this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
170 points (98.3% liked)

Showerthoughts

30031 readers
886 users here now

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. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics
    • 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
    • 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
    • 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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

top 27 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I realized I've never actually seen a quantum computer. When I saw this post, I decided to look one up, and expecting them to look like some old storage server or something. I mean they can't look that antiquated, right?

Then I saw one on the Internet, and realized quantum computers look like THIS:

[–] beansbeansbeans 10 points 1 day ago

This is the interior of the computer. They hang it to reduce vibrations as well as thermal fluctuations. I work in a different area of physics, but my uni has one of these quant computers and I've spoken to my colleagues who work on it. When they need to run an experiment the whole setup gets enclosed in a vacuum-sealed container and brought down to near absolute zero. Really neat to see in person.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It looks like a freakin' laser beam gun.

[–] thermal_shock 3 points 21 hours ago

Jewish space laser?

[–] kautau 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah I really loved the look of the quantum computer in Alex Garland’s Devs

Turns out it’s pretty close to the real thing

[–] MojoMcJojo 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Such an amazing show. Watched it blind with no idea of what I was getting into. And the soundtrack is right up there with Arrival's.

[–] kautau 3 points 22 hours ago

Absolutely. I’ve always been a big Nick Offerman fan and I loved his performance in it, a fantastic show all around.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They used that quantum computer as a reference for the show prop

[–] kautau 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Totally makes sense, I just happened to see them in reverse. But props to Alex and team for doing the research and seeing the beauty of an actual quantum computer and using that for the show. At the advanced level they’re at in the show, it probably won’t look so much like that as they get smaller and more efficient, but the “vacuum-tube-punk” aesthetic is really neat

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 day 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 19 points 1 day 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).

[–] LovableSidekick 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

How are those AI generated images relevant?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's not the computer, that's the cooling system.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

There is quite a bit more than just the cooling system in the picture. Coax cables take control signals from room temperature to the quantum processor and readout signals back. The signal paths include attenuation, filtering and amplification in various stages. The processor itself is in a magnetic shield, which is the grey cylinder at the bottom.

[–] tdawg 32 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yuh. It's early days though. They'll have it in a standardized black or grey box int he next decade or two

[–] LovableSidekick 7 points 1 day ago

That'll actually be a shame.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Once when I was robbed I was messing around with hardware on my workstation so had the shell off. The thieves did not take the naked tower.

[–] LovableSidekick 23 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"Grab that."

"No you, I'm not touchin' that."

Or they might have assumed there was something wrong with it. I learned a trick at Microsoft to not have my desk chair "borrowed" for meetings - put a big piece of duct tape on it, Nobody wants the duct taped chair lol.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

TIL Microsoft can't afford enough chairs for meetings.
WTF do they do with all that money? They're obviously not spending it on their OS.

[–] LovableSidekick 3 points 1 day ago

Sometimes a conference room gets overloaded for a big meeting, sometimes people have pirated conf room chairs as desk side chairs... it varies.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

ooh thats a good trick. will remember.

[–] LovableSidekick 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

related, nobody steals pink power tools. A building contractor friend of mine had some pink paint leftover from a bathroom remodel, so he slapped it on all his power tools - no more tools stolen on job sites!

[–] RebekahWSD 6 points 1 day ago

I wouldn't steal them, but the little girl inside me would clap delightedly upon seeing pink power tools anywhere!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The "cheesy sci-fi movie prop" look is usually either heavily influenced by, or quite literally, retrofuturism, which itself is very often inspired by the early computing era. Considering quantum computers are basically in their infancy, they will indeed look like a mix of old/future tech for some time.

[–] eruchitanda 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It always reminds me of the TARDIS for some reason.

[–] LovableSidekick 15 points 2 days ago

Maybe because they tend to be round. Some of them make me think of the old Cray supercomputer,s but with a ton of extraneous wires and plumbing added to look more futuristic.