imagine a maze, and then you have a bunch of mice, and you, you the mice all kind of share a collective memory, so whenever you see but you can only send one mouse in at a time. So you send one in, he finds a path. It's a dead end. You send the second one in, he knows that's the wrong path, so it takes a different path, right? So each one of the mice has to take a different path to then until they eventually find the exit. And then it's mapped out. It's mapped out, whereas a quantum computer can send all the mice and all find the correct you know, and that's how it all maps it out, which is
Jason
all of the theoretical possibilities between one and zero, whereas typical computer has to kind of do one or the other. And thus, that's what takes the time for it to collate data. And that's stuff. And
Ian
again, I think I talk about it some more later, we can get into it. But like, that's also the even though that the classical system is slower, it is more concrete because of the way in which it's like, like, I think foundationally created, and we've also been improving upon it year after year. Right? So like, the failure rate of that of this hypothetical mouse on a maze scenario is usually always pretty accurate. So like, the bits don't really lie. They're pretty true that, like it either is or it isn't. And then of course, they can, you know, figure out the correct path from there, whereas right now, I think there's a big failure rate. I think that, like, the problem with quantum computing is that, like, we're not to a point where it's like, as solid as like the classical computers are. So there is, like, a big failure rate of like, I think qubits right now, which I think they're that's what like Willow, and I think Google has kind of done, has, like, had that failure rate of qubits has been, well,
Jason
what they have to do is they have to control for a lot of variables. You know, unfortunately, you know, some of the challenges it, there's a lot of things that have to be just perfect. Like, I mean, the state has to be near zero. You've got to, you know, irradiation, it can enter in there can mess things up. And that's kind of the challenge with with quantum mechanics, and that's why I don't think it's it's probably made the advancements where, because they haven't found a way to kind of control those variables, or to such a degree where I can basically set those wavelengths where they're always going to be uniform, right? You know, anything can kind of Jack with that, those those relationships there. And if it does, and it throws the whole thing off, right,
Ian
which I think is, for me, at least, it makes, I think it's understandable that, like within with something is so new and groundbreaking, is this. And I feel like, I mean, hey, the classical system works as well as it does, because it's probably been the way it has been
Jason
for, well, it's, they've perfected it. I mean, just like anything, just like, you know, they perfected analog systems prior to that. It's just going to get to a point where we developed the technology where we can control those variables, and then once you can kind of lock in those variables, now you've really, you've kind of cracked the code, so to speak, and now it's almost unlimited in what it can do, as far as some of The applications I've seen about just the amount of data that can be I mean, I think we mentioned in one of our last podcasts about they just created something where it solved a calculation that would have taken, oh, yeah, you know, billions of years, and it took care of in in few in a few minutes. Well,
Stoney
they came up with a new jet engine in two weeks using AI and some quantum style computers, right? And it works. But one of the things I find really funny looking at it is the same thing that has affected computing always is affecting this one, and this is just keeping it cool. Yep, I remember that when we had when the 386 first came out, right then the 486 came out. We took an old 386 which is what they still somewhat use in satellites, because it's a proven yeah type board, and we turned it on its side, and took a little tin cup and had a nitrogen drip on it to keep the cooling. The little, what do you call the little metal piece, the heat sink, and we overclocked it to a 1.4 gig. That was a 386 Yeah, because we were able to keep the cooling down. I wonder what it takes to cool one of these. Oh, it's a lot massive computer. Well, I mean,
Jason
it said for, for, for the to control for the temperature, because it needs to be at near, literally absolute zero, which I think is minus 444
Ian
46 crazy. And the greatest
Stoney
reasons that it has to do that is in the computing process, there can't be a fluctuation correct in the temp, the flu, even the minuscule fluctuation can affect the computing. And I think that's kind of fascinating in itself. Yeah,
Jason
most people that are going to look at the I mean, quantum mechanics is kind of one of those areas that's the next frontier, and that's the next frontier, and I believe we're getting close. I think we're a lot closer. Yeah, I think AI will definitely speed that on. I believe we're probably a lot closer than probably what we give ourselves credit for. I'm reading a deal here, just just kind of open source stuff on the internet. Here it basically is. Why did NASA stop quantum quantum computing? They said, According to reports, NASA did not completely stop quantum computing, but rather Paul. Caused a specific project due to concerns about the unexpected and potentially uncontrollable power of the quantum computer, which produced results that were difficult to interpret, and raised worries about potential unintended consequences, including the possibility of entering an unknown realm of computation or interacting with extraterrestrial intelligence. Essentially, the technology was deemed too advanced and unpredictable for our current understanding, which,
Stoney
at the time, the biggest things they're finding the biggest problem is, is our programming skills aren't to that level yet, right? Our just our simple programming, what we can program and come up with can't even come close to what quantum computing can can accomplish or do or even process.
Jason
Yeah, we, as I'm saying, we, we don't know, you know, I think it's, you know, here we are, once again we were. You start pushing the boundaries of where tech and and look, I tell you, this really opens up the possibility of parallel universes. You know, there's a lot of things that you could be tapping into that you're like, well, if something can exist simultaneously at the same time in two different places, right? Wow, how does that affect? I mean, for all intensive purposes, it's the closest will come to teleportation, whereas in science fiction, is matter and it's matter being teleported in quantum mechanics. It's, it's something different. Yeah,
Ian
if I'm not mistaken, I think that from what I've learned a little bit of quantum mechanics is that like, if I don't know how they observe this, but like, but you can change, I don't even know how to get know how to get into it. Like, something can can happen or change here on Earth, but, like, right? But they can observe that it has the same change, like out in space or whatever,
Jason
right? Like, I think I saw an example that if they did something here on Earth, yeah, if you had the same exact thing in a galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, it would be the same thing happening at the
Ian
same time, because all of it is somehow quantumly entangled. Exactly. I can't let them entangled, but that's where I'm getting into.
Jason
Everybody go read about quantum entanglement. Maybe y'all can understand it better than than I could, but so can
Ian
I kind of talk about a little bit Absolutely. There's a superstition, or, sorry, superposition, and it says, Well, let me see how I want to talk about this, because of the fact that it can be both ones and zeros, that's considered a superposition, which is, that's how I think it's going to lead to like This, you know, mass expanse of like, you know, computing power that it can work with, but the entanglement side, it says, meaning the state of one qubit is directly related to the state of another, even across vast distances. The phenomenon is essential for quantum communication, and can lead to ultra secure communication networks. And this is where, for me, once again, to the entanglement side that I'm like, I this is we start getting it like, almost sci fi stuff, where it's like, like, you would like, we just talked about how you can affect a qubit here, and a qubit somewhere, far, far away, is also having the same changes being done to it, which, that's like I said, that's kind of mind breaking as to what that one of
Stoney
the things that kind of worries me, and you're kind of touching on it right there, is, is that it will be able to do that. But right now, you only have a couple of types of programming, c plus, plus, you got this, you got that. But with quantum computing, if there is not somebody or a group of people or something that's going to standardize it, how many different directions are they going to Oh, yeah, I
Ian
wrote down some things about that, because a big thing of that, a big concern to worry about, that is the fact that it could break current cryptography stuff where it's like it could, there's a big potential threat to any kind of existing encryption standards right now, like RSA, and it breaks all that and very the implications for cyber security of like, being able to, just like, you know, brute force your way into anything is some pretty crazy stuff. Remember the movie,
Stoney
sneakers? I do not sneakers. Sneakers, I don't think needs to go on your podcast. John. Y'all need to see the its sneakers. It had Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, and a very young what's the Phoenix?
Ian
Walking Phoenix? What's
Stoney
his name? I can't remember, yeah, but it's about this subject. Someone developed something that is a super code breaker, and it's, you know, all the governments want it and everything. It's a great little movie. It talks exactly about this. And once you have that ability, what are the possibilities, if you can break any code on the planet, what could you do with it? Oh, yeah.
Jason
And trust me, it would be used by people to do bad things, like anything. It would be snatched by, you know, governments and everything else. So, I mean, it's just what it is. Just let our listeners know, the father of quantum computing is David Deutsch. He's a theoretical physicist at the University of Oxford, and he says, in 1985 he published a paper that established the quantum theory of computation. He proposed the first universal quantum Turing machine. When we all know Alan Turing was the one who was the father of of where our modern computers are. His work led to the development of quantum algorithms, including Deutsches algorithm in 1985 have
Ian
a couple algorithms I want to talk about too. So the River
Stoney
Phoenix. Okay, that was his name. I'm sorry, just River Phoenix when it pops in, I gotta say it before I lose it again.
Ian
Talk about algorithms and tying it back into the whole decryption thing. There's something called Shor's algorithm, and they said that Shor's algorithm could potentially break widely used encryption systems by factoring large numbers of exponentially faster. Oh, sorry, factoring large numbers exponentially faster than classical algorithms, meaning that, like the classical algorithms that we have that try to, like, break their way through encryption, it's not it can't factor in those large numbers that quickly, whereas this Shor's algorithm can compute those large numbers exponentially quicker, which could be a problem. And then there's another one called Grover's algorithm, which can search unsorted databases much more efficiently, which could have applications and fields like machine learning and optimization stuff like that, which
Stoney
is one of the things they were talking about, is logistics, yeah, you know, think of think about Amazon with quantum computing on getting all their crap where they needed to go. Then you start putting in the drones and everything else. What is that going to do for airlines? Oh yeah, busses, things like that. You know, we're having a big thing right now about the air traffic controllers? Oh, yeah, well, we need
Ian
those anymore. I have some written down for pharmaceuticals and materials making drugs. I saw that too. Quantum computers could, could simulate molecular interactions right exactly, using,
Jason
especially medicine and stuff like that. I
Ian
think it could be crazy because it could, I think it could help a lot of drug discoveries. And, yeah,
Jason
the quantum because of the amount of data it can, it can basically crunch, yeah, it's, it's stuff that would have taken, you know, a long time to to be able to see those patterns. Now you can see those patterns very quickly. Oh, yeah.
Ian
The bigger thing too is, is financial stuff. I think that I could be wrong. And this is not any kind of advice. This is not any kind of insight. I don't know that. But like, once you have a quantum computer that can think so fast and can process so much information, like, I think it's going to get really good at predicting what's kind of like immediately, like, next gonna happen, you know what? I mean, maybe in the long term. But I think if you give, for instance, we talked about AI, I think if you give AI, some sort of quantum computing ability. I think that it can tackle complex optimization problems. And I think it could, really, this is where I started to get a little bit worried about it, because I think it could. I think the how do you like the variance, like the human variants, and like the wonder about, like, the kind of the how do you I think it takes away some of the guesswork about what's gonna happen. You know what I mean, if you have a computer that's gonna pretty confidently predict what's gonna happen right in front of you so well,
Stoney
what you're saying is BRING IT. Okay, you have 20 cars at a stop light, right? And the light turns green. The first car takes a second to go, Oh, yeah. Well, the second car takes that second and another second behind it, right? What happens if all these cars were to move exactly at the same time? Yep, right, right. And so when you like, when you're talking about, you know, cryption and things like that, you have a 20 number, letter symbol code. Instead of what it basically does is, is it goes, this is one, and it goes, this is 01, then this is one, one. And instead of having to go through the whole process, it does it automatically, all at the same time, right? Because now they are all intertwined. That's what's fascinating about it. But what happened? Does that mean self driving cars and planes and everything now are going to be safer, I think, harder, to actually hack
Ian
maybe, maybe, I think the what we're going to the implications that I'm kind of talking about is, like, is, is, is this kind of more numbers based thing, like the database stuff, the encryption stuff, things that are more, I don't say tangible, because it all feels like it's extra world extraordinary. But like, the, like I was saying before there, I think that there is a, there's an unknown about, I don't know how to word, I didn't write this down, but like, there's like an unknown, like human factor, that goes into it. But I think given enough information, I think a computer could reliably guess what the financial markets going to be the next week, you know, but
Stoney
that's what I'm saying. You could, I was trying to write a simple term. You could basically remove the human factor. That's saying, right? And that's, that's where I was kind of just using a right, maybe, well, too basic of an analysis
Jason
any biases. That removes any
Stoney
buy it completely remove, removes the human equation. And what, and what? And
Ian
what I was trying to get across was like, what is that? What are the implications of that, of like, even though, like, we have humans that are, like, making this whole thing happen and like, the the difficulty of the stock market is the fact that it's kind of like, It shapes and changes and moves based on all kinds of different factors and like, and no one really can predict it. But like, you know, now and now, there's always going to be a human element that could probably ruin that. But, like, of course, you know, if you have some sort of computer that could reasonably say, like, well, you know, you may, you may want to, I don't know what that like, I said, the implications for what it just, for me, it kind of turns a lot of things up on its head. Of, like, how are we gonna, you know, and I think I'm just using the financial market as, like, a as a potential, because potential, because I because it feels like something that is very for me, something I don't fully understand and knows very, you know, can be very volatile and very stuff like that, anyways, so. But I think, as we talked about before, some of the challenges that were, were kind of talked about, is, decoherence and noise, I think of those things I was talking about before there, the systems are extremely fragile right now. Qubits are easily disturbed by their environment, like I think you mentioned earlier, and I kind of wrote down some things here says causing loss of information or decoherence, and the technical challenges involved with maintaining the stability of all that in a quantum system is difficult and is very power consuming. And I wonder what that could look like in the future too, as far as like power stuff and,
Stoney
well, it's not just, it leads to errors. Yeah, right. And so if you don't have, we were saying about the temperature, just minuscule things, if you're not, you know, near zero. I think I read that too somewhere, that it has to be absolutely, absolute zero. That that, well, how? Okay, now you're gonna have to have another computer, super computer, check the computer, check the computer, where I
Jason
think the tech and how you, in essence, compartmentalize those variances. Yeah, as to me that the best way I can try to describe it is if I can compartmentalize that within a some sort of chip or some other way, then that would, to me, would be the breakthrough is, once I I've compartmentalized, made it very inexpensive to compartmentalize those variables, then that's where I think the big advantages will, will, will also, I kind of liken it to the way right now we're dealing with, with the with transistors and more law, yeah, you know the we're piling more. Or transistors on a chip, yeah, you know. And basically Moore's law is basically has, has enabled us to kind of maximize what we can do with a computer chip. Well, I think the same thing with with a quantum chip, instead of transistors, it's going to be compartmentalizing or minimizing those, those those factors that to keep everything in a rhythm, oh yeah, for lack of better term, where we can take advantage of what the quantum mechanics enables us to do. And I think once you do that, then you're gonna, you pair that down with the, you know, artificial intelligence, right? And now you're getting into being able to really quantify enormous amounts of data. That's
Ian
the hard part about it is, like, is the scalability of it, all of like, how do you, right, how do you manage such a complex system of 1000s or millions of qubits that are
Stoney
trillion cubits? It's not even million millions is a millisecond
Jason
to say, within probably the next 50 years, you'll probably see that probably mastered. I mean, I think about how far we've come with, with digital, yeah, since really World War Two, you know, 50 to 80 years. I could definitely see 50 to 80 years in the future from now. So we're looking at what probably about the time we get to the 22nd century that we are, we've probably mastered that, and that is now basically as as prevalent that we see our current computers, where everybody has one, it's built into your phone.
Ian
So, so back in things 2019 Google, Google did a quantum Google's had, like, a quantum supremacy thing they were trying to like, I think they're still in the Supreme Leader right now, right, right. It says that Google claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy in 2019 with their 32 qubit, I almost said bit 30, sorry. Uh, gosh, I'm stuck on the old way of talking about it, 53 qubit quantum computer. And pardon me, um, the achievement, I think, is debated by many people, but it's important this, this milestone, I think is really important, because it demonstrates the potential of quantum computing, like with something so something so big and so large scale, like that, like Google. And just to clarify, I don't think that quantum supremacy, I don't think it doesn't mean that quantum computers are already to replace classical computers, but it signifies that their potential to solve problems that classical computers can't is, yeah, I
Stoney
know they do have. Right now they're they're experimenting with a hybrid quantum classical computer system, where they're using both, and that may be the bridge to the next right step. That's
Jason
what I'm saying. I think, you know, when I say 50 to 80 years, I'm talking about, you know, to a point where quantum computing is as normal and as plentiful and as scalable as what we our digital computers are today. You know, where, in essence, everybody quantum computing would be built into whatever the equivalent of a smartphone will be at that time. You know, 50 to 80 years from now, yeah. You know, we may get there faster. I think we'll have working prototypes. It won't be in the hands of everyday people, but you will have those kind of computers being utilized somewhat on a large scale. And
Ian
the thing that worries me is universities and stuff like that. The thing that worries me is that who all gets access to something like this, because I think there's a real ethical dilemma with this whole situation as well, not only impacting your personal security, but potentially breaking encryption, like we talked about earlier, how this can affect the balance of power between, like, cyber security and global security. And like, what all does that mean? Like, the implications get really, really scary, because I know how humans are, and they want their own agendas to get like, course, they have their own all like, and so I worry that, like, I. Yeah, if just Google has it, or if just the United States government, or if foreign government has sole power over this thing. Or, I don't know how that would work if qubits are the same thing in different different spaces, like, I don't know, like, how much like the human interference can
Jason
you impact? Rest assured that probably our governmental agencies, especially DoD probably has a working quantum computer. Oh yeah, I
Ian
agree, but less I'm talking about
Stoney
it. I even think after y'all were talking about, like, the little NASA thing, yeah, I'd be willing to bet they really didn't stop it. Of course not. No, I'd be willing to bet they
Ian
probably stopped whatever they were currently working on. And then they were like, well, this
Jason
becomes a, it becomes a black, black project. Oh, yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's stuffed in some other you know, that's why they can't, while the DOD has failed like seven different audits, get a gal for all the
Stoney
money. It's like when, right before the accident, when I got the new eyeballs put in, and I had these new torque lenses put in, basically. And I asked the guy, jokingly, you know, because I'm a long range shooter, a sniper, and I have that training, and I says, Well, if I could get these, and we're paying $3,500 so I can still shoot, you know, 1000 yards. How much would it cost me to shoot 2500 yards? And he goes, Oh, you're funny. You know, there's nothing out there like that. And he says, but if you wait 15 years, that technology will probably be there. And I looked at him and I said, bullshit. And I said, if I can get that technology in 10 to 15 years, that means that some M efforts walking around with it right now exactly. And he rolled his eyes and says, I don't know what you're talking about. And I said, Uh huh, see, so
Jason
it's, it's, yeah, I mean, you have to check I've been, you know, that's, I think, one of the, one of the, you know, one of the you know, things that that quantum mechanics and quantum computer can be used is it's going to be material sciences and how we how, how different things are built. Yeah, as I said, we don't really know kind of how. I mean, it's just the idea of, you know, are you kind of punching a hole in reality, so to speak, the matrix. And you're now getting this idea of simultaneous universes and that that I know that's kind of weird, and people listening to this would be kind of like, oh, Jason, you're getting kind of often off on the deep end here, and Star Trek and all these other things. But I mean, no, I mean the reality is at the quantum level, the idea of parallel realities exist. Yeah, that's Ultra
Stoney
dimensions, or even time travel. Think about this. If something can exist in two points at the same time. Well, how about this point in this point, or at this point quantum this point in this point, right?
Jason
Because quantum mechanics can be, in essence, it explores all the possibilities. That's kind of what makes it, what it does, and then that's kind of like the coin spinning in the air before it hits the ground before it's either head or tail. It could be both at the same time, yeah, so you kind of project that out and how data is, yeah. I mean, it's just to me, it could have unintended consequences, or it could produce discoveries we're not even thinking of right now, right? And that's where I think, yes,
Stoney
we're not even ready for this. We're not developing this. They're getting all this crap off of the Roswell crash, and that spaceship that they got, the CD, the all of this stuff is coming from that spaceship. They got back to Roswell. Interesting, saying that joke.
Ian
But there are people out there who believe that, actually, I stopped that, because I'm like, that's not true. The big the I think that, again, we can get to a point where we're working off, like we're working off of this, like quantum computing framework, like whenever we establish systems and all that kind of stuff, like, I know right now, we are at this kind of, like, in reference to quantum computing, this kind of, like primitive classical computing thing. And so it feels like this larger than life thing, because we're still kind of stuck in what we are honestly stuck, but we're still operating with what we currently have. But just like in with technology in the past, whenever you start having these new breakthroughs and things like that, it breaks the current system down. It changes things, it shakes it all up. And then, of course, usually new framework is built around this new thing. I think that's what's going to probably happen with this is that, and I. I think it's going to come with growing pains and with frustrations and scary security implications. But like, once the classical computing framework gets kind of like, broken down and shaken out and like, and we have like, new things that kind of work around quantum computing, I think, I think even in like, a decade from now, we could be talking a different tune from, you know, because there's like, there's theories of, like, we can have, like a quantum internet, which is like a concept that, like, you know, the whole internet framework can be, like, simultaneously communicating, you know, instantly, which is even it's crazy, like we feel that way now with like, the current Internet. But like, you know, it's not actually immediate. It's not actually and the fact that, like, having, like, a new encryption system, or new security means built upon, like a quantum computing framework to where, like, now we could have even better encryption than ever before, potentially, like, so there's like, you know, there's a lot of things that could be kind of scary about it, but there's also, like, the potential, like, the potential in the future that, like, we could have like things that are better than it ever has been before. But it's not going to be without you know. Well, even
Stoney
if it's advanced as computers are now, there's still no true multitasking, right? There's still no this is going to be the ability for multitasking, being able to do a billion trillion things all at the same time and and what I'm really sad about that is, is the one accomplishment that sleepy Joe Biden has was that he was the first person to actually be able to multitask, because he could walk up a plane, step shit on himself and fall down the steps all at the same time. But now this computer is going to take away his one claim to fame, and that really upsets me, because that was the only good thing he accomplished, was being the first person or entity to be able to multitask, and quantum computing is going to take that away from me. Well, you know, I gotta get it. Yeah, that's
Jason
so funny. You bring up Joe Biden and all this stuff. I mean, it's a funny kind of harking back to what I was talking about when I went to the presidential library. Guess what? Someone of the things with, with Al Gore, and we all remember the following. So you know, you know, maybe we're in a different a different a different time, and the technology will will be used in it for good, but we all know, in our experience, it'll probably be used for bad too. Well.
Stoney
One of the things, though, when you think about it, for it to really work, there's going to have to be a lot of things that come together. Google's not going to be able to do it by themselves. IBM is not going to be able to do it by themselves, to create it, to control it, maximize it. A lot of things are going to have to come together. What if this is the one thing that kind of pulls things and people together? Is that a possibility? And
Ian
that's what I kind of was mentioned earlier, was the fact that, like, I think it could, but then that's the that's the scary part, is that I know how humans are, and I know that I know how, how humans want to be able to own, like, with AI, everyone has their own AI system. Everyone wants to try and get their their piece of the cake. Everyone wants to try to, you know, chip in and get their own slice of it, and, you know, capitalize on their stuff. So, like, that's what I was saying, is like, maybe,
Jason
oh well, the only thing that's going to change. I mean, you would have to, I mean, society would have to be completely rearranged, right to do away with the idea of this company or that company. But right now, the the best mechanism we have to kind of drive some of this its innovation is the profit motive. So you something would have to happen in society where no longer the profit is motivating people there, they would have to be some other carrot dangling out there to provide the impetus for the best and brightest to engage in any sort of endeavor that's going to kind of push the boundaries of what we we, you know, what we do, right? So I don't know when that would happen, that whether we would have to experience some sort of, you know, our own Fermi Paradox type event, where we would society, we did have to be completely re imagined. You know, we've talked about it said the only thing that was really good ever reunite us is as human beings. It would have to be some other threat from outside that would make people put aside that kind of tribal thinking that's kind of endemic to our nature. Covidrs, where we're no longer this, or that we're human, because there's something out there that's not human, that has now made contact with us, and who knows, maybe one of the inadvertent side effects, if you want to call it that, or an inadvertent discovery, is this idea of parallel universes, and the idea that, who knows, just like I mentioned earlier with NASA, that it this could introduce us to extraterrestrial technology, right? And maybe this is what they're waiting for, is for us to reach that level where now we're interacting with them on on a dimensional level, which, you know, I find funny, because a few people that I've talked to, they have talked about, you know, extraterrestrial technology, extraterrestrial beings. They mentioned that they're dimensional. Yeah, so, you know, who knows? Maybe there is a cross there that once we kind of cross that boundary, now they're finally okay. I can talk to you. Yeah, you what? We have a language now we can, right? We can understand. Someone had
Ian
told me I had a discussion about this recently because I was also curious about that as well. We did. We were talking about, you know, communicating with other life forms and things like that. And we were talking about that I forgot. I'm not sure if it's the Fermi Paradox or what was it that? I think it's a theory that that we don't have the technology advanced stuff to be able to communicate with them at all. So, right. So if you, for instance, to kind of put it in human terms, if you were to go back to, like, the Renaissance period and try and, like, send out radio waves, like nobody would
Jason
be able to have a concept, because they would have no mechanism to be able to even understand, is
Ian
there some sort of, like higher, like extraterrestrial noise is already coming down here, coming here that is around, that is like energy. We just can't tap into it, like we could right
Stoney
dimensional stuff that Jason was talking about earlier, we could be talking to ourselves, and we just don't know it yet, right?
Jason
So that's what I'm saying. I found it funny because I remember listening to a former, you know, some of these people, these whistleblowers now that are coming out, and they talked about this extraterrestrial technology in a dimensional concept. So what is going to what? What is it going to take for us to be able to kind of bridge that, to get to a point where our machines, our ability to tap into some of this stuff, to allow us to be able to, okay, now we're hearing something, and so I just thought that was interesting to bring that up that you know, all this stuff seems to be coming together at now, kind of one time, who knows, we might be on the verge of a of a breakthrough here, whether that's good or bad, oh yeah, but like
Stoney
Ian said, that might help us just determine that something's been talking to us for 200 years, and we just don't know it, because they have all these signals coming in from space. And even with technology, NASA is going, Hey, that's something, right? We just don't know what it is, but that's something, yes,
Jason
I do, and that that's so funny, I just now just really hitting me about this dimensional aspect of some of this, supposedly tech they have recovered. We
Stoney
talked about that in one of our earlier episodes. What happens if aliens were to land on the White House lawn? Talking about that aliens may not be from another planet. What if they're dimensional? Exactly. What if? And here we go. What if the power that pushes all of that is, is the mental, how did we say that? What if it was, oh, shoot, I think it
Ian
was, like, willpower, like, emotional, like, that kind of, like, there, like, there's a lot, there's a lot of power inside the human mind, in the brain, that, I think that, like, yeah,
Jason
you only, we only tap in like, 10% of our brain, or something along those lines. I think we're, I think one of the sorry, sorry,
Ian
was consciousness based, conscious space, thank you, yeah, yeah. Let's talk about, like, your it's all kind of,
Stoney
you know, anyway, which is true. Quantum Computing is our heads,
Jason
right? Is consciousness? I mean, there's some people that supposedly their their substances that enable you to kind of go into altered states of consciousness, and supposedly they're able to interact with these beings, or whatever the case may be, whether that's true or not, who knows, but you. We may be ended up as a as a inadvertent part of pushing these boundaries of what we consider as dimensions. Who knows we may, we may break the barrier, and now we're able to to see these beings, or to interact with these beings in a way that we never would have thought. That means it all these technologies always inadvertently create something we're not even prepared. We're not prepared for, or we were never even thinking of when we were going down this road. So who knows whether this happens or not? It may or may not. But to kind of
Ian
round this out, the same way we started quantum computing, I think could potentially enhance AI systems and and by handling like immense data sets and complex, computative stuff like that. I think it could really reach something like a much bigger like I was talking about before, just like at the top of the episode. Like, I do think that, like a lot of times, technology raises the ceiling, and then we fill that gap with with this framework, like I was talking about AI was this kind of, like breakthrough technology, and we're kind of, like slowly filling that gap now where, like, we've, kind of, we now have all these AI things and all these stuff, and it feels like it's so I feel like, gosh, I knew this was happening. Media is so oversaturated with AI, art and music, and it's just it is so egregious and gross. It's everywhere now. I can't get away from it. How much AI art music is made two pages out. And I know. So I'm saying so like, and so I think that, like, if quantum computing and these AI systems are to be like, the kind of the future, I think that we're like, quantum computing is going to raise that ceiling even more. And then I think we're going to see the breaking down and restructuring of a lot of stuff. Well,
Stoney
I like how you said that. So because I was researching, you know, could quantum a I ever become uncontrollable? And theoretically, if you combine them, something could happen, okay? And you know, it learns to improve at a rate beyond human control, exactly predicts human behavior with extreme accuracy, which kind of bothers me a little bit. I was talking about that with the whole financial with the whole financial thing. But what if you're born and it starts looking at all of the stimuli in and around your life and says you're going to be a murderer. Boom, you're done. Or, right, you know, whatever. And then it becomes deeply integrated into a global network, right? Well, how does that lead toward all of this, one world government and everything else?
Ian
And that's what that's that's the implications I was talking about with it. Removes that variance, or it could potentially it removes the question of
Jason
like predictive analytics really through the room.
Stoney
However, quantum computing does not inherently create AGI or self awareness. It only makes AI computations faster. Now here's the kicker, the biggest safeguards remain, human oversight, ethical AI design and international regulations, right? Does anyone else see a problem besides me, and
Ian
that's what I was mentioning before, ethical regulation, governmental regulation, all these things that are like, all right, it sounds a lot like, it really sounds like it just is up to the discretion of the user. It is. I mean, which
Jason
is, they're, they're, believe me, they're, they're, you know, I mean, you don't stop innovation, you just hope, and I'm just hope human wisdom is not too far behind to at least check it to a degree, yeah, but I mean, the fact of the matter is, it's here, it's going to Do nothing, but grow companies are jumping on this because no one wants to be left behind. Of course, it's been, it's already been, it's already been militarized the, you know, by the time he gets to the everyday person. Yep, you know, all that stuff has been done. What was
Stoney
that movie, war games?
Ian
Well, I've seen war games, yeah? Whopper, Whopper,
Stoney
that's it. Whopper, yes, that was a great movie, if you think about for the time and every that was really ahead of its time, as far as thinking about this kind of stuff, right? Yep.
Jason
Would you like to play chess game? You know? So it is. It's. A, you know, as I said, I think it's the dimensional things that I kind of, I think that, yep, I think that's what people need to pay attention to. That is what I think is going to be groundbreaking. I'm
Ian
trying, I've been trying to keep it very down to earth with some of that, because I do think the implications that we're going to see are going to be very immediate in like the removing of, you know, the current computer framework and that kind of stuff. But I, I don't think you're wrong, though, that. I think that something that, something else out there is going to be happening this, yeah,
Jason
we're gonna, you're gonna stumble. You're gonna stumble on something that you're not planning, that no one's thinking of, but it's gonna open a gate and and because now we're getting into some real theoretical stuff. But you know, possibility, you start pushing this further and far further than you start piercing the veil. And now, you know, you know, we've always read about the multiverse, right? Here we are. So, here we are, so, but good, good stuff.
Stoney
It's gonna be interesting. Oh yeah, it's gonna be interesting. I think it's gonna
Ian
come with friction, and it's gonna come with, it's gonna, like I said before, it's gonna be hard, and we're gonna be, we're probably gonna lose valuable data and information and, you know, in the process of breaking down one system to construct a new one. But right? I think it's gonna be good, though, yeah, in the long run. Well,
Jason
as I said, I mean, it's, I'm not afraid of tech. I've never been among these people to it's, it's what it is. And then, as I said, I hope that ultimately, our tech eventually gets to a point where it actually enhances human life, right? Enhances our living experience, and I do think they possibly solve a lot of issues that we have now, you know, of course, how anything is used, right? It's will have to be governed, right, and we'll have to be rules set up to kind of keep it, but you know, it's you're not going to stop, you know, things like that. So it's just going to happen. And the only thing that's going to stop this stuff is if we encounter our own Fermi paradox. All right.
Ian
Well, with that being said, we would love to hear what you guys think about this. I know this is a rather big topic. They call it could be fun and scary and serious and all the different kinds
Stoney
of I'm glad you kind of said that I'd love to hear from Do you think it's going to be fun, or do you think it's going to be scary? I think, what are your real thought? I mean, yeah, when, when you hear in this episode and some of the stuff that's kind of in the news and the magazines. What is this really meaning to you? Yeah, that's what I want to know. How, how does it how do you think this is going to affect our day to day life, right? Because right now, that's what people are really working, yeah. And then I'll leave you with this thought, what if Doge had access to a quantum computer? How much waste could they find
Jason
they're finding a lot of ways without it, yeah, can
Stoney
you imagine if they had a quantum computer on their hands? Yeah.
Ian
Well, as per usual, you can reach out to us and all the comments. Sorry,
Stoney
guys, I don't mean that. No, no, I gotta stick it in there. Sorry, it's all good, all the comment
Ian
sections and all the different platforms that you can reach out to us. Let us know what you think, Subscribe and Like where you can with an email address, get infinite together@gmail.com,
Stoney
still got your website at the retrospect podcast.com hit
Ian
us up. We're here. We appreciate you listening, and until next week,
Jason
bye, bye, Goodbye, everyone. God bless.
Stoney
Please share us with somebody this week. Let your friends and family know what you're listening to, even if you don't like it. Let them know, because maybe they'll, they'll hate it, hate us with agree with you, or they'll love us, but let us know what you're thinking, too. Thanks for hanging out with us today. You are the best. Peace.