[Tutor] Quantum computing

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 11:36:37PM -0500, David Hutto wrote:

> My main question/topic, is what is to become of languages like python with
> the emergence of quantum computing?

Almost certainly no change. I expect that quantum computing is still 
decades away from becoming common in high-end supercomputing, and 
decades more before it becomes mainstream -- if it ever does. But when 
(if) it does, it will probably require a completely different computing 
paradigm to take advantage of it. I don't expect it will be something 
that existing languages will be able to take advantage of except perhaps 
in extremely narrow areas.

It will probably be possible to simulate a Von Neumann or Harvard 
machine architecture on a Quantum Computer, in which case there may be 
Python interpreters for them (assuming anyone is still using Python when 
quantum computers become mainstream).


> How will python evolve to meet the needs of these newr technologies
> intertwining into the marketplace?

It probably won't, in the same way that Python hasn't evolved to suit 
parallel processing computers. At most, you have a few techniques for 
adding a sprinkling of parallelism into an otherwise mostly sequential 
program: threads, and multi-processing. There are a few libraries 
designed to add parallelism to Python, such as Copperhead and Parallel 
Python, but the language remains primarily sequential.

I see no reason to expect quantum computing will be any different.


-- 
Steven