Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts: 1

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Real quantum computers always look like cheesy sci-fi movie prop computers. (self.showerthoughts)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by LovableSidekick to c/showerthoughts

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I always expect to see a James Bond villain or some sexy robot women in the room.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

#not a quantum engineer

So allegedly most of what we see here is temperature control.

The qubits are stored in a chip in the bottom. Normal electronic stuff is at the top.

Each (circle) layer is kept at a different specific temperature. The normal electronic signals start at room temperature and cascade to lower and lower temperatures to interact with the qubits. The “reply” then cascades back up.

[–] StructuredPair 20 points 1 month ago

Most of that is the helium dilution refrigerator. Most electronic quits work at near absolute zero, so all of what you see here is wiring for the quantum computer (all those co-ax cables) and the equipment needed to manipulate the helium mixture to cool things down (you need the right mixture of helium isotopes because they boil at different temperatures so boiling away one isotope allows the remaining isotope to get even colder).