The Importance of Quantum Computing

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

If quantum computers are so sophisticated and they created something like a holodeck, how would I know? Well, if you take a look at how many states that you can compute, okay, the states of an ordinary digital computer is up and down. In the quantum theory, each atom in your room can exist in multiple states. While your quantum computer only exists in a subset of those atoms. Your living room is much bigger than that. As a consequence, your quantum computer does not have enough states by which to count how many states there are in your living room. Even a quantum computer cannot determine the future exactly.

The quantum computer, which harnesses the power and complexity of the atomic realm, promises to be every bit as revolutionary as the transistor and microchip once were. Its unprecedented gains in computing power herald advancements that could change every aspect of our daily lives. There is not a single problem humanity faces that couldn’t be addressed by quantum computing.

Shermer and Kaku discuss: AI, GPT, sentience/consciousness, the end of humanity • decoherence • Uncertainty Principle • multiverse, parallel universes, and Many Worlds hypothesis • Einstein • the evolution of the computer • the origin of life • climate change solutions • feeding 10 billion people • gene editing • curing cancer • immortality • simulating the universe • UAPs and UFOs • chaos theory and indeterminism • Are we living in a simulation? • Is there a God? • the end of science?

Michio Kaku is the co-founder of String Field Theory and is the Henry Semat Professor in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York. He graduated with a BA from Harvard and a PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. He has hosted several TV specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery Channel, and the Science Channel. He hosts two national science radio shows, Exploration and Science Fantastic. He is the author of numerous New York Timesbestselling books including: The God Equation, The Future of the Mind, The Future of Humanity, Physics of the Future, Hyperspace, Parallel Worlds, Physics of the Impossible, and Beyond Einstein. His new book is Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything.