The Uses of Higher Mathematics: Quantum Computing

D•Wave computerRecently, Charlie Rose told us on PBS about a new scientific development, with an important Canadian involvement.

This is it.

The D-Wave Two isn’t just faster than other computers; it’s the first commercially available quantum computer, which uses the fundamental principles of physics to solve problems in a completely different way. By exploiting the strange mathematical properties that reign at the subatomic level, D-Wave’s chip is theoretically able to do more calculations, faster, than any comparable computer chip that currently exists. If it works, it stands to revolutionize computing; but getting the concept off the drawing board is no easy matter.

Raymond Laflamme, director of the University of Waterloo’s Institute of Quantum Computing, says we are on the cusp of another computing revolution, with quantum computing enabling everything from more accurate weather forecasts to advanced artificial intelligence. “Today, we’re looking at a small piece of a door that is wide open,” he says. “Will the impact of quantum computing equal that of the advancements of the last 50 years? My gut feeling is yes.”

Source: Canadian Business, October 4, 2025

About these ads

One response to “The Uses of Higher Mathematics: Quantum Computing

  1. Quantum computing may hold the promise equivalent to landing on cloud nine. Getting there is no easy matter.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s