Hartmut Neven, who is a physicist. He would go through, but also as the Bassist for Rammstein or cosmonaut from the 1960s. The gray Steampunk-pants, the silver javana Textil UFF paint, jacket, the Future-High sneaker boots, and the black-and-silver sunglasses fit to what the German announced. Neven, head of Google Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, speaks on this Wednesday morning, very often, about music and the universe. Without concrete examples, it would get hardly anyone, why all are so excited.

the night before the science magazine Nature published an article that had already been triggered in September, great excitement. The US space Agency, Nasa, had him accidentally published for a short time on your website. Google quantum chip Sycamore, according to the scientists of the group in their technical paper, “was able to perform in 200 seconds, a calculation that the fastest Supercomputer in the world, 10’000 years would have used”. The Test consisted, very simply put, from a calculation for a complex random numbers.

Now is a debate as to whether Google’s researchers with the Experiment, actually proved the so-called quantum superiority: that a quantum computer can’t bring things that create even the fastest of super computers, which work on the Basis of classical Chips. Whether this is the beginning of a new computer age. If the technological leap revolutions areas of the whole Science such as pharmacy, chemistry or logistics initiates. And: What should be the Test at all.

Because Sycamores highly complicated calculation has no practical Use. Nevertheless, Neven about the Experiment says: “The first Sputnik did nothing more than to circumnavigate the earth, and yet it was the beginning of the space age.” He describes the Sputnik comparison is also a Problem in the marketing of the research: The satellites, the people knew that the man was now able to send things into space. The first flight of the Wright brothers in 1903, showed that it should be possible to build an aircraft for the transport of people. It was visible, tangible, understandable, and the idea fired power, be it positive or negative.

What the people know, if you look at Google’s Experiment, what you hope, what you have to fear? A visit to the lab might help in understanding.

Santa Barbara is a sleepy coastal town in California, about one and a half hours by car North-West of Los Angeles. There is hardly a less impressive place for a project to bring mankind a decisive advance, as this building with the address 6868 Cortona Drive. Outside it is clad in light brown, it looks like the inside of the packages would be Packed. It makes no futuristic impression, such as, for example, the Quantum Computing Laboratory of the Chinese group Alibaba in Shanghai. The laboratory itself is 300 square meters big, there are no Windows, just white walls. The Sycamore project itself looks like someone wired in an oversized cooking pot a hundred times.

gold-Plated innards: A component of the quantum computer. Photo: Reuters

The magic unfolds, when the Google employees to remove one of the plants in the corner of the about 1.20 metres high, silver cylinder with a diameter of 50 centimeters and, so to speak, the skeleton and the heart of presenting: a multi-level, gold-plated Structure, which is reminiscent of the Inside of a Swiss watch. Above room temperature, according to Neven, the bottom of “is it colder than in outer space”. There, the Chip is mounted, protected from vibrations, noise and electromagnetic radiation. He is a bit bigger than the finger nail of a thumb. The hosts let the visitors of the Chip itself under the microscope, viewing and photography, and patiently explain how it works.

the group handles a Technology so open with his research, is probably due to the fact that Google wants to claim this allegedly historic Moment for themselves.

Einstein called quantum mechanics “spukhaft”

quantum mechanics is one of the aspects of the physics, the act for lay people crazy. Even Albert Einstein considered it “spukhaft”. He said it was only to understand, if you believe that God rolls the highest self “or tele-operated defenders of the earth resources”. The most famous example is the thought experiment of physicist Erwin Schrodinger: A cat is locked up in a box to set in a random time deadly Gas. As long as the Box is closed the cat is both “dead” and “alive”. Sounds complicated? It is also.

objects can exist in quantum physics in several States at the same time, so-called Qubits do not have to choose, in contrast to the classical physics (of which the binary Bits can only have the values 0 or 1), for one of the two. You float in a Superposition of both States, the so-called “Superposition”. This property is unstable and control is extremely difficult. Therefore, Google has built around the Chip around a Structure that looks like a matryoshka. Which is then entered into the multi-level construct and cooled.

In the Chip 53 Qubits (there were actually 54, of broke) the simultaneity of the States. This allows more than nine quadrillion States at once portray. The computing power is increasing double exponentially, because Qubits can entangle with each other. Within a few seconds, millions of calculations can be performed.

An algorithm for the Disco

The dreams, triggers the quantum-technology, large. “I don’t want to be too optimistic, but we look since the beginning of the project in the direction of the horizon and consider how a System with a Million Qubits could look like,” says Neven, the German scepticism, combined with Californian enthusiasm: “What we found out: We can do this sometime.” Important, the words “can” and “sometime in there”.

Neven, 54, was a Student at the University of Bochum as an exception to a physicist. He had developed an algorithm that controlled on the basis of the movements on the dance floor, the music in the disco automatically. His former Professor Christoph von der Malsburg gave him the management of his laboratory at the University of Southern California, but Neven wanted to fill out, no applications for funding. He wanted to investigate. His Startup Neven Vision, taught computers to recognize objects. In 2006, he sold it to Google. There, he developed the smart glasses Google Glass, he then moved to the Department for a quantum computer.

“Everyone, whether a scientist or artist who wants to show the people, when he has what has been achieved,” he says of the publication of the results. There has already been criticism of the Experiment. Competitor IBM says, for example, the allegations are just “Hype”. Google have not exhausted during the Test, the capabilities of the Supercomputer full, you can so in comparison to the quantum computer as weaker than they actually are. Neven wants to publish all the data and the program code. He says not, to him it was not just about the competition itself can convince you: “we Prefer to work together and create the, as if everyone works for themselves and we do not succeed.” Nevertheless, it is evident that he is proud that his Team was able to announce the quantum of superiority first.

A small step for Google, a big step for the mankind: The Tech group compares its quantum computer, with the moon landing. Photo: Keystone

Which leads back to the question: Is there, somewhere, at some point, a finish line, and what happens when it is reached? The Sputnik was a milestone. The truly monumental event for the people came twelve years later, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

Daimler and Volkswagen as Partner

That was about the same period of time, which you proclaim is now also at Google. Future applications will then be an equally big step for mankind as the footprint of Armstrong on the moon. An example: Who nowadays has an idea for a medicine, the sets and testing its product. Quantum processors to simulate these complex processes and multiple millions of ideas at the same time check. It would be a boost for the pharmacy. Breakthrough applications in medicine, chemistry, Finance and automotive industry the the hopes of the quantum researchers. Neven says that there is, in addition to the current partners Daimler and Volkswagen, another German company, the promising ideas have.

you don’t want to promise in case of Google – a rarity in the Tech world in California. Here, it is refreshing that each of the participants in the research says: The work has only begun. You should also have no fear that a bad guy is cracking in the foreseeable future with a quantum computer, all the digital encryptions of the world, as people once feared that the Sputnik rocket would be dropped. You know that you have reached a milestone in this laboratory. You know, however, that this Experiment has no Benefit and that it could still take years, perhaps decades, to first applications with real.

On the wall you have mounted a spell of the British mathematician Ada Lovelace. You to the middle of the 19th century. Century a computing machine and apply some as the first programmer of mankind. She said the phrase that is used in this laboratory as a motto: “I’m never really satisfied when I understand something – because, so good I like it also understand that My understanding is always to only an infinitely small part of what I understand.”

Created: 24.10.2019, 20:13 PM