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[john37]

So I have a few questions about Quantum Computing. I just got finished reading the book Hacking Matter and the author did an excellent job of explaining what a quantum computer was and why it was so impressive. it was the first time I really understood what the deal was about. But in all my reading on the subject since, it seems like virtually every example of why a Q-Computer is helpful involves code breaking. But what else is it good for? Is it only good for testing out combinations at a super fast rate? It has to be useful for more than that since everything I have read about it makes it seem like one of the holy grails of computer science.

I realize my question is pretty basic, but I'm not so good at technical math/computer stuff. I'm just a science fiction fan waiting for reality to catch up

Secondly, if a human being's brain was turned into a powerful quantum computer--say a number of q-terabytes equal to their IQ, what could that brain do and how much could it store--how much more powerful than a normal brain would it be? I ask because of a science fiction short story I am thinking about and I would like to have some sort of frame of reference if its at all possible.

Thanks.

[Andrew Shevchuk]

I am not familiar with the details, but it is conjectured that the proposed qubit-based quantum computers are all Turing-reducible. This means that anything a qubit-based quantum computer can do a classical computer can also do, only much slower. In this sense a quantum computer reduces the effective complexity class of certain problems through a parallel-processing-like approach (superposition of states), but it can't solve any new types of problems. Perhaps a different design (non-qubit based) could do so, although I don't know how much progress there is on that front.

This would only make our brains faster, not smarter. Intelligence is not directly proportional to computational power, but dependent upon the algorithm. The potential to improve our intelligence on a short timescale would explode, though.

Just my two cents.