Free The Pike: Ships In The Night by Erik Schubach Page B

What we hope will be the first stable quantum state computer able to outperform classical binary computer models with comparable error models even with quantum decoherence.”
    I stared at her a moment then back at... Maggie.  She looked frustrated at my obvious confusion.  Then she looked at the man who came out of the booth.  “Carl, are we ready to fire her up?”
    The other men came darting over when she said that, eager looks on their faces.  They all put on red safety glasses over their own glasses, Liya did the same and handed me a pair which I put on.  She explained, “We use photons instead of electrons, so the university makes us use protective eyewear when pumping the lasers.”
    She asked me, “Give us a simple math problem.”
    I shrugged as curiosity filled me, “Six times seven?”
    This got some snickers, and she asked with a cute smirk, “Hitchhiker's Guide?”
    I nodded with a grin of my own.  She scrunched her nose and typed on a computer on the counter outside of the cleanroom.  A grid came up on the screen, and a bunch of numbers and labels came up under it.  She mumbled, “Show us the answer to life, the universe, and everything, Mags.”
    I heard a deep hum and lights came up on the tub.  She input my problem and the grids filled in instantly and the lights went out in the tub and the hum dissipated.
    The men all cheered and started high fiving.  The Filipino imp was almost smirking smugly as she indicated the screen to me with a sweeping hand gesture.  I looked at it and in each square on the grid, the number forty-two.  I narrowed my eyes and pointed at one of the squares that had a thirteen instead.
    I prompted, “It got it wrong here.”  I thought quantum computing was supposed to be this amazing thing that was going to revolutionize the tech world forever, but it couldn't even do math reliably?
    She grinned and nodded, saying with pride, “Ninety-nine percent accuracy in predictive states of the qubits.  That beats the prior record of ninety-five percent from 'first try' by utilizing quantum tunneling in the landscape.  In application, the results like this would use a weighted set and use the most probable result.  We can successfully factorize one hundred forty-three using two qubits so far.”
    Wait, I knew this. “Doesn't Sky Computing have a one thousand qubit computer?”
    Everyone just froze and almost glared at me.  She spoke slowly, as she looked around at them, as if not to make any sudden moves around a dangerous animal.  “At ninety-five percent.  Their problems with quantum decoherence result in a system multiple times slower than that of a classical binary system.  They can't even conclusively prove they aren't just using a novel approach with simulated annealing instead of actual quantum annealing.”
    I grinned over the fact that her intelligence was so far beyond mine I doubted she could dumb things down enough for me to actually grasp.  I said in a serious tone, “Of course.”  This seemed to appease the nerdy gods, and everyone relaxed.
    Then she looked at the papers I had brought her where they sat on the counter beside the keyboard.  “Though we are stalled, as we can't accurately combine multiple qubit sets to come out with a predictive algorithm as to have a stable matrix.  We want to be the first.  If we can do it, then we can make the future of quantum computing a reality.”
    I nodded, understanding what it was to be stuck.  I looked around to the room of eyes, all on Liya, it was plain to see that they looked up to her as their leader.  I could tell all their hopes were all riding on her shoulders, and that was a big burden, having to live up to other people's expectations of you.  I felt for her.  I didn't need to be taking her away from something so important.
    I smiled and said, “Well, I should get out of here and leave you to your work.”
    She looked almost disappointed at that.  We started to turn, and I paused and