Impact Quantum: A Podcast for the Quantum Curious

In this episode, Frank and Andy speak with Lynn Langit and her journey from developer to quantum developer.

This episode is entitled "Developing for Quantum Computing" and is rated three Schroedingers, but don't let that scare you off.

• GitHub 'learning-quantum' -- https://github.com/lynnlangit/learning-quantum
• YouTube bookclub playlist -- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIrLpelK7F7-pGGMKph7dHuJWwEswnXOc
• O'Reilly Book -- https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/programming-quantum-computers/9781492039679/]
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/lynnlangit

In this episode, Frank speaks with Andre Koenig.

Andre is an author, entrepreneur and an Investor in Quantum Technolgies.

This episode is entitled "The many inflection points of quantum technologies" and is rated two Schroedingers.

Thanks for listening to Impact Quantum.

In this episode, Frank and Andy welcome Brian Lenahan to the show. .

Brian is Founder & Chair of the Quantum Strategy Institute, a collaboration of quantum experts and enthusiasts from around the globe enabling business to understand the technology, its potential and its practical applications.

This episode is entitled "Quantum is Here" and is rated one Schroedinger.

Brian's book "Quantum Boost"

https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Boost-Computing-Supercharge-Business-ebook/dp/B08W8P1BRJ

Quantum Strategy Institute

https://quantumstrategyinstitute.com/

In this episode, Frank and Andy welcome our first guest to the show.

Dr Mark Jackson is a Quantum Evangelist at Cambridge Quantum Computing, which may just be the best job title I have ever heard.

This episode is entitled "What and Why Quantum Computing?" and is rated one and a half Schroedingers. It could be 2 Schroedingers or just one. You will have to observe the entire episode to collapse the wave function.

Cambridge Quantum Computing

https://cambridgequantum.com/

00:00:00 BAILey 

Hello and welcome to impact quantum. 

00:00:02 BAILey 

A podcast about quantum computing for developers and engineers. 

00:00:06 BAILey 

In this episode, Frank and Andy welcome our first guest to the show. 

00:00:11 BAILey 

Doctor Mark Jackson is a quantum evangelist at Cambridge Quantum Computing, which may just be the best job title I have ever heard. 

00:00:19 BAILey 

This episode is entitled what and why Quantum Computing and is rated 1 1/2 Schrodinger's. 

00:00:26 BAILey 

It could be. 

00:00:27 BAILey 

Two Schrodinger's or just one. 

00:00:29 BAILey 

You will have to observe the entire episode to collapse the wavefunction. 

00:00:33 BAILey 

Now on. 

00:00:34 BAILey 

With the show. 

00:00:36 BAILey 

But first, here's some dubstep. 

00:00:47 Frank 

Hello and welcome to impact quantum. 

00:00:51 Frank 

The podcast where we. 

00:00:52 Frank 

Explore this new. 

00:00:53 Frank 

Field of quantum computing from an engineer's perspective. Maybe you're a software engineer. Maybe you're a data engineer. 

00:00:59 Frank 

But you keep hearing about this thing called quantum computing, which is going to change everything. 

00:01:04 Frank 

And I happen to believe that it will change everything, and to that end I. 

00:01:07 Frank 

Hey I have my trusty co-host from data driven. 

00:01:11 Frank 

With me Andy Leonard. 

00:01:12 Andy 

Hey Frank, thanks for for bringing me along as folks will quickly learn, you know way more about quantum computing. 

00:01:20 Andy 

Than I do. 

00:01:21 Andy 

So I guess I'm just here for my pretty faves. 

00:01:24 Frank 

Of course, of course we are. 

00:01:25 Frank 

Actually recording this in video on teams, but come with me with us for the first time in impact quantum history. 

00:01:33 Frank 

We have a guest and it's Doctor Mark Jackson. 

00:01:36 Frank 

Uh, who has probably the coolest job title I have heard in about a decade or two? 

00:01:43 Frank 

Welcome to the show. 

00:01:43 Frank 

Mark, you're our first guest ever. 

00:01:45 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Thank you Frank. 

00:01:46 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Thank you Andy. 

00:01:47 Dr. Mark Jackson 

It's great to be here. 

00:01:49 Frank 

Uh, so as Andy said, you know, I do. 

00:01:52 Frank 

When I you know I would use the term knows more as a very relative term part of the if you're listening to the show and you've listened to the archives. 

00:02:01 Frank 

Part of the reason why we haven't had a lot of shows is because I really kind of hit my cerebral limit at the time to talk about so. 

00:02:09 Frank 

Given that quantum is still a relatively new field and there's a shortage of experts in the field, but I think you know we were. 

00:02:17 Frank 

I was blessed to get in contact with Mark where we can talk about kind of this with an expert because he's a quantum evangelist. 

00:02:27 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Yes, it's a. 

00:02:28 Dr. Mark Jackson 

It's a pleasure to be here and I am Cambridge, quantum quantum evangelist. 

00:02:33 Dr. Mark Jackson 

I'm glad you like my title. 

00:02:34 Dr. Mark Jackson 

It's it's pretty unique. 

00:02:36 Frank 

That is very cool. 

00:02:37 Frank 

Uhm so So what? 

00:02:39 Frank 

You know, what does a First off? 

00:02:41 Frank 

How did you get into quantum? 

00:02:43 Frank 

What's your background? 

00:02:44 Frank 

Is your background in quantum physics? 

00:02:46 Frank 

Or computing or. 

00:02:46 Dr. Mark Jackson 

My background is in yes, so my background is actually in superstring theory, if you're. 

00:02:51 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Familiar with that? 

00:02:53 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Yeah, for 15 years I did that. 

00:02:54 Dr. Mark Jackson 

I earned my pH. 

00:02:56 Dr. Mark Jackson 

In string theory from Columbia University under the supervision of Brian Greene, who you might recognize. 

00:03:02 Dr. Mark Jackson 

And then I did it. 

00:03:02 Frank 

In fact, he's the one. 

00:03:03 Frank 

Who's documentaries on string theory I I do enjoy? 

00:03:07 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Yes, I I'm actually in that, uh, I have a very brief cameo. 

00:03:10 Dr. Mark Jackson 

I was a student and and half my face is in it for. 

00:03:13 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Half a second. 

00:03:14 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Oh, very cool, very cool. 

00:03:16 Frank 

That's awesome, you're real selected. 

00:03:18 Dr. Mark Jackson 

So, uh, so, so yes, that was my moment of fame. 

00:03:21 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Uh, back when I was a grad student and so then I I did research in that area for about 10 years and I briefly did a tech startup doing scientific fund raising before I returned to teaching at Singularity. 

00:03:32 Dr. Mark Jackson 

University and that was where I first started hearing about quantum computing. This would be around 2016. 

00:03:40 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Uh so so. Quantum computing only existed academically when I was a student, and so I rarely heard anything at all about it and it was in 2016 people started talking about quantum computing, being commercially feasible, and I thought this was amazing because it was all the things that I I loved about physics. 

00:03:59 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Superposition and entanglement and all these crazy physics concepts. 

00:04:03 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Uhm they they started saying they could actually build machines and do this for you. 

00:04:08 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Whole things, and I thought that was amazing. 

00:04:10 Dr. Mark Jackson 

And so I started trying to get into the field. 

00:04:13 Dr. Mark Jackson 

I was giving presentations about quantum computing to executives, but I felt sort of like a cheerleader on the sides. 

00:04:20 Dr. Mark Jackson 

I actually wanted to be doing it, not just talking about it, and so I tried to get into. 

00:04:24 Dr. Mark Jackson 

The field. 

00:04:25 Dr. Mark Jackson 

And it was a bit frustrating because I didn't. 

00:04:28 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Have a background in quantum computing and I didn't know too many people in it, but I was very lucky that a friend of mine, a math professor at Berkeley where I was living. 

00:04:37 Dr. Mark Jackson 

He made an introduction to our CEO. 

00:04:40 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Ilyas Khan and it was very well timed because Cambridge Quantum was about three years old and everyone at the time was in the UK. 

00:04:51 Dr. Mark Jackson 

As the name might suggest, were basically virgins like. 

00:04:53 Frank 

Yeah, wasn't shared with Cambridge, England or Cambridge. 

00:04:55 Frank 

Massachusetts 'cause it could go either way. 

00:04:58 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Yeah, it's it's actually the old school, Cambridge, our company Origin story is is quite amazing. Ileus was chairman of the Stephen Hawking Foundation and in in 2014 Hawking told him I think quantum computing is going to take off. You should get into this business and so that's how we started because of Stephen Hawking. 

00:05:18 Frank 

That's amazing. 

00:05:19 Dr. Mark Jackson 

And so yeah, we we have one of the coolest origin. 

00:05:22 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Stories ever and so in fall of 2017 I I joined as one of the first American members of the team. 

00:05:31 Dr. Mark Jackson 

And so I've been there about four years, and it's been an amazing journey. 

00:05:35 Dr. Mark Jackson 

I I can't think of any other technology that's. 

00:05:38 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Advanced this rapidly. 

00:05:41 Frank 

I I will. 

00:05:41 Frank 

Say it's just even in the last, maybe 8 to 10 months. 

00:05:46 Frank 

The pace of innovation has gone through the roof like you start hearing these news and you know whenever I would look on YouTube for you know recent videos and you filter by like you know you'd have to look for like oh in the recent month for quantum anything about quantum computing. 

00:06:01 Frank 

Now it's the point where something new gets published every couple hours like. 

00:06:05 Frank 

It's it's it's. 

00:06:06 Frank 

It's just exploded. 

00:06:08 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Yeah, it's it's almost every week we some we see some new major announcement about a. 

00:06:14 Dr. Mark Jackson 

There's a new commercial project. 

00:06:15 Dr. Mark Jackson 

There's a new company being founded. 

00:06:17 Dr. Mark Jackson 

There's new investment. 

00:06:19 Dr. Mark Jackson 

There's there's some new technological advance. 

00:06:21 Dr. Mark Jackson 

It really is developing very quickly. 

00:06:23 Dr. Mark Jackson 

It's tough to keep up with with everything. 

00:06:26 Dr. Mark Jackson 

When I started four years ago, I remember some of my physics friends being a little skeptical. 

00:06:30 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Was quantum computing really a thing? 

00:06:32 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Was this a wise career decision? 

00:06:35 Dr. Mark Jackson 

And no one is questioning it. 

00:06:38 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Now there. 

00:06:39 Dr. Mark Jackson 

There's so so much money and so much talent being put into this. 

00:06:40 

It's not. 

00:06:43 Dr. Mark Jackson 

It really is amazing. 

00:06:45 Frank 

Yeah, I mean it's funny because you you know you'd said you didn't have a background in when you when you look to get into this in quantum computing, but I'm thinking like. 

00:06:54 Frank 

Who does? I mean? There are people, obviously, but I mean I could probably. I mean going back, maybe the 2000. 

00:07:01 Frank 

14 When Stephen Hawking kind of had his, you know, had his say and created your you know kind of inspired the launch of your company. 

00:07:10 Frank 

I would say there's probably maybe a dozen people worldwide would would would be in quantum computing, at least commercialization of it and not just the research. 

00:07:18 Frank 

So I find that I find that interesting because a lot of folks, when they look to to to get into a new career, even though I guess technically you're still heavy in. 

00:07:30 Frank 

In in, in the deep sciences I would call. 

00:07:33 Frank 

You know people, still you know with your pedigree. 

00:07:37 Frank 

Having worked under Brian Greene and even being in one of his documentaries, even if it's for a half a second I I mean you face that challenge. 

00:07:46 Frank 

So I think I think it I think for anyone here who's looking to transition into a quantum career, know that you know you are going to face skepticism, but I also think that there will be an inflection point and mark. 

00:07:56 Frank 

And tell me this has happened. 

00:07:57 Frank 

Now where the demand is going to be far outstrip the supply, that as long as you kind of know more than the average Joe or Jane on the street, I think that there's still good opportunity. 

00:08:11 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Right, you are correct that even a few years ago there were very few people doing quantum computing as a specialty, so quantum computing was first suggested about 40 years ago by Richard Feynman. 

00:08:23 Dr. Mark Jackson 

This physicist, when he pointed out that there were a lot of problems that we never could hope to solve using normal computers and a prime example is. 

00:08:31 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Is chemistry doing molecular simulations? 

00:08:34 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Is very difficult for a computer. 

00:08:35 Dr. Mark Jackson 

We can only simulate only the very simplest model. 

00:08:38 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Schools and so he pointed out we have to build a new type of computer, one based on quantum physics. 

00:08:44 Dr. Mark Jackson 

This was about 40 years ago and no one knew how to do this at any feasible level, and so there was there was academic progress, so research labs and such would work on this, but it wasn't anywhere close to being commercialized for many years. 

00:08:59 Dr. Mark Jackson 

And then it was. It was around 2014 that started to change. 

00:09:02 Dr. Mark Jackson 

So it's only in the past few years that quantum information science, the academic term for this. 

00:09:09 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Really emerged, so there are now several universities offering degrees in quantum information sciences, but that's a relatively new development. 

00:09:19 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Most of the people. 

00:09:21 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Kind of the older people just had to pick it up on the street. 

00:09:25 Dr. Mark Jackson 

They were there or their physics professors. 

00:09:27 Dr. Mark Jackson 

So like very few people who really did this or there are people who came from other areas of science and technology who were able to pick up enough. 

00:09:37 Dr. Mark Jackson 

For example, I'm not even on the scientific team. 

00:09:39 Dr. Mark Jackson 

I'm on the business team, so even though my background is in theoretical physics, I actually don't know enough that I could. 

00:09:46 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Be a scientist in this area. 

00:09:50 Frank 

Interesting, I see a lot of parallels with kind of how traditional computer science had kind of evolved, right? 

00:09:57 Frank 

First you had to be an electrical engineer. 

00:09:59 Frank 

Or have that kind of a pedigree? 

00:10:02 Frank 

Then then you know, as computational. 

00:10:07 Frank 

Well, computer science kind of came out into its own as an active separate academic discipline. 

00:10:12 Frank 

You know there was there, you know it kind of evolved from there. 

00:10:15 Frank 

And I I see. 

00:10:17 Frank 

You know, obviously we're we're pretty early, so we don't know how the movie is going to end, but I kind of seen this story structure before in that regard. 

00:10:25 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Yeah, that that's actually a very good analogy. 

00:10:27 Dr. Mark Jackson 

The computers that we have now look a lot like the computers from the 50s and 60s. 

00:10:32 Dr. Mark Jackson 

That there there are these big machines in big rooms with wires hanging out and you do have to be a specialized engineer fiddling with things and it changes on a day to day basis which parts are working or not. 

00:10:45 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Things are very experimental, they're very expensive to use. 

00:10:48 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Uh, only a few people really know how to use them. 

00:10:51 Dr. Mark Jackson 

There are some differences in that back then you had to be physically there next to the machine, whereas now we have the Internet. 

00:10:58 Dr. Mark Jackson 

So fortunately people can access it from anywhere. 

00:11:02 Frank 

Which is great in the pandemic. 

00:11:04 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Which is great during the pandemic that we can access these quantum computing machines, but but they are still experimental and engineers have to be on site to fiddle with them. 

00:11:12 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Things in a few years, though that probably won't be the case. 

00:11:16 Dr. Mark Jackson 

There will be a few people. 

00:11:18 Dr. Mark Jackson 

Uh, specialized in them, but a lot of people will be able to use them without having to be. 

00:11:23 Dr. Mark Jackson 

An expert in them, right? 

00:11:24 Frank 

So I mean, there's definitely this. 

00:11:26 Frank 

This evolution that's happening, and it's it seems to be picking up pace. 

00:11:31 Frank 

But what's...

In this episode, Frank announces the new website that will keep you up to date on all the happenings in the quantum computing realm.

This episode is entitled "Now is the Time to Prepare for the Quantum Computing Revolution" and was recorded on a livestream and is rated one Schroedinger.

Here is your host, Frank La Vigne.

Microsoft places Azure Quantum into public preview.

Does this mean that enterprises are going to start embracing Quantum Computing?

What can you do now to prepare for a quantum career?

http://franksworld.com/2021/01/25/quantum-computing-for-computer-scientists/

https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/01/microsofts-azure-quantum-platform-is-now-in-public-preview/

http://franksworld.com/category/quantum-computing/

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-quantum-cloud-computing-plans-take-another-big-step-forward/

Hello and welcome to Impact Quantum, a podcast about quantum computing for developers and engineers. 

This episode is entitled "Can Quantum Computing Prevent Another AI Winter?" was recorded on a livestream and is rated one Schroedinger. 

It also contains several movie references, such as World War Z, the Terminator, and Star Wars.  

• Frank's original article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-quantum-computing-prevent-another-ai-winter-frank-la-vigne/
• YouTube Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6EFXFrCZ3E
• LinkedIn Live: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/frank-lavigne_can-quantum-computing-prevent-another-ai-activity-6722490021682671616-MEpT

Thanks for listening to Impact Quantum. 

We know you're busy and we appreciate you listening to our podcast.

But we have a favor to ask: please rate and review our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you subscribe to us. 

Recently, Frank was debating the applications of quantum computing with a friend.

He then realize two things: it's about more than breaking cryptography and predicting the future is hard.

Oh yeah, and saving the world.

This show is rated 1 Schroedinger and was originally recorded live.

View the live stream here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6712736063196057601/

In this episode, Frank explains Qubits and the math behind them.

This episode is rated 2 Schrodingers.

Watch the live stream: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/frank-lavigne_impact-quantum-whats-a-qubit-activity-6707702289219493890-Obaj

Transcript

Voiceover 

Hello and welcome to this episode of impact quantum. This episode is titled freaking qubits how do they work? 

Voiceover 

Only Frank could Lincoln Insane Clown Posse mean to quantum computing so you are clearly in the right place to learn. This episode is rated to shredding's for some heavy maths content don't worry, it's not too scary. 

Frank 

Alright, so that. 

Frank 

Dubstep intro music means that this is impact quantum. The podcast for engineers who are curious about the coming revolution in quantum computing. I'm your host Frank Lavigna and my cohost will not be able to join us today. So as we promised in kind of the original show. 

Frank 

We're not going to kind of do that. We're gonna try to get to a more regular cadence. In these shows so this is show number Q. Although technically third in the series. 

Frank 

This show was rated 2 Schrodinger's 'cause. We will get into a little bit of technical detail but don't let that scare you off I'm going to talk about. 

Uh. 

Frank 

Cubits and Anne, how they work? My name is Frank Levin. Yeah, i'ma data in AI architect who got quantum fever not that long ago. In November 2019, when I saw kind of the The Amazing stuff that's just around the corner. 

Frank 

Um so today is about qubits and there's a whole meme about this. The original song referred to magnets. But I think if they were writing this song. Today, they would be writing this about. 

Frank 

Um. 

Frank 

They would write about. 

Frank 

Cubits hang on spotlight and performance hang on. Hey cool, it does that now Alright. They took my feedback let me start this over if you're watching this live I really appreciate it. I will be monitoring chat hey modern day tech. How's it going? 

Frank 

Uh, if you're watching this live, I appreciate you turning in live your listing later on the podcast. I will try to be very descriptive in the time that I have between now and. 

Frank 

My next meeting. 

Frank 

Alright so if if Insane Clown Posse were writing a new song. Today, they would probably talk about freaking cubits or how do they work? 

Frank 

So there was a whole Internet meme about it already on. To paraphrase something from one of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, they didn't say fricking. You have been warned. 

Frank 

So this is a? 

Frank 

Part of my big quantum presentation called Quantum Physics in 30 minutes or less. 

Frank 

Um? 

Frank 

Bye for people who have mixed feelings about it, hence mathematics. 

Frank 

Um this is the big barrier. I think for a lot of folks when they want to get into quantum computing. There's a lot of math. There's a lot of weird, kind of quantum physics and you hear a lot of things, said about quantum if you do a search on the Internet on quantum. There's all sorts of interesting kind of metaphysical stuff, not going to touch into that, but what makes quantum weird. 

Frank 

Is how we normally interact with the world. We normally interact. You know whether it's a baseball, whether it's the moon, we interact, which known as Newtonian or classical mechanics, right? If I held a this smart phone. 

Frank 

Right and I Drop it. It's going to fall fall, the floor. Maybe the glass will break. Maybe it won't. 

Frank 

But it's not going to fire. Let it go. It's not going to go up and blast off and hit the ceiling. It's not going to stay there in place. If I were to able to throw this fast enough, I would be able to get this to the moon. If I get through this a little bit less faster than that, I could get this into orbit, right? So that's kind of how things work, right? If I. 

Frank 

Fight smacking against my other hand it's going to make a noise and possibly hurt, but we can all measure based on the mass of this and the acceleration. How hard of that force is going to hit across the hand. I guess if you're really clever you can figure out loud that smack would be. 

Frank 

Um, so quantum mechanics deals with stuff that's really, really small, basically smaller than. 

Frank 

A smaller than an Atom or at the atomic level, right? So at this point in our normal world you know, here is kind of the scale of a a human hair, or the. 

Frank 

100 micrometres 

Frank 

Then we get down into kind of the genes and the virus is somewhere between 10 to 100 nanometers. Nano being a billionth. 

Frank 

Um? 

Frank 

And viruses are obviously very much on people's minds these these days, but smaller than that smaller than proteins. You get molecules, small molecules, an atomic structures, so inside. 

Frank 

That Tomic structure is where things kind of start. 

Frank 

Getting different an I actually did listen to you and while I was on vacation, I read a book on quantum computing, an applied approach. Interesting book. 

Frank 

But there was even more fascinating book called Sinchronicity. 

Frank 

And it's about kind of. 

Frank 

The understanding the try the reach to understanding. 

Frank 

How the universe works from Plato. I'm talking about, you know, the forms in The Cave and all that kind of Philosophy. 101 stuff which you know obviously. 

Frank 

Uh. 

Frank 

At that time. 

Frank 

At the time was cutting edge all the way to kind of where we are now and how we understand stars and Fusion and quantum physics and particles and stuff like that. 

Frank 

So those are all the things that we 

Frank 

Have at multiple levels of understanding so overtime. 

Frank 

We've really gotten down to. We've always pursued the the forward March of science, if you will. So quantum physics. 

Frank 

Works a little differently an that book synchronocity really covers the weirdness of quantum mechanics and the struggles that 20th century physicists came when they came through and went through to understand it. In fact, this is a something that Einstein. 

Frank 

Himself was very sceptical of you'll. You'll see the probability plays a big role here and in Einstein was famously quoted as saying. 

Frank 

Um, that. 

Frank 

God doesn't play dice and. 

Frank 

So there's definitely a lot of interesting kind of ether personality conflicts to one of the gates is called a Hadamard Gate, and they talk about him. There's also three types of Pauli Gates at Poly X Poly. Why an Polly Z, and I wonder who is this guy Paulie that you know has so many quantum? 

Frank 

Logic, quantum computing, logic gates, and after him. And this book actually covers. He was kind of a big deal, not a household world, but word, but still kind of a big deal. So what quantum computers do is they take advantage of some of the quirks if you will, of quantum mechanics and the properties thereof. 

Frank 

I did warn you that this episode was going to be too schrodinger's. 

Frank 

We will talk about the stuff I don't fully understand it, so but I do understand a good bit of it and um. 

Frank 

Uh, we can kind of go through some of the particular properties that that this matter, so ultimately. 

Frank 

Quantum computers take advantage of all of the strangeness, if you will, for lack of a better term. 

Frank 

Of. 

Frank 

Quantum mechanics and in the same way that classical computers, whether it's your smartphone, the laptop I'm recording this on, take advantage of the. 

Frank 

Properties of electricity, right? They are called electronics. 

Frank 

After all, and 

Frank 

There's little electrons bouncing around inside those things and we take advantage of how that works and how semiconductors work. 

Frank 

So there's four or three kind of properties that really matter, um, and then all of these operators are kind of built on that, um. And then when I say operators, I mean. 

Frank 

Logic gate operators like you would have with and not. 

Frank 

Type of gates. Stuff for you really would only learn in either electrical engineering or kind of Comp sci kind of intro. Just kind of show you how things ultimately happen on the actual metal. 

Frank 

Of the chip. 

Frank 

Alright, so the first is the first element of this is really called a cubit. 

Frank 

An what you're seeing here is a bunch of math focused on. 

Frank 

Kind of basically discussing the state of the wave when you see that character, that means the state of the wave. This is basically the probability of it being or the state of it being. 

Frank 

Zero and one. 

Frank 

An ultimately. 

Frank 

How does that work? 

Frank 

Right so in a classical bit. 

Frank 

And this is everything every computer, you've ever used uses classical bits. You know basically a circuit is complete or it's not right. The The Gate is on or the gate is off now. 

Frank 

What makes qubits special is they have the ability. 

Frank 

To also be. 

Frank 

One and zero right based on the electron spin. 

Frank 

But 

Frank 

There's another state 1/3 state if you will, where it can be both zero and one at the same time. 

Frank 

This is called Super position. 

Frank 

And there there's a famous thought experiment called Schrodinger's cat, and basically it kind of breaks down into. 

Frank 

Until you examine, there's a cat in the box. The cat, or may not cat may or may not be dead, but until you open the box and observe it. 

Frank 

It the cat exists in both states, the cat, the cat is both alive and dead simultaneously. 

Frank 

This is kind of a combo state and this is zero and one right cat is a dead or the cat is alive and there's kind of this combo state. 

Frank 

The of in certainty basically where it is both can effectively be both zero and one. 

Frank 

And there's a great scene from the movie No. 

Frank 

Country for old men. 

Frank 

And basically it is. 

Frank 

This guy is making is a very threatening kind of bad guy, and, uh, he flips a coin. Why is my animated GIF not? 

Frank 

Playing, that's disappointing. 

Frank 

I guess if you're listening along. 

Frank 

Uh, this character here, basically. 

Frank 

Threatens this guy and he forces him to call the coin and and ultimately what happens is, um, he calls it and he gets it right, but the cinematography, the lighting that own the music, all really paint the thing that this guy could die. 

Frank 

Any second and it turns out that he. 

Frank 

He made the right call on the thing and the guy just walked away. It was a very bizarre moment in the film in a very kind of strange movie. 

Frank 

But at that point when. 

Frank 

We didn't know. 

Frank 

We weren't certain of the outcome of the state so that's kind of another example of of kind of that uncertainty of of state there. 

Frank 

Alright, so I did warn you that there is some math ahead an I am so the first time we're going to do something kind of highly technical, both as a live feed on LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitch, of course LinkedIn. 

Frank 

Um but we do have? 

Frank 

Um, I do, I will explain it in my humble way. If you think I'm doing this wrong. I very Mel very may well be doing it wrong, but. 

Frank 

I would encourage you to come on the show and explain it, the right way I am not a quantum physicist. I am not a particle physicist an I know. 

Frank 

I know math of AI and that's that's where I I Land Alright. 

Frank 

So superposition. 

Frank 

Is the idea of how does that happen? Well mathematically, ultimately, superposition is the state of both zero and one. 

Frank 

So in other words, superposition is 0 + 1 now. 

Frank 

I learned in kindergarten that 0 + 1. 

Frank 

Is 1 right or 0 plus any number is the same number, right? So how does that work? That doesn't make any sense and this for me this is the ah ha moment I had 'cause I attended a talk where he explained it very well. 

Frank 

So you're right. 

Frank 

If you're adding integers, absolutely 0 + 1 is just one, right? There is no third state, however. 

Frank 

What if you're adding vectors? 

Frank 

Now, if you are watching this or you're listening to this rather than watching it, think of a 0 as a horizontal line, right? And if you would describe that in Cartesian coordinates. 

Frank 

That would be. 

Frank 

One, zero right so that flat line represent is is is noted in Cartesian coordinates. 

Frank 

Is 1, 0. 

Frank 

Now a vertical line. 

Frank 

That is going up and down. 

Frank 

A would be described in Cartesian coordinates. 

Frank 

As zero, one. 

Frank 

So. 

Frank 

0, one. 

Frank 

For a vertical line. 

Frank 

And a one, 0 for a flat line. 

Frank 

Just think back to middle school math when you were drawing plots and charts and stuff like that and you all thought it was useless, right? Alright? 

Frank 

Adding those two states together. 

Frank 

You get. 

Frank 

Superposition, right? So think now are the 45 degree line that goes from. 

Frank 

That has can be described as one, one. 

Frank 

Here's the rub. You are not adding integers, you're adding vectors. 

Frank 

And once you start adding vectors. 

Frank 

You get to some interesting points of math. 

Frank 

And this is basically called linear algebra. 

Frank 

Some people call it matrix math, but essentially it's the same thing. 

Frank 

And what you're defining here. This is called bracket notation, which if you're wondering why Amazon called their new quantum service bracket, This is why this is known as bracket notation, where you have the pipe. 

Frank 

A letter denoting a variable and then it's not quite a greater than sign, but it kind of looks like one. 

Frank 

Alright, hopefully that makes sense. So vector math. Our matrix algebra has some very different has some very well defined rules. There are a little bit different than the math you learned. You know in kindergarten, elementary school matrices or not matrices. 

Frank 

Well, yeah it is a matrix. So so so these vectors, these matrices these vectors can be represented as matrices which have their own rules in terms of how they're multiplied. 

Frank 

Right, So what you're seeing on screen is that if I have a line that's defined by 1, negative 2 an I double that. I now have two. 

Frank 

And -4. 

Frank 

Yeah, this is really difficult to explain...

The very first episode of Impact Quantum.

Watch the livestream

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/frank-lavigne_quantum-compute-is-coming-activity-6700060953964232704-8JwD

Transcript (AI Generated):

This episode of the impact quantum podcast is rated one schroedinger and is entitled Quantum is coming. 

Speaker 1 

I'm Frank Lavigna an this is the very first episode of impact quantum quantum computing is about the radically change. 

Speaker 1 

Uh, how we live an work, so let's roll the intro. 

Speaker 1 

Alright, with me to my I think it's left on the screen. Here is my cohost from data driven Andy. Later, how's it going, Andy? 

Speaker 2 

Hey Frank is going awesome. 

Speaker 2 

How are you? 

Speaker 1 

I'm doing well doing well. I've got the I've I've got the fever. 

Speaker 1 

Do you? It's not covered. It's not Corona Squantum Fever. That's what I got. 

Speaker 1 

So Andy and I have another podcast data driven.tv where we explore the emerging fields of data science machine learning an artificial intelligence, and you're probably wondering what the heck are you data sciency data engineer guys doing here talking about quantum computing? 

Speaker 1 

For miles back, let me tell you a story. In November of 2019 this is back when people would actually travel places. 

Speaker 1 

And congregate in large groups without thinking twice. This is before the words Wuhan meat market. 

Speaker 1 

More commonplace before when Corona was just a beer I attended a conference called M labs or might machine learning and data science summit. It's an internal only kind of conference for Microsoft employees thrown by Microsoft Research where they kind of come out of the lab and they talked to us about kind of what's around. 

Speaker 1 

Pike 

Speaker 1 

And, um. 

Speaker 1 

This is the conference that I went to in 2016 where I had my ahha moment or you know about getting into this field right? I kind of. I was into data visualization and power BI and kind of Munging Data with Excel. 

Speaker 1 

But the engineering wasn't in me, was not satisfied. Then I discovered machine learning and artificial intelligence, and where that was headed. 

Speaker 1 

And when I came back from that conference, completely switched on about. This is the future. This is coming. It's here, it's you know it's it's on its way. 

Speaker 1 

Most people thought I was crazy. 

Speaker 1 

I mean, even I had my doubts about it, so yeah. 

Speaker 1 

Through 

Speaker 1 

A number of coincidences. It took me 4 or or other reasons, took me about four and a half years or 3 1/2 years to get back there. 

Speaker 1 

Um and the first day came and went. I didn't have that. Ah ha moment, so I'm like, well, you know, maybe that's just like a once or twice in a lifetime type. Ah ha moment. 

Speaker 1 

It happens, doesn't have sure sure. 

Speaker 1 

And. 

Speaker 1 

Then on the second day it was a hardware presentation. Now I can't talk about everything I saw, but that's when quantum computing was explained to Maine. 

Speaker 1 

And why? 

Speaker 1 

It is the next big thing. 

Speaker 1 

An I knew I was on the right track because when I came back I started telling other people that quantum is coming quantum quantum quantum. 

Speaker 1 

I sat it again like a ranting lunatic. 

Speaker 1 

And that kind of told Maine. 

Speaker 1 

That maybe I'm on to something because the next wave always looks crazy before it happens. 

Speaker 2 

Yeah. 

Speaker 2 

So. 

Speaker 1 

With that in mind, I attended, um I started studying quantum type computing articles and and Whatnot, and I even installed Q Sharp that night in the hotel. 

Speaker 1 

Then I opened up my. 

Speaker 1 

Brought on my Visual Studio. 

Speaker 1 

And, um. 

Speaker 1 

Was like OK, now what? 

Yeah. 

Speaker 1 

Um and once again, I'm trying to keep a growth mindset here when I first read a book on statistics. 

Speaker 1 

My first reaction was, uh, what did I get myself into? 

Speaker 1 

Right? 

Speaker 2 

But that's you know that's not a common Frank. A lot of people come into this an you know I don't. When you're starting out, who knows everything you're gonna learn and everything you gonna need to learn. 

Speaker 1 

Exactly right, and I think that there's going to be a lot of people. 

Speaker 1 

Um, that are going to be in a similar boat and. 

Speaker 1 

On our main show we kind of discussed this is that. 

Speaker 1 

It's hard for people to think back. I mean, it's hard for people to think back honestly about what life was like before Koven you know going yeah, getting into elevators like whoa other people. 

Speaker 1 

On that, at the same time. 

Speaker 1 

Things like that, but it's hard to go back even further to think that there was a time when only PHD's did data science right and then was right. 

Speaker 1 

Think about, Well, you have to go back to school like when I when I asked folks for advice on what to do at that summit actually in 2016. 

Speaker 1 

I know that one guy is like I just go back to school and get get PhD in statistics and this is before data science programs existed at universities, so this was really yeah. 

Speaker 1 

We forget how quickly this is moved. I mean now everybody and their cousin hasn't data science course and I don't mean that disparagingly, I just. 

Speaker 2 

Know there's just. 

Speaker 1 

A the Germans have a phrase. 

Speaker 1 

Um, it's been awhile, so I spoke German on daily basis. Just broke fall derval something like that was like the agony of choices and we kind of have that now which four years ago we didn't. But around three years. Three years or so ago, guy named Siraj Raval and I'll just drop his name. I won't say anything else opinion Wise had the ability. 

Speaker 1 

Not so much to conduct unique and custom research on his own. 

Speaker 1 

But he did have the gift. The true gift is true talent. 

Speaker 1 

Was explaining these complicated data science machine learning and artificial intelligence concepts in simple ways. 

Yeah. 

Speaker 1 

And it is a rare gift that if you can understand something, you can explain it now. Richard Feynman, a noted physicist. He says if you can't explain it, you don't understand it. 

Speaker 1 

Or you can't explain it simply you don't understand it. Something like that. I totally butchered that. 

Speaker 2 

Now you got it, yeah? 

Speaker 1 

So the key here and the goal for this show is going to be just that, like the ability to explain this. 

Speaker 1 

And, um, in in in a clear and simple way that engineers can understand. Maybe not your Grandma. 

Speaker 1 

Unless your grandma happens to be a particle physicist. 

Speaker 1 

It happened, I had a great aunt who was sister to my grandmother who was an engineer which back when in the 40s and 50s was a woman engineer was was quite an accomplishment in the military, no less too. 

Speaker 1 

And it was not Grace Hopper, No, but. 

Speaker 1 

Um, though that would have been cool. 

Speaker 1 

In any case, um, the key here. 

Speaker 1 

Is that we want to explain this in ways that software engineers and data engineers would understand? 

Speaker 1 

And that's our goal for this show. 

Speaker 1 

And. 

Speaker 1 

Now, the best way to set up a learning scenario, which I in the last four years or so I have made learning a priority in my life, right? Yeah, I have the numbers to prove that 266 certifications since December 2016. 

Speaker 1 

So. 

Speaker 1 

That I don't say that to show off, I just showed that to saying like I got. You know, it's just become who I am now. It's become a habit. Yeah, I don't know where I was going with that, but. 

Speaker 1 

The best way to set up. 

Speaker 1 

The learning here is the notion for learning is to set up a reason why right. If you if you want to learn something, you're going to be far more motivated and far more likely to capture that information and retain that information. 

Speaker 1 

And. 

Speaker 1 

So. 

Speaker 1 

Let's start there. Why why should you learn quantum computing? Why? Why is this? Like with the data science world is rockin, right like AI is rocking? Yeah, it is rocking. However, winter may be coming right to continue that Game of Thrones theme. And I'm going to try to share my screen. 

Speaker 1 

An if you were listening to just the audio, don't worry. I will explain this in a um. 

Speaker 1 

In a way. 

Speaker 1 

That makes sense. 

Speaker 1 

Um, hopefully. Let's see if I get that screen up. 

Speaker 1 

Alright, So what you're seeing here is an article. It's from Venturebeat they basically warn. 

Speaker 1 

Researchers at MIT warn that Dean is approaching computation. It's now what does that mean? Well, I thought the cloud had infinite scalability. Well, it it kind of does, but there is a practical upper limit that we are starting to bump up against. 

Speaker 1 

And this is kind of the thing that got my attention, so this article is from July, but I heard this in. 

Speaker 1 

Um, late last year? Kind of about it. You know this is becoming a problem and let me explain why this is a problem. 

Speaker 1 

Um? 

Speaker 1 

Because let's take GPT 3 for example. So GPT 3 is an. 

Speaker 1 

A natural language processing model. 

Speaker 1 

It took about. 

Speaker 1 

Our 175 billion parameters in right? So that was just the input level like in terms of what it what it could do. 

Speaker 1 

It took a certain amount of time to train that and it took costs somewhere between 5:00 and $12,000,000 depending on depending on who's answering the question. 

Right, yeah? 

Speaker 1 

GPT 2. 

Speaker 1 

Only only had 1 1/2 billion parameters. 

Speaker 1 

Right, yeah, that's a That's an order of magnitude greater right 175 from 1.5. 

Speaker 1 

If there was ever going to be. 

Speaker 1 

A Jeep 4. 

Speaker 1 

We're now looking at. 

Speaker 1 

Um? 

Speaker 1 

We're now looking at. 

Speaker 1 

I totally lost my train of thought. 

Speaker 1 

OK, alright thank you for handling the comments and. 

Speaker 2 

Yeah, that's what I'm I'm. 

Speaker 1 

Looking for streaming this live. I actually I might edit this part out of the RSS feed, but the I announced the show on roopesh show on Wednesday. He has an Instagram life thing going on, so I announced the show. So that gave me a little bit of extra leverage to do this. 

Speaker 1 

Um on time today, but the short of it is, is that we are hitting these limits, so you can imagine what a GPT 4 would have would have trillions of parameters. 

Speaker 1 

And I don't know if this is going to be. What's the cost going to be? Is it going to be exponential rise? But at some point we are going to run out? 

Speaker 1 

Of. 

Speaker 1 

Keep you. 

Speaker 1 

And certainly doing this at scale, we are going to run out. 

Speaker 1 

What this means? 

Speaker 1 

Is somewhat concerning. Kind of, you know, three to five years out. Is that the innovation in research is going to stop. 

Speaker 1 

Right, yeah and. 

Speaker 1 

Then, once the innovation research stops, the new products that come out that get venture funding then ultimately get bought by some of the big tech firms is going to start slowing down. 

Speaker 2 

That is going to, oh, that's what we call winter, right? 

Speaker 1 

Right, that's a I winter an if you think this is implausible, I urge you to take a look at history because this has happened before. 

Speaker 1 

And we are at the early stage of this, potentially happening again. Predicting the future is hard by the way. In case you didn't know. 

Speaker 1 

But if you. 

Speaker 1 

Look at the advancements that were made in artificial intelligence from I mean, Alan Turing. 

Speaker 1 

Um came up with the notion of the Turing test, kind of defined kind of the core principles of what we call the field of artificial intelligence today. 

Speaker 1 

This is a 70 year old we're in the 7th decade of AI. 

Speaker 1 

Right now to read some of the breathless press releases from various companies, you would not think you would think that AI started about 2000 nine 2010. 

Speaker 1 

Not true. 

Speaker 1 

But at every stage that there's been advancements in AI and I'm talking going back to the 60s. 

Speaker 1 

And even in the 80s. 

Speaker 1 

When the concept of Neural Networks were really pioneered and kind of used. 

Speaker 1 

At every time there was a burst of innovation. 

Speaker 1 

And at every time. 

Speaker 1 

The innovation outpaced compute ability. 

Speaker 1 

To keep up, yeah. 

Speaker 1 

So then that led to AI winters, so including the worst AI winter so far has been um from the mid 80s till about 10 maybe 12 years ago. 

Speaker 1 

Now, that doesn't mean that research doesn't happen in that field in the mean time, I actually. 

Speaker 1 

Took my first. 

Speaker 1 

Course in artificial intelligence in 1990. 

Speaker 1 

4 now was the 2nd semester, so it was. 

Speaker 1 

It was 1995 or 1994. 

Wow. 

Speaker 1 

And nine years began with a one. 

Speaker 1 

Right crazy there are people that are. 

Speaker 1 

Probably watching this that aren't even they weren't even live then, and my professor at the time noted researcher in the field X IBM doctorate distinguished engineer. I mean smart guy. 

Speaker 1 

But he was like, oh, this is gonna be the next paradigm. This is going to be. And basically it was. 

Speaker 1 

Prolog was a Prolog programming course. 

Speaker 2 

Yeah. 

Speaker 1 

An the final I kept waiting for like OK where's the AI coming from like where is he coming from and and that ah ha moment never came and it was just basically kind of. 

Speaker 1 

A hybrid of inference and. 

Speaker 1 

Recursion and was like that's it. 

Speaker 1 

An A lot of these expert systems that were that he was an expert in expert system, so that's very meta, right? There were essentially if you kind of Peel the covers back, they were essentially just a ton of ifdef statements. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah. 

Speaker 1 

Again, where's the AI in that, right? 

Speaker 1 

Right, so that really set me up for to not be a nonbeliever so so much the point when I saw some of the early work before they were cognitive services, this was kind of they were just still in the research lab. 

Speaker 1 

They had a DC Tech Fair which is essentially researchers coming out to DC at the Microsoft Office will kind of show off what they're working on, and a number of it was computer vision and artificial intelligence. 

Speaker 1 

And I saw this thing where he he he uploaded a picture to this program and it it was a picture of a cat. 

Speaker 1 

He was a picture of a cat. 

And. 

Speaker 1 

He uploaded it and the description came back saying, hey, this is a picture of a cat. 

Speaker 1 

And I'm like I looked. I looked at that and I was like my first part of it was like yeah, that's cool. Then my sinic kind of came out and I was like, Yeah, but it's probably some kind of weird inference recursion thing going on. 

Speaker 1 

So I kind of walked away and continue filming the rest of actually filmed the event. You can check out the video on YouTube. 

Speaker 1 

Which we will link in the show notes. 

So. 

Speaker 1 

That left me very sceptical of what the state of the art was. It wasn't until I saw kind of what the real state of the art was at a follow on event the year later, the ha moment that I had the Blues brothers moment as we've often referred to in a data driven dot TV show, so that takes us to today, 2020 or 2019. 

Speaker 1 

Is when I was there, I actually recorded a dated point right in front of the...