"A nascent commercial quantum computer has arrived at Los Alamos National Laboratory . It could solve certain problems with such astonishing speed that it would be like pulling answers out of a hat."
For the past 10 years scientists and computer engineers have been designing a new type of computer. A Quantum Computer. They are described by one developer as capable of executing problems that all of the silicone based CPU's in the world, could never complete.
That's a bold statement.
Their compute capabilities are listed in not your normal "bits", but "qubits". The Qu standing for Quantum. Rather than one's and zero's - they have a third value in which both can exist. Using this Qubit technology, which developers cannot go into more detail about, the device is capable of attempting all possibilities of the input equation, at the same time.
The device operates in a temperature environment cooled to just above absolute zero. Cooler than interstellar space - Yet the device itself doesn't generate any heat - It must be cooled to this temperature to pull of it's quantum computations.
How does it compute these problems?
Using the Qubit technology, which developers are not allowed to discuss, the device attempts all possibilities of the input equation, at the same time.
"Five hundred qubits can test more possibilities in the blink of an eye than there are atoms in the visible universe."
Lead developers have described these quantum computers as:
"Appearing to have a heartbeat."
"Standing next to the Altar of an Alien God."
In my eyes these have been the long term goal of trans-humanists. The ability to step beyond normal computation has been one of the limiting factors in the creation of artificial intelligence. A device capable of choosing an outcome in this way is no longer computing - it's making decisions. These are the future of computers and the future of us as well.
Technology that can not be un-invented although if it could - we would need it to figure out how.
Sources:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a18475/google-nasa-d-wave-quantum-computer/
http://www.dwavesys.com/d-wave-two-system