In the field of quantum computing, this fragility is problematic because it can lead to computational errors. Quantum computers hold the promise of solving problems that classical computers cannot, including those in cryptography, chemistry, financial modeling, and more. Where classical computers use binary bits (either a “1” or a “0”) to carry information, quantum computers use “qubits,” which exist in states of “1” and “0” at the same time. As Preskill explains, the qubits in this mixed state, or superposition, would be both dead and alive, a reference to the famous thought experiment proposed by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935, in which a cat in a box is both dead and alive until the box is opened, and the cat is observed to be one or the other. What’s more, those qubits are all entangled. If the qubits somehow become disentangled from one another, the quantum computer would be unable to execute its computations.
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