Why is a quantum computer much faster than a conventional one?
What can a quantum computer do and what cannot?
Can he "decrypt" a blockchain or crack combination locks?
Is the technology overrated - or is it so powerful that we cannot even rule out that our whole world is just a simulation, generated by a quantum computer?
These and many other questions are asked by users on websites such as gutefrage.net or Quora.
No wonder, because quantum computers have little in common with computers as we use them today.
They also solve completely different problems - or better: should solve completely different problems in the future.
Because even if Google demonstrated the so-called quantum superiority last year - the superiority of a quantum computer for a certain problem compared to the best conventional computer - the technology is far from being mature.
The physicist Andreas Dewes built a simple quantum computer himself for his doctoral thesis.
In the podcast he tells how - and why - he cooled it to almost minus 273 degrees Celsius, what "the art of quantum computing" is and why we won't put a quantum computer on our desks "in the next ten or 20 years".
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IBM quantum computer
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Dewes is now working on completely different topics, but quantum computers still fascinate him today.
That is why he gave lectures at the congresses of the Chaos Computer Club in 2014 and 2019, in which he summarized the state of research.
Germany is known for good basic research in this area, but not a single quantum computer has been installed in this country.
The first is to come from IBM and to go into operation in a data center of the group in Ehningen near Stuttgart in early 2021.
In Lower Saxony, universities, research institutions, companies and the state recently announced that they would develop their own quantum computer by 2025.
This is what the "power supply unit" is all about
Icon: enlarge Photo: Magdalena Lepka
This episode is the third of the fourth season of the "Power Supply" podcast, in which the editors of the Netzwelt department focus on various tech topics.
Season four is again about real questions from internet users on topics like hacking or Wikipedia.
The editors answer them together with experts.
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