I’ve been using ChatGPT for a while to learn about programming, however most of what I want to learn has changed since the original dataset was created for ChatGPT, so it gives me outdated answers on some things involving Flutter and Dart language.
I’ve always wondered about Quantum Computing, because it was never explained to me in a satisfactory way. I even watched a few nice YouTube videos about it like this one:
“Explaining Quantum Computing at 5 different Education Levels”
What tends to happen in human explanations is that they have to decide what assumptions are reasonable for the listener, and then they tend to over-generalize.
Similarly, ChatGPT’s default answer glossed over some of the computational mechanisms in place, leaving me wanting. I asked it to elaborate in a more mathematical explanation. It misunderstood what I meant, because I didn’t want it to rephrase anything but simply plugin math to the existing explanation, but it rephrased everything in a mathematical way (which is admittedly wordy and over-jargony in some parts)—but its answer provided what I needed to get a sense of the computational strategy involved in Quantum Computing.
So, as a spoiler: it turns out that quantum computing (somehow, still not sure how) follows multiple computational paths, calculating the result of every combination of input variables (qubits, which can be either 0 or 1 and are not decided until the algorithm actually grabs the value of the variable–the universe itself decides the value of the qubits based on the probability of it being either 0 or 1, so even if there was a 0.1% chance of a qubit being 1, it could, theoretically, roll a 1 when it executes).
Quantum computing is a probabilistic way of modeling decision structures, which is actually a very human way to conceptualize information processing. We are not consistent. Our brains produce different answers depending on all kinds of variables, such as how tired we are, or whether our brain cell spontaneously apoptosized (died via apoptosis), and what mood we’re in.
Here is the conversation I had with ChatGPT:
(apparently, WordPress does not support showing long images in a page at native resolution. “Even in the future, nothing works!” I had to use a 3rd party plugin called SiteOrigin to get an alternate page designer so I could forcefully insert this image at full size and resolution. This is what we in the business call “retarded”.)
Aside from the sheer fantasy of the endless possibilities that are attainable with parallel processing capabilities such as these, it is exciting and frightening to know that our password safety and internet reliability could easily be compromised as soon as these Quantum computers become commodity items for the average home user. –But, by then, I am sure eventually the entanglement properties of Qubits will be harnessed in a way that provides true privacy, and a private Entangled Qubit will be issued for everyone who operates an internet-connected device. It will likely be the case that every device and every router we purchase will have a Quantum network card inside of it that has had 1/2 of a set of entangled Qubits baked into it, with the other half of the set provided to a central Internet hub. This will make our internet infrastructure much simpler, but it will also make it much easier for criminals to know where to place their efforts: compromising the device, or alternately, compromising the central internet hub! And, if the central internet hub ever comes under attack via an electrical outage, or some other weapon, we can kiss our devices goodbye–we will have to buy a new one, or buy a new entangled Qubit card. –For this matter, it may end up being such that our internet services are distributed on a Quantum “SIM” card–if you can even call it that. Maybe a QIM card!