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Q&A: Adam Frank, astrophysicist, on computing's next revolution

Great article, Christie!
The last two sentences makes me wonder if "we the people" will ever see the full potential at work.

Nice interview. I especially enjoyed Adam Frank's simplified explanations of quantum computing and its fundamental idea of superposition. Although quantum computing is an exciting prospect, we still have a long, long way to go to overcome the practical challenges of actually constructing a useable quantum computer. As Frank alluded to in the interview, it is extremely difficult to maintain the quantum state of coherence required for quantum computing.

So, don't expect to be waiting in line outside your local Apple store for a quantum computer any time soon.

This explains the on and off to simplify it for some. Is the glass half full or half empty? When it is actually Both!

i'm not sure of the accuracy of half full/half m t analogy but the line in the middle of the glass seems to put the picture into sharper focus for one struggling with the concept.

Follow the link to see where our increased computing power and the interenet of things is taking us:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57559602-1/flush-with-your-smartphone-toilets-get-bluetooth/?bcsi-ac-AB21A726D5A3213D=1FB21DF4000001053dRNdjMwgYtgy0LaKRDDxrFcSvRKAAAABQEAAAtURACAcAAAAAAAAAlsAAA=

It should be "vial", but one does love the poetry of "vile of poison"!

The presumption seems to be that quantum computers will be able to think rather than compute. To make choices from the selection of their own sets of "preselected for their possibilities" options, in addition to being able to continually reexamine these options from their own and ongoing self educating experiences, as we do.
My presumption is that such a computer might do a lot more to help us think, but thinking on its own won't be what we've been, or will continue to be, calling thinking.

Something that holds this type of power just may force the Human Race out of our Infancy, if it does not, surely we are doomed.

"A lot has changed in the past three hundred years. People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of things. We've eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions. We've grown out of our infancy. " Captain Jean Luc Picard

I have been a fan of Sir Roger Penrose for many years. He was the first scientist to say that consciousness should be found in the quantum field rather than in the brain. I am so much a fan, that I made my own theory out of the idea that consciousness might be explained through a better understanding of antimatter and parallel universes.

My idea is that antimatter is the mirror of this universe, and that antimatter might be where memory is located.

I think that the subconscious mind and consciousness are located in parallel universes in the form of antimatter. That makes the spirit and maybe even God all physical, so basically I could be said to be an atheist, even though I consider myself spiritual.

If you would like to know more, then you can watch a full videopresentation of my theory on my blog:

www.crestroy.com

To follow up on some other comments, are we talking decades or centuries before this might be feasible? The implication in the article is that it is fairly near (ten to twenty years, is my impression). But, that doesn't seem realistic, given how dramatic the change would be.