Our quantum world with Jim Murray

Every Thursday 19:30-20:30 on the Discovery Channel!

Alexander Ivlev (MSc. Applied Physics, TU Delft)

“First of all, thanks for inviting me to your show, Jim! And that’s an interesting question. Would today’s 12-year-old be able to design a quantum computer? Surely not! But is that same 12-year-old better in using quantum computers than its inventor? Most definitely, given their intuitive under-standing of quantum mechanics already at an early age. It’s funny, how my grandchildren react when I tell them how we experienced life before anyone could see quantum. I guess it’s like when blind people tell us how they view the world. I remember watching vlogs by a blind woman 50 years ago, on a platform called YouTube. I could somewhat imagine what kind of impairment it was for her, but she barely grasped our experience. That blind person, that’s who we are to kids these days, blind to the principles that govern the whole universe.”

“You said that we were blind, as if the inability to see the quantum world is an impairment. Yet, society was able to function perfectly without. Humans have done so for millennia. Why is it so essential?”

“Well, the short answer is that we believed this was the way to progress in quantum technology, or honestly technology in general: medicine, material-science, logistics, simulations, all of it depends on quantum tech nowadays. But back then, say 2039, apart from some breakthroughs every few years, there was no progress, surely no stable one, and the field seemed doomed to a slow death. Some concluded that the big problem was fundamental: there was not enough intuitive understanding of the principles of quantum mechanics. There were a few geniuses here and there that brought the field forward, but in slow and non-consistent steps. We were in dire need of more quantum talent.”

“Looking back, what do you feel was the turning point in that?”

“To me it was when Jason Flamming came with a new idea of visualizing quantum-mechanical phenomena on one of his visits to Delft. We didn’t think much of it at first, but then he came with a demo, utilizing VR technology. We could walk through a virtual classroom at TU Delft, and tweak some of the fundamental constants. ‘What would happen if Planck’s constant was higher?’, we asked. And we’d of course see wave-particle duality emerging, but also phase-changes in materials, changes in electrical conductance; Jason had programmed in a few things. It was quite an experience to see all the physical phenomena we had been working on for decades right in front of our eyes. During that demo, I saw middle-aged, grumpy CTO’s, professors and investors suddenly turn into children. Myself, of course, included.” (laughing)

“And was that also suited for daily use, like anyone can do today?”

“Well, at that point, we could just about sustain a single user. We took baby steps. With the help of AI and AR progress, we could integrate the software in a set of glasses, which later would be replaced with the neural interface we now use. The data would be sent to the quantum processor in the cloud, which simulated the material behavior under parameter changes made by the user. That was, say summer 2040 when the first prototype was in use.”

“And when did you realize that this would reignite the quantum revolution?”

“For me, the big, ‘wow, we actually hit gold’ moment, was when one of my postdoc researchers called me up after a few hours on the simulator. He thought of a novel way to reduce some noise that we had struggled with for decades. As a result, we decided to make this technique widely available for any researcher: people could reserve time on the simulator, running on a dedicated quantum computer. It was in essence an educational tool, as it still is today, which enabled such in-depth knowledge that the productivity of its users was unparalleled. The step to introducing it to high schools quickly followed. As a result, technological progress escalated, and to accelerate that further the UN Education Commission founded QSight in 2051, which you all know about. But that’s an entirely different story.”

“Amazing, I’d love to hear about that some other time. Thanks a lot for being here, Dr Philip Hay!”