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1. 0xff00+(OP)[view] [source] 2020-04-27 02:55:19
Short answer: there isn't an easy answer. Yet. (Give QC another 50 years).

Proof? Just look at all the replies you got: each one is dozens of pages of complex (imaginary) math, control theory, and statistics.

The hardest part of QC is exactly what you described: how to extract the answer. There is no algorithm, per se. You build the system to solve the problem.

This is why QC is not a general purpose strategy: a quantum computer won't run Ubuntu, but it will be one superfast prime factoring coprocessor, for example (or pathfinder, or root solver). You literally have to build an entire machine to solve just one problem, like factoring.

Look at Shor's algorithm: it has a classical algorithm and then a QC "coprocessor" part (think of that like an FPU looking up a transcendental from a ROM: it appears the FPU is computing sin(), but it is not, it is doing a lookup... just an analogy). The entire QC side is custom built just to do this one task:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor%27s_algorithm

In this example he factors 15 into 5x3, and the QC part requires FFTs and Tensor math. Oy!

Like I said, it will take decades for this to become easier to explain.

For fun, look at the gates we're dealing with, like "square root of not": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_logic_gate

replies(1): >>izuchu+Je1
2. izuchu+Je1[view] [source] 2020-04-27 16:16:35
>>0xff00+(OP)
This feels like the high-level missing piece in my understanding of its use. Do you know any resources that expand on QC’s effective potential more from this point of view?
replies(2): >>0xff00+OF1 >>rootbi+Ho7
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3. 0xff00+OF1[view] [source] [discussion] 2020-04-27 19:09:39
>>izuchu+Je1
Sorry, I do not.
replies(1): >>izuchu+pp4
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4. izuchu+pp4[view] [source] [discussion] 2020-04-28 17:27:07
>>0xff00+OF1
All good. I appreciate the perspective you’ve given!
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5. rootbi+Ho7[view] [source] [discussion] 2020-04-29 16:14:43
>>izuchu+Je1
IMO one of the effective potential of a QC is `Secure Encrypted communications`. There is a research project named QUESS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Experiments_at_Space_S...).

This project involves a minisatellite (capable of generating entangled photons in space) to establish a space platform with long-distance satellite and ground quantum channel, and to carry out a series of tests about fundamental quantum principles and protocols in space-based large scale

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