The Narrative Fallacy writes “Scott Aaronson has posted a draft of his article from this month’s Scientific American on the limitations of quantum computers (PDF) discussing the question: Will quantum personal let us transcend the human condition and become as powerful as gods, or are they a physical absurdity destined to be exposed as the twenty-first century’s perpetual-motion machine? Aaronson states that while a quantum computer could quickly factor massive numbers, and thereby break most of the cryptographic codes used on the Internet this day, there’s reason to think that not even a quantum computer could solve the crucial class of NP-complete problems efficiently. Aaronson contends that any method for solving NP-complete problems in polynomial time might violate the laws of physics and that this might be a fundamental limitation on technology no different than the second law of thermodynamics or the impossibility of faster-than-light communication.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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