applications

3 points by msolomentsev 20 hours ago

Hi HN - If you're anything like me, you've seen the occasional quantum computing posts here and skimmed through them, hoping that the comments would explain the significance (or lack thereof) of the results in question. I got to the point where I just wanted to read a proper book about the field, so that I could understand what quantum computing 'is' at a high level (I'm technical, with an EE PhD, but not a physics or CS guy).

Unfortunately, I found that there wasn't really a text that fit my needs. There are books that explain the math/CS theory at an appropriate level (I recommend Scott Aaronson's Quantum Computing Since Democritus and Thomas Wong's Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing), but nothing that deals with the hardware or the applications (both of which I am very interested in).

So I did a lot of self-education and paper-reading, and wrote the book I wanted to read. It's called Quantum Computing for the Confused, and it's available online (and in pdf/epub) completely free. It's fairly short (40k words) and meant to be accessible to audiences with a bit of technical literacy. I'll also note that it is 100% human generated! :)

The book has four sections, each looking at a different aspect of quantum computing: its theory; how these systems are implemented in real hardware; what quantum computers may be used for; and what the industry looks like today. I think this work fills an important niche in layman-oriented writing about the field, which I think does not do a good job making itself intelligible to outsiders.

If you're interested, you can find it here: https://quantumcomputingfortheconfused.com/

Happy to discuss and chat further. Cheers!