Think of it like Newton's cradle, how one ball swings and hits the group but they dont move, and then the ball on the other end swings out.... like that, but with light particles.
to understand this, you must understand quantum computing (and what we have in its stead at the moment). This will take a while, but ill try and keep it simple!
At the moment, computers work using binary. binary is a type of machine code that depicts 1's and 0's for information. for example, to say 123, you would use 1111011. These 1's and 0's are basically microscopic (depending on weather or not your using a 0-20 year old processor) electrical logic gates, called transistors, which are switches which activate when current is ran through them. This is called data and data is stored in your memory etc etc.
The bane of binary is that these 1's and 0's can only be 1's and 0's. Which means a load of them would be used. eight of these characters represents one byte. Which means in a full 1TB Hard drive there are 1000000000000 bytes times that by 8 and that's approx 8x10¹² 1's and 0's. Which is a lot of code.
But what if i told you that there was an alternative?
Instead of using Binary, where your limited to a primitive Boolean statement from 1679, which is still used today 327 years later. We used photons, electrons or any molecular thing to run our code with 4 to 5x more efficiency. This is possible due to quantum superposition and quantum entanglement.
From my 14 y/o knowledge, quantum entanglement and quantum superposition work hand in hand and ill try to describe this to the best of my knowledge! First of all, quantum superposition is the idea that a particle/atom can be exited (high energy, but its easier to explain using emotion as a template) and also not exited at the same time, it also suggests that it can be in two places at once, etc. However when observed only one of the two states is randomly 'shown'. We know this is real due to something involving shoving an electromagnetic wave into the particle and that both can be read, which starts to sound like binary with particles, except that a particle can be more than just two things at a time... starting to sound familiar to the 4 to 5x more efficient bit? Anyway, these quantum states can be added together to create another valid quantum state and that any quantum state can be traced to the sum of two other quantum states (Here + there = somewhere else; somewhere else = here + there, you get me?). On its own, its not enough to understand quantum computing. However everything changes when we introduce quantum entanglement.
quantum entanglement is when a group of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle can't be described independently of each other, no matter how much distance is between them. This means that the quantum state must be measured by the system as a whole. To understand this, think of it as if two protons were described as having zero spin, and one was found to actually have a clockwise spin on one axis, the other particle would have a counter-clockwise spin on the exact same axis. However, as they can't be described as different, a paradoxical effect is created. So the only way that this is possible is that the proton must somehow 'know' that it's being measured no matter the distance, amount of mass separating them or even if its on the entire opposite side of the universe, the other particle will have an acting effect on the other one, even closing entire quantum states. Which basically means that they are linked in some magical way that (I at least think) we don't fully understand. This is called the EPR paradox.
Ok, Now how do we use this in computers?
Well, we use the different states of each particle, read them with a laser/whatever and turn their states into code, for example, an amount of data would be carried by these particles, given a number, i.e 1-8 and be turned into a more complex, but more efficient and quicker to process form of binary due to the fact that a couple hundred bytes could be represented by 50 or less particles, since they can be more than one state. We then manipulate these particles to edit stored data! this decreases the size of a chunk of data by a long shot, Simple! (except, its really not. Read up on it here if you want, but its quite baffling, and 10x more longer than that bit we just covered. But this should cover the basics and is pretty much all you need to know!)
Now, (finally) onto this quantum internet.
From the looks of things, this works by using two (or many more) entangled light particles, that can be read over massive distance (as we just covered), and measures its rotation, bearing etc (btw i forgot to cover that its not just rotation that can be read by a computer, it can be a load of things i.e bearing!). and applies the opposite of its readings to receive the data and turn it into the display from the other computer's particle! Which creates seemingly bafflingly fast internet speeds and no need for the sending of packets using electrical cables or satellites, because the data seems to teleport due to this mysterious connection between the particles!
Hope this clears things up for you, but if it didn't, feel free to ask me any questions and ill try to answer to the best of my knowledge!
Think of it like Newton's cradle, how one ball swings and hits the group but they dont move, and then the ball on the other end swings out.... like that, but with light particles.
except instead of swinging and impacting it, it already is moving as soon as you see that the other ones moving, not before, and not after. so its moving if you want it to move, but only in the opposite direction the other balls moving in!
I teach avionics to students and the electromagnetic spectrum plays a heavy role into most avionics on any aircraft. You seem pretty intelligible regarding technology and science, what do you do Snakey? You have gained my interest.
to understand this, you must understand quantum computing (and what we have in its stead at the moment). This will take a while, but ill try and keep it simple!
At the moment, computers work using binary. binary is a type of machine code that depicts 1's and 0's for information. for example, to say 123, you would use 1111011. These 1's and 0's are basically microscopic (depending on weather or not your using a 0-20 year old processor) electrical logic gates, called transistors, which are switches which activate when current is ran through them. This is called data and data is stored in your memory etc etc.
The bane of binary is that these 1's and 0's can only be 1's and 0's. Which means a load of them would be used. eight of these characters represents one byte. Which means in a full 1TB Hard drive there are 1000000000000 bytes times that by 8 and that's approx 8x10¹² 1's and 0's. Which is a lot of code.
But what if i told you that there was an alternative?
Instead of using Binary, where your limited to a primitive Boolean statement from 1679, which is still used today 327 years later. We used photons, electrons or any molecular thing to run our code with 4 to 5x more efficiency. This is possible due to quantum superposition and quantum entanglement.
From my 14 y/o knowledge, quantum entanglement and quantum superposition work hand in hand and ill try to describe this to the best of my knowledge! First of all, quantum superposition is the idea that a particle/atom can be exited (high energy, but its easier to explain using emotion as a template) and also not exited at the same time, it also suggests that it can be in two places at once, etc. However when observed only one of the two states is randomly 'shown'. We know this is real due to something involving shoving an electromagnetic wave into the particle and that both can be read, which starts to sound like binary with particles, except that a particle can be more than just two things at a time... starting to sound familiar to the 4 to 5x more efficient bit? Anyway, these quantum states can be added together to create another valid quantum state and that any quantum state can be traced to the sum of two other quantum states (Here + there = somewhere else; somewhere else = here + there, you get me?). On its own, its not enough to understand quantum computing. However everything changes when we introduce quantum entanglement.
quantum entanglement is when a group of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle can't be described independently of each other, no matter how much distance is between them. This means that the quantum state must be measured by the system as a whole. To understand this, think of it as if two protons were described as having zero spin, and one was found to actually have a clockwise spin on one axis, the other particle would have a counter-clockwise spin on the exact same axis. However, as they can't be described as different, a paradoxical effect is created. So the only way that this is possible is that the proton must somehow 'know' that it's being measured no matter the distance, amount of mass separating them or even if its on the entire opposite side of the universe, the other particle will have an acting effect on the other one, even closing entire quantum states. Which basically means that they are linked in some magical way that (I at least think) we don't fully understand. This is called the EPR paradox.
Ok, Now how do we use this in computers?
Well, we use the different states of each particle, read them with a laser/whatever and turn their states into code, for example, an amount of data would be carried by these particles, given a number, i.e 1-8 and be turned into a more complex, but more efficient and quicker to process form of binary due to the fact that a couple hundred bytes could be represented by 50 or less particles, since they can be more than one state. We then manipulate these particles to edit stored data! this decreases the size of a chunk of data by a long shot, Simple! (except, its really not. Read up on it here if you want, but its quite baffling, and 10x more longer than that bit we just covered. But this should cover the basics and is pretty much all you need to know!)
Now, (finally) onto this quantum internet.
From the looks of things, this works by using two (or many more) entangled light particles, that can be read over massive distance (as we just covered), and measures its rotation, bearing etc (btw i forgot to cover that its not just rotation that can be read by a computer, it can be a load of things i.e bearing!). and applies the opposite of its readings to receive the data and turn it into the display from the other computer's particle! Which creates seemingly bafflingly fast internet speeds and no need for the sending of packets using electrical cables or satellites, because the data seems to teleport due to this mysterious connection between the particles!
Hope this clears things up for you, but if it didn't, feel free to ask me any questions and ill try to answer to the best of my knowledge!
I teach avionics to students and the electromagnetic spectrum plays a heavy role into most avionics on any aircraft. You seem pretty intelligible regarding technology and science, what do you do Snakey? You have gained my interest.
Einstein described Quantum Physics as "Spooky action at a distance."
@Snakey has done a pretty good job of the overall concept, but to bring it to a tl;dr that TEST can understand:
Imagine two steins of beer. They're opaque, so you have to open the lid to see if there's anything in it. If you open the lid, then that stein will always exist in that state, unless otherwise acted upon (i.e. filling it with beer). HOWEVER, the OTHER stein is entangled with the first stein on the quantum level. If you open one stein and find it empty, the other stein MUST be full, because what is true for one, the opposite is true for the other.
Quantum computing relies on the superposition of steins... er, atoms. When these are entangled, you can theoretically send and receive data from across the universe instantaneously (see the Quantum communication device from ME2). While exciting, the issue for us, now, becomes how to actually manipulate the spin and orientation of atoms once we've entangled them.
It sounds like we're making progress in this, though.
And, for the record, while D:Wave is making some pretty cool stuff, but the current academic assessment is that their claims are a bit dubious and based on misunderstanding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Wave_Systems#Reception
