Katia Riddle

The idea with quantum computers is that they can actually use these behaviors.

We humans like to think we're smart, but nature is still much better than us at innovation.

If you can harness quantum to use in computing, then we can accurately simulate the behavior of molecules and subatomic particles.

Classical computers use bits, zeros and ones.

Everything your computer does is just a big pattern of those.

Quantum computing thinks in something called qubits, which can be zero and one at the same time in a probabilistic sense.

That's back to that superposition idea.

Exactly.

I went on a mission to find a metaphor to explain quantum computing.

And first of all, let me say there is no perfect metaphor.

But one that I got that was kind of helpful from Dominic Walliman, he's a physicist, is light switches.

So say you're trying to get your house lit just right.

You might try different combinations of lights on, off, and in different rooms until you get it just right.

But quantum computers obey different rules.

Quantum computers think in shades of gray.

So instead of checking every combination of lights one by one like a classical computer...

A quantum computer can represent all those combinations at once as probabilities.

So say you have 20 light switches.

Some are on and some are off.

That's like a classical computer.