Quantum at Solstice Click

Now on BBC News,

it is time to Click.

This week, the wired world of 360

video. The artistic world of Marina

Abramovic. And the strange world of

quantum computers.

Imagine a computer that could crack

the world's most secure codes in

minutes. Design extraordinary new

medicines. Even pave the way to

intelligent machines. Big tech

companies like Google, IBM and

Microsoft are all trying to be the

first to achieve a breakthrough in

the field of quantum computing. But

we are not quite there yet. At the

moment, if you want a quantum

computer, you need all of this. You

need your ionising lasers, your

cooling lasers, and your processor.

You need all of this, and currently

all this can do is add a zero and

one. But it does do it in a really

cool way. Quantum computers

harnessed weird and wonderful

phenomena seen only at very small

scales. The data in an ordinary

computer is represented as its, each

of which can either be zero or one.

-- bits. A quantum computer,

instead, users quantum bits or

qubits. Now, these qubits can be

both zero and one at the same time.

This is called superposition, and it

is a key feature of a quantum

computer's unique powers. So when a

quantum computer and one, it is also

adding one and a zero, and one and

one and one, and zero and zero, all

at the same time. So numbercrunching

could in theory done much faster on

a quantum computer.

There are a few

really important things that we know

they will be to do. If we can ever

build them. So one thing is

searching through a database. So

lets you have a list of a million

items, say, and you want to find a

particular item on that list. Well,

all an ordinary computer can do is

look through that list one at a

time, the first item, the second

item, and the third item, until

eventually you find the item that

you are looking for. A quantum

computer can in some sense look at

all of those items simultaneously.

We know that quantum computers will

be able to help Artificial

Intelligence learn better and learn

faster. Optimising things and

designing things, if you're trying

to design lets say the shape of a

car so that air will flow over it in

exactly the right way, that as an

optimisation problem. It looks like

quantum computers are going to be

extremely good at that.

And then

there is code breaking. If you give

an ordinary computer code to break,

it will try every possible

combination, one at a time, but give

a quantum computer a code to break

and it can try all the codes at

once.

This is a huge area of

application of quantum computers,

and it is financially the driving

force of putting money in the

industry and persuading people to

build the things. The first

government which has a functioning

quantum computer which can break

secret messages is going to be at a

big advantage, and maybe we want to

try and hide away the fact that they

have got those capabilities.

And, if

superposition wasn't weird enough, a

quantum computer's qubits can be

paired up or entangled, and then can

instantaneously affect each other

from anywhere else in the universe.

Well, that's all very well in

theory, but it is really hard in

practice. At Sussex University,

researchers are preparing for the

challenge of scaling up their

prototype quantum computers to take

them from handfuls of qubits on the

lab bench to an industrial scale.

So

what you see is an actual working

quantum computer. As we are filming

this, you can literally see an atom

for example be in one state and

another state simultaneously. And

what you see on this screen is the

evidence that that really occurs.

That really the atom is very strange

and counterintuitive state. So

quantum computers have been on the

waiver a long time, the Holy Grail

of science. And with that, it

actually seemed nearly impossible to

build them. So people felt maybe it

is just never possible to build such

a machine. The reason why it is so

hard is because to control quantum

effects in such a way, allowing us

to build a large-scale quantum

computer, is tremendously hard.

Quantum effects like if an atom can

be an two different places at the

same time, or entanglement, which

Einstein referred to as spooky, is

so hard to control.

At the moment

these prototypes offer a glimpse of

how these computers might work in

the future. How will we use them

when we have them? What does a

quantum computer programme looked

like?

The basic building blocks of a

quantum computer programme are

really very alien to us. They are

things like superposition and

entanglement. Those are the right

high-level concepts to put into our

quantum computer programmes, but it

is very hard for the human brain to

understand what entanglement is and

what its consequences are. Thinking

of qubits connected by pieces of

string actually works extremely well

to help us design and predict

quantum programmes and predict what

they will do. So perhaps a high

level quantum programme manager of

the future could look like I'm not,

or could look like children's game

of untangling fishing lines and see

who has which fish -- a knot. You

imagine going up and down and coiled

around, and the pattern of how those

strings interact has a bearing on

your quantum programme.

I do feel

the programmers have a little bit of

time to sort their software out,

though, because the hardware is also

still a work in progress. I have

gone underground to see Oxford

University's quantum computer. The

lab is a wizard's paradise of

lasers, vacuum chambers, and traps

for atom sized particles. It is an

ion trap. In the lab, they have

achieved a world record level of

control over their quantum bits.

They can even show off by making a

single qubit low in Morse code.

Click. What will your quantum

computer look like? It won't be the

size?

So ideally it looks incredibly

boring and incredibly small. So

takes an optic cable, two metres by

one metre high, we think we can get

this down to something the size of a

shoebox in the next five years.

Once

you have everything in the right

place.

Once we have everything the

right place, machine down,

optimised, and rather than made by

physicists, made by engineers.

Rather having knobs, when you have

enough people twisting them.

You are

not looking to put more and more

qubits into the same box, are you?

What we want to do is build some

devices which contain five or ten

qubits, but build many of these

devices. So it's the same as if you

have a supercomputer. Nowadays you

don't have one big computer, you

have lots of small computers, and

data centres thrumming with lots of

different machines. That is what we

envisage these things are.

It does

seem like it is not the most

efficient design, if you're plugging

lots of these things together with

optic fibre rather than making a

quantum computer that has 50 qubits

in one place.

Yes, the most

efficient device we could ever build

would have all the qubits being able

to talk to every other qubit. That

is ideally the place where you want

to be. But you always get to the

point where you can't put any more

qubits in the device. At that point,

we want to have a network we can

build-up. So once you have got as

big as you can with these

techniques, you can then network and

together to build and bigger

networks.

The huge potential of

quantum imputing has attracted big

tech players. Google told us it will

have something big to announce in

March 2018. IBM has a 20 qubits

quantum computer that researchers

can programme over the internet.

Both these companies are trying to

build reliable quantum computers of

around 50 qubits. Now, at this point

they will achieve something called

quantum supremacy, which sounds

world changing, but it might not be.

Why I don't like the phrase is that

when you cross that boundary,

nothing instantaneously magical

happens. It is just the point at

which you can't predict what the

machine would do. It is the point

that the machine might be useful for

something, but to be honest, we

haven't worked out anything that,

say, a 60 qubit wanton computer

could usefully do. So it is into the

uncharted territory, very exciting,

but it is not at the point where the

quantum hardware is supreme. You

should not throw away your phone or

your desktop and have a quantum

computer instead.

So with more tech

companies getting serious about

quantum computing, there is now a

place for them to show off their

ideas. It is the quantum

technologies fair in London, and we

have been along to see what is on

the quantum horizon. When it comes

to quantum computer, a lot of the

research seems to be happening in

academia but I wanted to find out

how much of it is being taken away

from the lab bench for applications

in the real world. Every stall at

this fare is using the same tech

used in quantum computing. The

principles of trapping, manipulating

and measuring tiny atom sized

particles. But the practical

applications here are creative, and

potentially life changing, from

diamonds used in heart disease

sensing to capturing individual

virus particles.

They are really

designed to be able to measure very,

very sensitively, at very small

lengths, so it is ideal for things

like nano particles, like viruses,

and indeed for measuring chemical

signatures, as well. Use the mouse

to move that scaled back and forth,

it should be fairly obvious when it

flashes really bright. There you go,

that's it. When it Wiggles around,

that is when you have got a particle

trapped in your resonator.

The

ultimate aim is that viruses could

be picked up using this diagnostic

tool. But the main focus now for

most people here is on overcoming

the engineering challenge of making

large, bulky systems a lot, lot

smaller. Heavy industry all the way

through to defence and security,

transport, and air technologies. It

is incredible to see how many stalls

here our research in so many

different areas when it comes to

quantum technology. And they are all

working together with an open source

mentality, along with a lot of

investment. The British government

spent £270 million over the last

five years on quantum technology

research.

The collaborative element,

especially the number of things that

NPL is involved in, because we have

a lot of the core technology and

science, and we are just looking at

what are the actual applications in

the UK business world.

From afar, a

lot of the applications here still

looked like complex machinery, but

Anne Curtis has been looking at its

potentials in an important area,

far, far away.

So one of the main

applications we can use the quantum

technologies is quantum sensors and

what we are doing in this experiment

is we want to sense greenhouse gases

and measure how much there is, how

that is changing over time. And one

good way to monitor large-scale

systems is from space. To put

something properly on a satellite,

it has to go through all the space

qualifying test, so every item in

they would have to be space

qualifying. Most of the fibre

technology isn't so good in space

due to radiation effects. But there

is no reason why this couldn't be

miniaturised and put up in the

space, it is just the next stage of

funding.

It is so hard to be here

today and not feel excited about

wanton technologies. At one thing

everybody has said to me is that

their particular real-world

applications are a few years in the

future still. So, when it comes to

quantum computing, it is still very

much a case of watch this space.

Hello, and welcome to the week in

Tech. It was the week that the

Federal Communications commission in

America voted to repeal rules on net

neutrality, which had stopped

internet service providers from

offering different speeds and

priorities for users online. An

elongated asteroid was being checked

for signs of alien technology, and

here on Earth, the faces of 2

billion people can be compared in a

matter of seconds with a minority

report style system from China. It

was also the week that Netflix was

caught up in a creepy viewing

controversy after revealing on

Twitter that 53 subscribers watched

the holiday film a Christmas Prints

every day for ten days. It

represented overall trends are not

specific individuals. The city of

San Francisco has banned the use of

delivery robots on most of its

sidewalks, stating not all

innovation is all that great for

society. Meanwhile, Dutch police say

it may not have been such a good

idea to use beagles to catch drones

after all. Who could have guessed as

Maxine here on Click on the birds

were trained to catch the drones

from the sky but the cost of keeping

them was too high, and they didn't

always do what they were told. And

finally, if you are missing Harry

Potter, don't despair. Artificial

Intelligence may have a solution for

you. A new chapter has been created

for a book called Harry Potter and

what looked like a poor job of a

large pile of ash. Its plot twists

include Harry dipping Hermione in

hot sauce and Ron turning into

spiders and trying to eat Hermione's

family.

Earlier this year we looked at some

of the 360 cameras which have taken

off in 2017. Daniel films with the

new kid on the block, the 360 --

Insta1 in Berlin. He was impressed,

easy-to-use, lots of features,

including this bullet time mode, a

bit like the film the matrix, where

you can get a picture of your sort

from all angles. But one of -- but

what have the more established names

in photography got to offer us? With

Christmas around the corner we sent

Daniel to a suitably festive place

to put two 360 cameras through their

paces. The ancient city of Bath

hosts a very traditional Christmas

market, one that I want to catch in

the round. I've got to make cameras

for the job. One is from Kodak. The

other is Nikon's. They look similar,

with two ultra- wide-angle lenses

capturing everything before the two

images are stitched together in

Camara. Look closer, and you will

see the Kodak sporting two different

lenses, one smaller than the other,

superwide 235 degrees lens. It also

has the tiniest of it controlled in

the world, and a slightly higher

price tagged them the Nikon. Our

producer has the Kodak, while I am

putting the Nikon through its paces.

Now, we don't just want to test

these cameras out in daylight when

all the conditions are absolutely

perfect. With these cameras we want

to test them out to see what they

are like as it starts to get dark.

Will the bright lights be a problem,

and will we see all of the details?

Time to go for a wander and see

who's 360 is best. Dive in, ladies.

Don't let me get in your way. In no

time at all I found the vested with

the stand. Not just whine, but

flavoured vodka here. The Nikon is

not put off by those flashing

lights. But the image is a little

dark, so we will brighten it for you

in postproduction. There you go. Now

you can see the other problem. The

image stitching means I've almost

lost my head before touching the

job. -- touching a drop. The Kodak's

which is brighter than the Nikon,

but we found the quality from that

wide-angle lens was softer than the

smaller lens on the other side of

the device of course, you are best

off with a stick attached to both of

these cameras, otherwise your hands

get in the way. To make the test

pharaoh we decided to see how these

cameras fared back to back. Or front

in front. All back to front. Well,

it is difficult to tell, to be

honest. We shot them side by side.

Look at this. We found a 360 Globe

for a 360 camera. And it is the

Nikon showing off more natural

colours, benefiting from a more

accurate wide balance. Although some

might prefer the warmer Kodak

results. It is very Christmassy. At

the chilly side a shop, the Kodak

warmed things up, while the nickel

and kept things natural and crisp.

Both cameras struggled to stitched

their shots to go perfectly. This is

the raw footage was no touching up.

The Nikon has done a reasonable job.

The stitching point is more visible

on the Kodak, partly because of the

different qualities of those two

lenses. On the upside, it is Kodak

that offers the ability to play with

how the images are stitched together

in its free software, something the

Nikon's more basic offering lacks.

For sheer fun, the Kodak also offers

greater flexibility when playing

back what you shot. This is little

planet mode. If you want to do it on

the Nikon you will need some

third-party 360 software which may

need additional cost. -- mean

additional cost. Finally, beating

everybody forgets when they use a

camera, sound.

It is very odd being

filmed.

We are being filmed as well,

it is 360.

And goodness me.

You can

tell she has had too much cider, it

is moving around a bit.

I'm just

called! We reckon both do a great

job, but the nickel is slightly

clearer. Although the Kodak offers

the possibility of attaching an

external microphone. So which camera

will enthusiasts be hoping Santa

brings them this year? We believe

the Kodak edges it for easier

postproduction, while the Nikon has

a better shot. But if you are hoping

for a trouble-free, cinematic

seamless result for under £400, you

may have to wait until something

else takes off. At least for now.

This is Acute art, a virtual reality

arts platform and a gallery without

walls. And it is about to launch

with the VR works by some of the

world's leading contemporary

artists. Amongst these works is won

by Marina Abramovitch, these

self-confessed grandmother of

performance arts who pushes her body

to the limits to challenge and move

people. Well, there is Marina. In a

tank of water. Well, she seems to

want to talk to me, but the water is

rising up her body.

Immersive

player, in real life, where someone

rescues another person, or offers

aid of any kind, there is a transfer

of energy. Approach the water.

I

think she wants me to touch the

glass.

Make contact.

Oh. Oh, OK,

right. Now I am somewhere very cold

and everything seems to be going

wrong. As always, with VR, you

really get a sense of scale. But ice

shelf looks absolutely enormous. And

it is crashing down right in front

of me. This work is an expression of

Marina's fear that humans will not

survive the consequences of climate

change if we don't change our

behaviour. I'm being covered in

spray. And now there is a note.

I

will walk instead of drive. I will

reuse what I can. I will reduce the

wayside cause.

Marina wants to leave

the participants with a feeling they

should do something good for the

planet.

We have to save this planet

that we are living on. I want to

create a little contract with the

planet Earth, and give my word

honour that I will do something to

save it. -- literal contract.

SCREAMING.

You are pretty well-known

for pushing your body further than

most people would want to push their

bodies. Here, you appear virtually

in a tank of water, but I get the

sense that you still need some

pretty real stuff to make it seem as

real as possible?

You know,

actually, to do this, I have to

really be in the water. We did it in

a swimming pool, with two divers

holding my legs. So I can really go

in and see can feel like I would

actually die if I didn't have any

more air to breathe. It is funny

that you have to do something which

is virtual, but you still have to do

it physically.

Before, you said you

don't think your performances can be

captured adequately with photos or

videos because you need to be there,

you need the experiences, it is

about actually physically being

there. I wonder if virtual reality

is close enough to being the, and

that is why you chose it, because it

is almost being there?

It is very

important, the energy dialogue

between the audience and the

performer. And the only thing that

can catch it, before it was video

with sound and movement, but virtual

reality is really another step

further, because you can go around

the objects, you can interact, you

can do this. But still, I think it

is a question of how much energy and

charisma can actually transfer from

the real performance into the

virtual body.

The rather mesmerising

Marina Abramovic. We will hear more

from Marina in next week's

programme, which is the Christmas

show, so expect tons of sensible

journalism and no fun whatsoever.

Maybe. In the meantime, you can

follow us on Facebook and on

Twitter, where we live at the BBC

click. Thanks for watching, and we

will see you next week for

Christmas.