I think that's the wrong attitude to take. If you look at the mathematics there is really nothing so weird or magical about quantum mechanics or using it to perform factorization; you just take a set of qbits initially in an equal superposition of all possible factors, manipulate them through quantum operations such that the amplitudes of all the factors that don't divide the number go to zero, and then measure the state to force a collapse/entangle yourself with it, and the number you measure will necessarily be a factor. QM in general is really pretty simple and even obvious if you ignore the silly mythology and just follow the math.
As for the specifics, I believe we have working 4-qbit quantum computers, and shor's algorithm has been successfully applied to calculate that 15=3x5. But current approaches do indeed seem unlikely to scale up to 1024 qbits.
> If you look at the mathematics there is really nothing so weird or magical about quantum mechanics or using it to perform factorization ...
Yes, if you examine the mathematics that's true, but if you examine the physics it's not true. The problem doesn't lie with algorithm design, the problem lies with putting them into practice in actual physical computers.
> QM in general is really pretty simple and even obvious if you ignore the silly mythology and just follow the math.
On the contrary, not at all simple if one must try create an actual physical realization.
This is not to suggest that the problems won't be overcome, only that they're more formidable than describing how easy it is in principle.
Comments
I think that's the wrong attitude to take. If you look at the mathematics there is really nothing so weird or magical about quantum mechanics or using it to perform factorization; you just take a set of qbits initially in an equal superposition of all possible factors, manipulate them through quantum operations such that the amplitudes of all the factors that don't divide the number go to zero, and then measure the state to force a collapse/entangle yourself with it, and the number you measure will necessarily be a factor. QM in general is really pretty simple and even obvious if you ignore the silly mythology and just follow the math.
As for the specifics, I believe we have working 4-qbit quantum computers, and shor's algorithm has been successfully applied to calculate that 15=3x5. But current approaches do indeed seem unlikely to scale up to 1024 qbits.
> If you look at the mathematics there is really nothing so weird or magical about quantum mechanics or using it to perform factorization ...
Yes, if you examine the mathematics that's true, but if you examine the physics it's not true. The problem doesn't lie with algorithm design, the problem lies with putting them into practice in actual physical computers.
> QM in general is really pretty simple and even obvious if you ignore the silly mythology and just follow the math.
On the contrary, not at all simple if one must try create an actual physical realization.
This is not to suggest that the problems won't be overcome, only that they're more formidable than describing how easy it is in principle.