jseal –While the problem is unavoidable, the common technique used to filter out the noise is to encode the signal. The messaging system, or at least the message channel, can distinguish between packets by accepting as data (signal) packets having particular characteristics. That is one way of looking at encoding, the process puts a particular stamp on or shape to a message. Backing into the solution, if the signal can be identified, then the noise can be filtered out.

PalaceGuard,

Isn't encoding computationally expensive?

jseal - yes, but what commodity has had the greatest increase in cost/performance ratio over the last 10 years? MIPs are cheaper than dirt - and getting cheaper and faster daily.

PalaceGuard,

OK. So with encoding, we can be looking at a minimum of 10^27 or so measurements in 3 seconds.

Now in the almost 30 years since the original supercomputer, the Cray-1, was set up at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, computational speed has increased some 500,000 times.

Even if the rate of progress remains at this level, it will still be 150 years before the necessary computing power is available to be harnessed.

Sir, you’ll have to be fortunate to see teleporting in action! :)

Still it IS fun to speculate how it might be achieved.

:teleport:

Thank you!

jseal – Can’t agree with you. The rate of change will increase. One of the first applications of quantum entanglement will be in the field of quantum information science. When realized, the number crunching demanded for teleportation will be trivial compared to capacity. Here’s an example:

How many computational steps are needed to find the prime factors of a 300-digit composite integer number?

The best classical algorithm suggests about 5*10^24 steps – about 150,000 years with a 1 GHz clock. The cost of computing increases exponentially. Using quantum computing the cost rises only polynomially, and takes only 5*10^10 steps. Guess what? Less than 1 second on the same box. (Peter Shor, AT&T Labs, 1994)

It will be the rest of the engineering that’ll stop it from happening. Africandan also correctly pointed out that the receiver would have to pre-exist – so no spooky Star Trek opportunities there.

Still, it is theoretically possible – and it will be computationally possible sooner than you may think.

One good source on quantum information science for those who are interested – is www.qubit.org

PalaceGuard,

Perhaps I’m behind the times here – feel free to correct me, but isn’t all this about quantum computing just theoretical? I’m unaware of any computer having been built from these components. Mind you, I’m not saying that it CAN’T be done, only that – to my knowledge – it HASN’T been done yet.

I’d be more comfortable about your projections if I knew of any computer which functioned according to these principles. The Devil is in the details, and there seem to me to be a considerable number of engineering details still to be resolved between now and the time that these brave new machines will be available for use.