this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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Ok now i'm gonna need an explain-like-i'm-not-a-quantum-scientist on what a 'topological transistor' is, and what it uses instead of electrons for its compute (and, like, what is the significance?)
to most people (including myself, who did take college level modern physics. course), explaining the standard model of elementary particles, is way too high of a level regardless.
its like being given scifi names and terminology, and then suddenly finding out theyre real.
Lmao, yea I think they're kind of playing a game with language here.
After doing some reading of various explanations, what they mean when they say they aren't using electrons for computation is basically that the 'thing' they're measuring that dictates the 'state' of the transistor is a quasi-particle..... but that particle is only observed through the altered behavior of electrons (i guess in the case of the majorana particle, it appears as two electrons gathered together in synchrony?)
So the chip is still using electrons in its computation in the same say as a traditional transistor - you are still sending electrons into a circuit, and the 'state' of the bit is determined by the output signal. It's just that, in this case, they're looking for specific behavior of the electrons that indicate the presence and state of this 'qbit'
That is just my layman's understanding of it
So much of modern tech is just misusing words they heard from sci-fi stuff that was already misusing words they heard in physics class.