The CEO of Intel, Gordon Moore, and his 1965 paper on the topic describes the rate at which computers are improving and estimate this growth to continue for at least another decade. Moore’s prediction has proven accurate for decades and has been used in semiconductor research and development to set various targets. Many digital electronics are linked to Moore’s Law through their memory capacities, pixel counts, and sensor quality. These computers have possible applications throughout all fields, including medical science. In the face of quantum computing, Moore’s Law seems to be approaching the beginning of the end.
In the race towards improved computational ability, quantum computing emerged as a way to perform calculations which classical computers are not yet capable. They are also able to notice trends in data which traditional statistics would miss. This contains the possibility to personalize medicine, including significantly improve diagnostics. While classical computers depend on the binary -zero or one- system, quantum computers are capable of superposition. Superposition is a principle of quantum mechanics that states any two quantum states can be added together or superposed.
Rapid improvement in quantum computing has led to a new law for describing their progression, Neven’s Law. The director of the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab first mentioned this new law in May at the Google Quantum Spring Symposium. At the symposium, Navin said that quantum computers are gaining on classical computers at a “doubly exponential“ rate.
This incredibly fast improvement in the abilities of quantum computers is allowing scientists to expand the amount of knowledge we can possibly verify. The rate at which these improvements are occurring is so fast it’s difficult to describe. It’s so speedy a progression that quantum computing may be the first real-world example of doubly exponential growth.
While traditional computers have yet to become stagnant in their evolution, it requires the constant development of algorithms to keep classical computers at pace with Moore’s Law.
With the goal of quantum computing being the ability to perform calculations that cannot currently be stimulated in any reasonable amount of time, the milestone of quantum supremacy still remains elusive. That said, scientists say, based on Neven’s Law that quantum supremacy cannot be far off.
Sources: Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, Seeker
