High School Library of Babel quantum state

[Juanchotutata]

Hello!

If the Library of Babel has 10^(2,000,000) books, does anyone think that it is possible to create a quantum state (with a quantum computer) that represents this Library? I think that in a classical way it is impossible, but in a quantum way?

I find it quite interesting! What about you? :)

 

[Vanadium 50]

You could convert everything to binary, then convert the binary to a number between zero and one, and then mark a stick at that length. Problem solved.

 

[tnich]

You could convert everything to binary, then convert the binary to a number between zero and one, and then mark a stick at that length. Problem solved.

Or you could just build a tower that high.

 

[Juanchotutata]

You could convert everything to binary, then convert the binary to a number between zero and one, and then mark a stick at that length. Problem solved.

I was thinking about calculating the number of bits which would correspond to 10^(2,000,000) books and see if it is possible to represent it with a quantum computer.

 

[tnich]

I was thinking about calculating the number of bits which would correspond to 10^(2,000,000) books and see if it is possible to represent it with a quantum computer.

Quantum computers are not well-suited to storing information. It takes as many qubits to store your library of Babel as non-quantum bits. Another serious drawback to the idea is that qubits don't stay coherent very long, and the information you stored would only be retrievable for a very short time even with best current technology. You could improve the retention time with quantum error correction, which would require even more qubits. I think you are expecting that quantum entanglement would allow you to store and retrieve a lot of information with a small number of qubits. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. The number of bits of information a quantum computer can output is limited to the number of its component qubits. So even if you could store 2ⁿ bits of information in n qubits, you would only be able to get n bits back out, leaving you with a sort of write-only memory.