Quantum computing and the Internet??
I don’t begin to understand much of this, but what I do pick up from it is that Marie Christen’s question yesterday posed as a hypothetical “how does the digital internet handle quantum computers, or computing”, is being addressed.
As I read it, the transport of data between computers, around the world, could continue to be digital – ie the internet as we know it – but that users would communicate with distant quantum computers through Application Program Interfaces (APIs), using scripting languages (such as Python).
This is not dissimilar from the way current super-computers (such as the one in Cardiff Uni that I hope to set up a visit to see) connect to the current university network, and then on to the Internet.
The speed of data transmission will always be limited to three things. Firstly, the speed of light – the ultimate ceiling for the speed of data transmission on optical fibres; secondly, the speed at which the switches and routers can pump the bits and bytes through their electronics, and thirdly the speed at which the electronics in the interface between the computer and the network edge device can operate.
So, in practice the Quantum Computer is no different from any other computing device – it will be limited in its capability to communicate with the outside world by the electronics that it uses.
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2017/03/quantum-computer-programming/?lnk=hmhmhmhmhmhmhm