Quantum neural computer

[Dr. S. Kak]

Hitherto all computers have been designed based on classical laws.
We consider the question of building a quantum neural computer and
speculate on its computing power.  We argue that such a computer
could have the potential to solve artificial intelligence problems.

History tells us that paradigms of science and technology draw on
each other.  Thus Newton's conception of the universe was based on
the mechanical engines of the day; thermodynamics followed the heat
engines of the 19th century; and computers followed the development
of telegraph and telephone.  From another point of view, modern
computers are based on classical physics.  Since classical physics
has been superseded by quantum mechanics in the microworld, one
might ask the question if a new paradigm of computing based on
quantum mechanics can be constructed.

Intelligence, and by implication consciousness, has been taken by
many computer scientists to emerge from the complexity of the
interconnections between the neurons.  But if it is taken to be a
unity, as urged by Schrodinger and other physicists ,
then it should be described by a quantum mechanical wave
function.  No representation in terms of networking of classical
objects, such as threshold neurons, can model a wave function.
This is another reason that one seeks a new computing paradigm.

A brain-mind identity hypothesis,
 with a mechanistic or electronic representation of the brain
 processes, does not explain how self-awareness could arise.  At
the level of ordinary perception there exists a duality and
 complementarity between an autonomous (and reflexive ) brain and
a mind with intentionality.  The notion of self seems to hinge on
an indivisibility akin to that found in quantum mechanics.  This
was argued most forcefully by Schrodinger, one of the creators of
quantum mechanics.

A quantum neural computer will start out with a wavefunction that
is a sum of several different problem functions.  After the evolution
of the wavefunction the measurement operator will force the
wavefunction to reduce to the correct eigenfunction with the
corresponding measurement that represents the computation.

A discussion of these issues is contained in my TECHNICAL REPORT
ECE/LSU 92-13, December 15, 1993 entitled

CAN WE BUILD A QUANTUM NEURAL COMPUTER?

If you would like to have an electronic copy (minus the math)
do let me know. Hard-copies are also available.

-Subhash Kak
Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5901, USA

Tel:(504) 388-5552; Fax: 504-388-5200