Embracing Uncertainty: How to Make Quantum Computing Work

Modern microprocessors are tiny, delicate things. Prior attempts to design a quantum computer tried to make them work with absolutely determinable, Newtonian precision, just at a much smaller size. Instead, this team created a model where a quantum computer could tolerate a comparatively huge range of error -- losing up to a quarter of the total "qubits," or tangled-atoms that are the quantum-computing equivalent of bits of information -- but then reinterpret the data using a probabilistic error-correction mechanism. "Just as you can often tell what a word says when there are a few missing letters, or you can get the gist of a conversation on a badly-connected phone line, we used this idea in our design for a quantum computer," said lead author Sean Barrett. Consequently, quantum computers can be much easier to build, with much higher tolerances of data loss, than previously thought -- and still achieve remarkably fast, reliable results.