Can the omniscient quantum computer in Wandering Earth 2 be realized
Remember the MOSS in the first part of "Wandering Earth"? This is already a self-aware machine, in view of the hopelessness of the Earth, choose to drive the space station to escape, so Liu Peiqiang and its heated argument. By the second part of "Wandering Earth", the mystery of MOSS was finally unveiled, it is actually an intelligent quantum computer 550W.
As the "black technology" throughout the film "Wandering Earth 2", the quantum computer can achieve the fusion and scheduling of complex computing resources around the world, to meet the collaborative operation of tens of thousands of planetary engines, to support the huge amount of computing power required by the "Digital Life Project", and even develop It has even developed an autonomous consciousness and values. In the film, the quantum computer is almost an omniscient machine.
In addition to its appearance in Wandering Earth 2, quantum computers were also featured on the cover of Time magazine, in a cover article [1] in which author Charlie Campbell describes how quantum computers will change the world. But the article sparked discontent among industry insiders, with quantum information science pioneer John Preskill saying that it is exciting to discuss quantum science and technology accurately and responsibly. It is disappointing that Time has published such a misleading article.
What is the misleading content?
Regarding the content of quantum computers, this article is mostly correct, with two main points of contention.
Quantum computing is a technology that is set to transform pretty much everything, and the unique ability of quantum computers to process massive amounts of data is (already) beginning to optimize the routes of thousands of tankers around the world, help decide which ICU patients need the most urgent care, and simulate chemical processes at the atomic level to better design new materials ......
The industry uses of quanta are boundless. But later on, the authors do not mention the argument that "the uses of quanta are limitless", but only use the BMW Group as an example. BMW says, "The powerful simulation of crash tests (by quantum computers) can save up to six months in the process. Quantum computing will also help us find a new optimum between design, maximum interior space and optimal aerodynamics."
The optimization and simulation problems mentioned in these contents are indeed areas in which quantum computers excel, but some of the extreme terms used by the authors everything, already and boundless make the industry uneasy, as describing quantum computers as a kind of all-powerful machine is not conducive to the development of the field. For optimization, simulation, and other problems, although quantum computers are expected to be far superior to classical computers, they are not yet, at least for now, already, much less boundless; and the use of classical computers may still be preferable in some areas in the future. Therefore, it is reasonable to comment that this article is misleading.
What is the relationship with Wandering Earth?
The reason why the TIME article and "Wandering Earth 2" are linked together is that they both convey to the viewer or reader the idea that quantum computers are omnipotent. But at least from the current trajectory of development, this is not possible.
Quantum computers are not omnipotent; one, they are not necessary, and two, they cannot be done.
Can you imagine a quantum computer appearing in an elementary school classroom for quadratic operations? Or running your Word document in a quantum computer? These are not necessary, and it is unlikely that quantum computers will dabble in areas where classical quantum computers are currently good, because it is difficult to make big gains in efficiency.
On the other hand, there are indeed things that quantum computers cannot do. As shown in the figure below, in computational science, all computational problems can be divided into decidable and undecidable problems [2].
Computers are capable of solving only decidable classes of problems, that is, computable problems. There are three important broad classes of these. One class is P problems, which can be solved within polynomial complexity using Turing machines, and are therefore efficiently computable by conventional computers, such as sorting problems.
The second category is NP problems, which are of uncertain polynomial complexity and are good for verification but not necessarily good for solution. p problems are included in NP problems, and quantum computers are meant to solve those computational problems beyond p, such as the prime factorization corresponding to Shor's algorithm.
Another class of NP problems are NP-complete problems, which have exponentially increasing computational complexity, including the very classical maximum cut problem, travel quotient problem, etc. Quantum computing is currently seen to be unable to solve these problems efficiently.
Therefore, it is likely that quantum computing will not be able to solve all problems efficiently.
Back to "Wandering Earth 2", the coordination of the quantum computer for the planetary engine belongs to a kind of optimization problem, which is indeed in the scope of quantum computer can solve the problem, but the question is, by around 2050 in the film, can the quantum computer provide so much arithmetic power? As for autonomous consciousness, instead of saying that 550W is a quantum computer, it should be a kind of super artificial intelligence. Assuming that such a powerful machine can be realized in the future, it is not the work of quantum computers alone.
What is 550W a quantum computer?
Finally, let's talk about a few interesting points in the movie. But anyone who knows anything about quantum computers should know that there are many physical implementations of quantum computers, superconductors, optical quanta, ion traps, neutral atoms, etc. So which one is the quantum computer of "Wandering Earth 2"?
Some people say it is light quantum, because among these routes, light quantum is the most likely to achieve a portable quantum computer. Others say it is superconducting. For example, Yin Zhangqi, a professor at the School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, wrote in Zhihu, "After watching the movie again, I found a shot of Mazhao developing an intelligent quantum computer 550W with a huge dilute cooling machine behind him, similar to a superconducting quantum computer. If such a setting is accepted, then the handheld device in the movie is just a terminal interface, and ultimately the quantum computing hardware in the dilution cooler will have to do the calculations."
But in fact there are other possibilities, because the use of dilution refrigeration machine is not the only superconducting, semiconductor quantum computers and even topological quantum computers that have not yet appeared, may be used. If we were to give director Guo Fan advice, the next "Wandering Earth" could be set up as a hybrid system of quantum computers, for example, combining the advantages of superconductivity's fast gate, light's communication advantages and the advantages of other systems.
In addition, 550W uses a lot of artificial intelligence technology, the name "intelligent quantum computer" is enough to explain.
[1]https://time.com/6249784/quantum-computing-revolution/
[2]https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-CxGXfciTHSfi2PLOGmRaA
