Quantum computing, let’s reduce weirdness

This is true. When we hear about Quantum Computing, we hear a lot of noise and so few useful information. But, after the all-too-usual “This revolution is going to blow everything”, you’ll find very little understandable talk.

So, I was left collecting a few knowledge bits about this, that I would like to share with you here. It won’t blow your mind (with one exception identified below), but I think it could help us all.

Note: The articles listed below with an [en] mark, are written in English; Those listings starting with [fr] are in French.

• [en] First, the definitions of Quantum Computing, thanks to Wikipedia.
• [en] John Horgan, staff writer at Scientific American, interview of Peter Shor, of Shor’s Algorithm fame (“Quantum Computing for English Majors“) is trying to separate the hype from reality.
• [en] There are people in the QC community who are afraid of the consequences of over-hyping the whole QC field. They fear that it could bring some kind of “winter” when the field would become frozen when people and organizations start to think that the whole hype was no more than blown air, stopping the real underlying scientific effort (like it happened during the “Winter of AI” for 20 years after the initial efforts in the ’80s.
  ComputerWorld talks about the QC bullshit-sniffers at @BullshitQuantum (on Twitter).
• [en] Finally, here comes the real hardcore: Quantum Computing for the very curious. This paper does not try to make things easy; It makes sure that you learn the fundamentals. One consequence: this is a long paper and you’d better take your time to read it.
• [fr] Enfin, voici une introduction en bon français mais dense. Pas très récent (2006) mais “Introduction à l’information quantique” (PDF, Bellac Le. Introduction à l’information quantique. 2006. ￿cel-00092955￿) est d’actualité.
• [fr] Encore un peu plus ancien (2002), un article du même titre (“Introduction à l’information quantique“), peut-être légèrement plus simple.