Many-worlds and quantum computation
David Deutsch's many-worlds interpretation holds that a quantum computer executes calculations across all branches of the multiverse simultaneously, with quantum interference recombining the results when a measurement is made. The hosts note this framing gets borrowed and distorted in Hollywood, where 'multiverse' becomes a catch-all that spins out of control, citing Marvel as a recent casualty. The chapter ends mid-thought on Google's Willow chip, which completed a benchmark in under five minutes that would overwhelm today's supercomputers.
- Hartmut Neven, described as one of the heads of Google Quantum AI, wrote the blog post about the Willow chip's benchmark result that the hosts introduce at the chapter's close.
Transcript
This chapter, from the episode video's captions · 379 words
1:09:54Deutsch and Dwit and that's when Deutsch got into this like many worlds interpretation and he got really into it and in Deutsch's view when a quantum computer processes like these computational state states simultaneously what it's actually doing this is this is Deutsche's interpretation is that the calculations are executed across all of the different branches of your many worlds wave function in this like multiverse and then they recombine with quantum interference when we like make an observation. >> It's it's a form of interdimensional travel. Yeah. Effectively >> effectively in some for and using those cinematic parlance to think about it's
1:10:37we're we're going >> Yeah. We're we're like computing in multiple universes and then we're bringing it all together and we're using the extra compute of these other universes or extra whatever >> whatever. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what he thinks. And then you know that's how we can do it where it seems like ah it's it's so funny because this this is like um obviously uh aian ideology as I like to call it. >> Yeah. >> Um is one of the abuses in uh entertainment. >> Yeah. That is where quantum and then multi many worlds, excuse me, >> get kind of conflated and then spins out
1:11:19of control. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because with many worlds like I mean you could just say anything, right? If you're if you're in Hollywood, you just Yeah. Uh multiverse, right? And this Marvel has got themselves in a problem right now because because of all the stuff that they've done and they've basically saying, "Well, no, Iron Man only died in this universe, but not in the many other universe." >> Dude, Robert Downey Jr., I think you made enough money, right? Anyways, the reason why I bring this up is because um Hartmund Nevin, who is at Google Quantum AI, I think he's one of the heads there. um he wrote a blog post about Google's willow chip. Google's willow chip is this like latest of Google's quantum
1:12:02computing platforms um where the performance there on this benchmark was astonishing right and so what um Hartman Nevin wrote is that it performed a computation in under 5 minutes that would take today's supercomputers
From How Quantum Computing Actually Works (Part 1)
Part I of our quantum computing deep dive traces the field from Bell and Feynman to Deutsch and Shor—and explains what quantum computers actually do differently from classical machines.