+++ Categories = ["Interpretations"] bibfile = "mechphys.json" +++
Quantum computing is a major research area that attempts to leverage the exponential size of the [[configuration space]] to accomplish types of computation that would otherwise be exponentially slow on standard Turing machine computers. As such, it represents the ultimate real-world test of the true exponential size of the quantum state space, and the corresponding [[non-locality]] implied by configuration space.
If there are instead limits to the effective size and non-locality of the quantum state space, then at some point these limits should show up in quantum computers ([[@Aaronson04]]). The existing [[Bell]]'s inequality tests have already established what looks like non-locality, but it is still possible that these effects result from some kind of superluminal propagation speed of the quantum wave.
The core element in a quantum computer is a qubit, which has a quantum binary state, capable of being in a pure state of 0 or 1 like a regular binary bit, but, critically, also capable of being in a superposition of both 0 and 1. In the actual computers, the qubit is typically either the polarization direction of a [[photon]], or the [[spin]] direction of a [[fermion]].