yradnauQ mutnauQ

Putting Descartes before the (non-existent) horse:

A quantum computer program has produced an answer without actually running.

The idea behind the feat, first proposed in 1998, is to put a quantum computer into a "superposition," a state in which it is both running and not running. It is as if you asked Schrödinger's cat to hit "Run."

The theory suggested the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have improved on the original design and built a non-running quantum computer that really works.

Got a headache yet?


(Hat-tip to The Mad Builder of Periwinkle)