Quantum computing rocks…

… or is it “rolls”…?  The correct descriptor for what happens if you apply quantum physics to electrons in a computational device is -- it spins.  The famed physicist, Stuart Wolf, called the study of this effect ‘spintronics’.  I call it complicated,… and its potential impact on future society as mind-boggling.  You may have heard of Moore’s Law, which has fairly accurately predicted for years the increased capacity that becomes possible as we shrink circuits on silicon.  But many say  that this Law reaches its feasible limit sometime soon… maybe in the next 10 years.  So that’s where quantum computing comes in.  It avoids the heat of  densely packed circuits on chips, by ‘spinning’ electrons with magnets.  Don’t ask me to explain any more than that.  Just know that-- if this is possible, or I believe it is more accurate to say when this is possible -- we’ll have laptop computers with a hundred times… a thousand times… a million times… let’s just say a lot more computing power! Fortune magazine has a relevant article on this subject that sparked my interest in this topic entitled the article: "quantum leap".

What in the world are we going to do with all that power…?  We can already store more songs on an iPod than have ever been recorded (but we don’t have the time to listen to them all).  We already get Google results with millions of hits (but rarely go to the ‘o’ of Google for the 2nd page of search results).  We can already download emails and attachments anywhere in the world (except on airline flights if we obey the stewardess’ request to shut off all devices),… but still need to spend time weeding through a bunch of junk mail to find that one offer for a ‘free’ whatever if we just respond.  I don’t need more computing power.  I have more than I can effectively handle as it is.  Or do I…?

Maybe I’m reacting to the fact that more content makes it more confusing to process it all.  So is the answer to limit the content, or change the processor…?  Interesting.  If we could use all that computing power to have the processing be done for me … and my interface for receiving the results could be more of an extension of myself (possibly neural),… then we may be on to something.  And imagine that the environment I’m in, that you’re in, can become this real time filtering engine.  Then, instead of being overwhelmed with information, I am overwhelmed with the extent, and the way, to which the appropriate information has been brought to my attention.

I don’t need a digital recording of every sub-second of my existence, though I can imagine how an ear mike could save me the embarrassment of recalling the name of the person who is yelling ‘Hi’ from across the street,… and coming my way.  I don’t need to see everything I’ve ever written or read on a subject, but I can imagine the value of getting a hard copy of the agreement I need, --with key phrases/dates/figures highlighted in yellow -- as I arrive at the entrance to the meeting.  I can only imagine how much better of an idea I can generate or decision I can make, if iterations stream in and out of focus within my peripheral awareness at the turn of my head or the blink of my eye.  Can you imagine...?