Everyone Wants to Know

Tag: computing

  • Building Our Future

    This is the final blog in this trilogy on the fascinating world of quantum physics, and yes, quantum mechanics has opened my eyes to a whole dimension of possibilities. In fact, quantum mechanics is a field of science that we use all the time. If I am being honest, it is probably something that we rely on a bit too much. So, what is the biggest use case of quantum physics in today’s day and age? Quantum is responsible for all the buzz around AI. All the top companies like Microsoft, IBM and DeepSeek are working on a branch of computing called quantum computing that can not only help progress AI but do things that even normal supercomputers would find impossible.

    Quantum computing is an emerging field of computer science that harnesses the unique qualities of quantum mechanics to solve problems beyond the ability of even the most powerful classical computers. It can solve problems that a normal computer could never solve, in a matter of months. They are being used for complex tasks that we could never imagine understanding, for example, to cure cancer through simulations or representing protein folding for doctors and biologists respectively (both of which I have been told are very complex areas of science). Both of these issues were considered impossible but necessary to tackle and now with the help of these super computers, the possibility dawns closer.

    Quantum computers have two main responsibilities: modelling the behaviour of physical systems as well as identifying patterns and structures in information; something humans and computers can do, but the efficiency of a quantum computer is unmatched.

    The four most important principles when thinking about quantum computing is superposition, entanglement, decoherence and interference. The most important of which is superposition, which derives from the basics of quantum mechanics, the theory of Schrodinger’s cat. The principle of superposition is when two or more waves overlap, the resulting disturbance is equal to the sum of individual disturbances, but each wave does this without affecting one another which means their characteristics stay independent. Simply speaking, imagine touching the surface of a lake at two different points at the same time. The waves would spread outward until they eventually overlap. This is a superposition of water waves, but this same concept can happen with any waves. In mathematical terms it is a similar concept to how a square root can have two possible solutions, e.g. the square root of 9 can be 3 or -3.

    When an electron is in superposition, its different states can be thought of as separate outcomes each with a different probability. However, the outcome is only known until it happens which is when the superposition collapses. It is science’s way to be able to exist in multiple different states at the same time.

    Sunlight itself is a superposition of light. White light which we see from the sun and most man-made light sources, is a superposition of all the colours. The formation of a rainbow occurs when the superposition collapses as the light is refracted through rain droplets. There have been many experiments to prove this idea, theoretical and physical. The most famous example being the Double Slit Experiment carried out by Thomas Young.

    Superposition is enormously important in quantum computing as this is how these machines store data. Rather than storing data in a bit, the smallest unit of data represented by a 0 or 1, they store data in qubits. These qubits are often created by manipulating and measuring quantum particles specifically photons and electrons as they are very small. A qubit is special as it can store data as a 0 and a 1 until it is measured. Therefore, the possibilities of storage can be 0, 1, 00, 01, 10, 11. As you can imagine, if one qubit holds so many combinations, and each combination represents a bit of data, then you can store vast amount of data with the same number of bits. When someone wishes to access this data, the multiple states collapse to form one single binary bit possibility, where it can be registered as a 0 or a 1.

    Quantum mechanics is a growing part of our world and frankly where all the new innovations and discoveries lie, as well as the fascinating new world of AI. Qubits could be the secret to an eco-friendlier way of storing data without thousands of litres of water wasted cooling the data centres. If like me, you are interested in science mixed with two of the most relevant subjects, climate change and AI, then this is where our future understanding lies. Quantum mechanics is a fundamental part of all modern studies, and I believe that quantum computing in particular is a field that requires more great minds.

    If you found this interesting and would like to read more on the subject I would recommend these websites;

    What Is Quantum Superposition? – Caltech Science Exchange

    Principle of superposition | Definition, Examples, & Facts | Britannica

    What Is Superposition? (Definition, Examples) | Built In

    What is a qubit? | IBM

    What Is Quantum Computing? | IBM

    What is Quantum Computing? – NASA

    Difference Between Bits and Quantum Bits – GeeksforGeeks

  • Shadow of the Mind: The Call

    This article is part of a three-part series about the birth, life and future of AI. When my new articles are published you can find them on the blogs page on my home page.

    Imagine a machine that could talk, think and behave like a human. A machine that blurs the lines between something and someone. A piece of code that could become man’s new best friend. This was the dream of computer scientists in the late 20th century. Today that hope is transforming to reality. Science fiction has evolved into the real world, and now we use it all the time in the form of artificial intelligence.

    AI is a thinking bot that is used to help us in day-to-day life. Its mind is very complex and no one, not even the bot itself knows how it can think and learn from mistakes. The bots we use in social media and other day-to-day activities went through a long process to reach its current level of efficiency. However, by definition, they are yet to reach maximum productivity as they go through this iterative process to make the “brains” stronger and better.

    The process starts with a human engineer who makes a “starter” bot, a “builder” bot and a “teacher” bot. The builder bot makes random connections, similar to the neurotic connection in our bodies, in the starter bot’s “brain” and sends this bot to the teacher bot to be tested. The bot is then given different tests depending on its role. These test questions are designed to reflect the requirements needed for the specialised bot to perform its role as effectively as possible. The test questions often come from human online interaction data, especially from CAPTCHA Tests (Completely Automated public Turing test to tell Computer and Humans apart). For example, computer scientists need bots to help develop automated cars like Teslas. As these questions come from human interactions, your CAPTCHA Tests may ask you to identify traffic lights or zebra crossings. Once the bots take the test, the highest scoring bots are sent back to the builder bot who makes more random changes in the bot’s “brain” and the worst bots are destroyed. This process is repeated until a bot can seamlessly identify stop signs (similar to a human). This is the creation story of AI’s thought process and how they learn. However, because the builder, teacher, and student bots have no knowledge of the student’s randomly formed connections, the brain cannot be recreated, and the entire process must begin again. It is no different to the human brain. We may be able to understand some parts, or groups of neurons but the entire brain remains a mystery.

    AI is used to help humans by mimicking human intelligence and behaviour through a structured framework. The used cases are infinite in pretty much all fields of work. It can also be seen as a friend, mentor or a homework buddy. AI not only learns like a human but also deals with identifying patterns in data. While scrolling through social media, it is remembering what type of content you skip through, and which ones you view or engage with. Its job is to customise content based on user preference and progressively introduce variations to ultimately enhance engagement with the platform. This also enables targeted advertisement.

    However, unlike popular belief, AI is more of an evolution than a revolution and although many of us can think that Sam Altman is a pioneer, this invention dates back to the 1950s through the Turing Test (aka The Imitation Game) proposed by Alan Turing. It is described as a test which could help us understand how well a machine could replicate human behaviour and intelligence through conversation. Nevertheless, this was still a theory, and AI was not in use at this point. Even in 1956, when AI was starting to be introduced and John McCarthy coined the term artificial intelligence, AI was not used in a contextual scenario. I think the first remarkable milestone for AI was the invention of Dendral in 1972. Dendral is an AI system that helped chemists understand the atomic structure of certain unknown molecules. It was the first AI to be used in a useful context and in my opinion was AI’s first mark on history. From there, it leapt off, from IBM’s deep blue AI, defeating chess champion Garry Kasparov to more common chatbots like Open-AI’s Chat-GPT.

    Chatbots have become a huge part of society and inventors like Alan Turing, John McCarthy and Sam Altman are considered the greatest computational minds in history. AI is inevitably going to become a large part of our lives; it works in the background in areas unknown to us. In many billboards in US, cameras and sensors are used to detect the age group and mood of the people passing by and display content based off that data. This is just the start of AI’s peak; its full life and future are engulfed in many mysteries and secrets but until it is revealed we will be anxiously waiting.