There are a few things about quantum computing that I wanted to post here for a long time already. Then today I saw Ivan on Tech with this video:
and I thought this really needs some clarification.
Quantum Computing
Let’s first briefly explore quantum computing. This has become a buzz word, much like AI, and people ascribe all kind of magical properties to it.
Quantum computing is based on super-positions and quantum entanglement, so let’s look at those two first.
Super positions
In our daily reality things, objects, animals, plants, people are in one particular state at each moment. For example, I am either sitting or standing, but I can never do both at the same time.
An animal is either alive or dead, but can not possibly be both at the same time.
The light in my room is either on or off, etc. etc. you get the point.
Modern scientists, trapped in their math and deranged from reality, have concluded that on sub-atomic scale things are entirely different. Electrons, for example, can be in two different states at the same time, in fact, a single electron can be in two different locations at the same time.
The same goes for photons which are theorized massless particles.
The thing is, these sub-atomic and theorized particles always are in many possible states and locations until we do a measurement on them. The measurement forces the particle into one single state and one particular location. And even that within certain limits.
Quantum entanglement
This is a real gem. Suppose inside a house there is a man and a woman and they always leave the house at the same time but in opposite direction. If the man exits from the front door, the woman takes the back door and vice versa.
So, by watching the front door I know what happens at the back door, because these two events are somehow related/connected/entangled.
If I see a woman exiting the front door, then I know there is a man exiting the back door.
No magic here, but now let’s have a look at our quantum friends.
A very similar situation can be created in certain atoms, that always emit two photons (light particles) at the same time; one red and one green in opposite direction.
So, if I put this atom halfway between Alice and Bob, then every time when Alice receives a red photon, she knows that Bob got a green one.
But remember now that every unobserved photon is in a super position, so when Alice receives a photon it is both green and red at the same time. Only if she looks at it, she forces it into a single state, either red or green. But this also means that Bob received a photon in super position, both red and green at the same time. And if either Alice or Bob looks at her/his photon she/he forces that photon in a single state but at the same time the other photon is forced in the other state.
For example; Alice looks at her photon forcing it into the green state, then at the same time she forces Bob’s photon into the red state.
No matter how far Alice and Bob are separated, the very instant either one looks at his/her photon both photons are forced into a single and opposite state. This is called quantum entanglement, and it comes with an unsolvable problem, namely how do these photons communicate?
For if one is forced into the green state the other one is immediately forced into the red state, so how does the other photon know what state to get into?
The obvious solution
The observant reader may have noticed a tinge of disbelieve in my writing, and yes, he is right. I do not support this theory of super positions etc. The obvious solution to the above “unsolvable problem” is that there are no super-positions. The one photon was always red and the other always green and there is no need to communicate these states. But of course there is a reason why our scientists have come to this ludicrous idea and well, to keep this short, let me just say that I think they misinterpret certain experimental results, and also the abandonment of the ether complicates matters enormously.
Yet, let’s go along with our scientific friends for now and see where their road leads us.
Faster than light communication
Many people have tried to use quantum entanglement as a means of communication. Unfortunately that is entirely impossible. Last time I checked all scientists agreed on this. That is why I am surprised to frequently see papers and articles emerging from people who say they want to use this for long distance, non-wiretap-able, faster than light communication. It simply can not be done. It would go against the very foundations of physics as we know it, it would go against causality. We have to draw a line somewhere. Really, this can not be done.
Back to computing
Today’s computing consists of performing operations on bits. A bit can be in 2 states; “0” or “1”. Bits are combined in bytes or groups thereof and they are given some meaning; for example a number or a text. We tell the computer how to process these bytes and how we want to see the result.
Quantum computing is entirely different. First, it uses q-bits (quantum bits) instead of ordinary bits. And these q-bits can be in a super-position, so they can be “0” and “1” at the same time. As usual, when we measure its state, it will be forced to become either a “0” or “1”. Second, a quantum computer does not process information, it does not “execute a program” as we are used to.
We don’t need to tell the computer what to do, instead we need to tell it what a correct answer would look like, or how we would evaluate its answer.
You could visualize all possible outcomes as a field and what you need to do is to raise the undesirable areas and lower the desirable areas. Then switching the computer on, is like throwing a marble on this field. This marble will roll to a low point in the area, but not necessarily the lowest and thus provide you with an answer.
But as it is not necessarily the lowest point, it is not necessarily the best solution. It doesn’t even have to be a good solution. That is the best way to visualize what a quantum computer does.
Quantum hacking encryption
When it comes to breaking encryption a traditional computer would have to consider trillions of trillions possible keys, something that is simply not feasible. But if you could describe the landscape of all possible keys in some way, then a quantum computer could very quickly give you a key worth trying. As the quantum computer does not necessarily give you a working key, you may have to ask it a million times to give you a key and maybe it will give you a key that works.
Defining the landscape
So the difficulty is now how to define the landscape of trillions of trillions of keys in such a way that the quantum computer has a reasonable chance of producing a working key, and that is far from trivial. With the SHA256 algorithm it may take years or even decades before someone will be able to do this, but maybe a cleverly designed AI program could help here.
With other algorithms and especially combined algorithms (such as X11 and X13) I think it is impossible. In other words, those algorithms are “quantum resistant”.
Back to reality
As I already said, I do not believe in the underlying principles of quantum computing and so, I do not believe a real quantum computer, such as originally theorized, will ever see the light. At this time D-wave and IBM are saying that they are building quantum computers and they are both also saying that what the other party does is not “real” quantum computing, as both parties are doing something very different.
Funny….
So SHA256 will not get quantum hacked
No… it will get “quantum” hacked. In fact it is already hacked.
Just imagine that you are head of a secret service (let’s call it the NSA) and you want to develop a secret encryption method. You know from the very start that at some point others will start using it to encrypt things that you may be interested in. So what would you do? Exactly, you would build in a back-door, and keep that secret key somewhere very secret. Also you would design a version with a different back door for your own top-secret communications. So that even if the back door key would ever get public, your top-secrets remain secret.
This is just basic logic. Nothing quantum, nothing AI, nothing magic.
So would this back-door exist?
If I dive in the code I find this:
var K = [
0x428A2F98, 0x71374491, 0xB5C0FBCF, 0xE9B5DBA5,
0x3956C25B, 0x59F111F1, 0x923F82A4, 0xAB1C5ED5,
0xD807AA98, 0x12835B01, 0x243185BE, 0x550C7DC3,
0x72BE5D74, 0x80DEB1FE, 0x9BDC06A7, 0xC19BF174,
0xE49B69C1, 0xEFBE4786, 0x0FC19DC6, 0x240CA1CC,
0x2DE92C6F, 0x4A7484AA, 0x5CB0A9DC, 0x76F988DA,
0x983E5152, 0xA831C66D, 0xB00327C8, 0xBF597FC7,
0xC6E00BF3, 0xD5A79147, 0x06CA6351, 0x14292967,
0x27B70A85, 0x2E1B2138, 0x4D2C6DFC, 0x53380D13,
0x650A7354, 0x766A0ABB, 0x81C2C92E, 0x92722C85,
0xA2BFE8A1, 0xA81A664B, 0xC24B8B70, 0xC76C51A3,
0xD192E819, 0xD6990624, 0xF40E3585, 0x106AA070,
0x19A4C116, 0x1E376C08, 0x2748774C, 0x34B0BCB5,
0x391C0CB3, 0x4ED8AA4A, 0x5B9CCA4F, 0x682E6FF3,
0x748F82EE, 0x78A5636F, 0x84C87814, 0x8CC70208,
0x90BEFFFA, 0xA4506CEB, 0xBEF9A3F7, 0xC67178F2
]
and
this._a = 0x6a09e667
this._b = 0xbb67ae85
this._c = 0x3c6ef372
this._d = 0xa54ff53a
this._e = 0x510e527f
this._f = 0x9b05688c
this._g = 0x1f83d9ab
this._h = 0x5be0cd19
Many strange parameters… Although at this point I can not prove anything, I find this very, very, suspicious.
Well that concludes my thoughts on the subject. What are yours?