Chapter 185 184: Quantum Supercomputer

With these heavy-duty spaceships as his ultimate safeguard, Li Qingsong could finally, truly pour all of his energy, brainpower, and resources into advancing technology.

This was a true all-out effort, racing against the clock, where not a single second could be wasted.

Five years. Only five years. For an ordinary Electroweak Civilization, five years might not even be enough to complete the preliminary project approval for a single major scientific research mission. But for Li Qingsong, the technological breakthroughs he had to achieve, both large and small, numbered in the tens of millions—and that included the quantum supercomputer!

Every minute, every second was precious.

Under Li Qingsong's all-out push, supported by the resources of dozens of planets and tens of thousands of transport ships shuttling back and forth, countless factories roared day and night. They produced device after device, crate after crate of consumables, all of which were funneled into a nearly infinite number of experiments.

There were Clones who did nothing but lie in bed, dedicated to thinking and contributing brainpower. There were Clones specifically assigned to care for the daily needs of that first group. Others executed the Skynet Project, ensuring industrial production and scientific research proceeded without interruption. Still others maintained industrial output, mined resources, worked on the front lines of scientific research, or managed the operations of various factories...

And so on and so forth. A total of 1.02 billion consciousness connections were active on the Clones at all times.

The Clones still needed to rest for a period each day, but Li Qingsong himself never rested, not even for a single second.

Inside the Quantum Laboratory, several million front-line Clones were spread across various research fields, completely focused on their work.

To research quantum computers, the first problem to overcome was the stability of qubits.

A pair of entangled quanta could easily be disturbed by the outside environment, causing them to lose their entanglement. This is the process of decoherence.

To maintain stable operation, the problem of decoherence had to be solved.

Furthermore, a truly practical quantum computer requires an extremely high number of qubits. This causes the difficulty of maintaining stability to increase exponentially, making it a monumental challenge.

After preliminary theoretical research and actual experimental verification, Li Qingsong decided to tackle this problem from several angles.

First was the development of new superconducting materials.

Superconducting materials are not actually rare in low-temperature environments. Many common materials enter a superconducting state when cooled to a certain point.

But these materials were not suitable for quantum computers. Beyond the requirement of superconductivity, there were many other criteria, such as toughness, ductility, photosensitivity, and so on.

A material had to meet all the standards to be viable.

Following the principles of material science accumulated over the years, Li Qingsong continuously carried out research and development on new materials with atomic-level precision.

Besides materials, Li Qingsong also had to find a sufficiently powerful quantum error correction method. This was necessary to accurately identify a qubit that had decohered due to accidental interference, then nullify its effects and reduce the accumulation of errors.

Quantum error correction algorithms are completely different from algorithms for conventional electronic computers. The work wasn't just mathematical; it also involved extremely fundamental principles of physics.

To research this set of algorithms, Li Qingsong had to simultaneously launch a massive number of fundamental physics studies. He used a Particle Collider for constant collisions to study the behavior of Particles at extremely high energy levels. At the same time, in high-temperature laboratories, he raised Particle temperatures to hundreds of quadrillions of degrees Celsius. Alternatively, in high-pressure laboratories, he used diamond anvil cells to extremely compress gases, even reaching pressures equivalent to the core of Earth, all to obtain data on Particle motion and behavior.

Beyond the error correction algorithm, Li Qingsong had to make a breakthrough in another area as well.

Cryogenic cooling technology.

Quantum computers can only operate stably at extremely low temperatures, even approaching absolute zero.

Normally, cooling should not have been an obstacle for Li Qingsong.

After all, the space environment itself is extremely cold, and refrigeration technology was already well-established.

In the laboratory, Li Qingsong had long been able to create temperatures only one-trillionth of a degree above absolute zero, observing numerous new physical phenomena in such cryogenic environments.

However, a quantum computer is large in size. It requires cooling a macroscopic object, and this object is constantly running and generating heat. Thus, from an engineering perspective, even though its required temperature was only 1 Kelvin—much higher than the cryogenic temperatures achieved in the lab—the difficulty was actually greater.

For this reason, Li Qingsong had to conduct extensive research into Laser cooling, magnetic evaporative cooling, and Bose-Einstein condensate in order to find a suitable method for cooling the quantum computer.

At the same time, Li Qingsong also had to research extremely precise cryogenic Laser manipulation techniques.

The essence of a quantum computer is the manipulation of qubits to make them perform calculations. And the means of this manipulation is the Laser.

Because the objects being manipulated were quanta, and the manipulation had to be done at extremely low temperatures, the precision and reliability required of the Laser controllers were astronomically high.

Li Qingsong had to develop an extremely precise light source and controller to have any hope of overcoming this challenge.

These challenges were merely broad categories. In reality, each problem could be broken down into thousands of smaller sub-projects. Each sub-project required a large team dedicated to its research, and the different projects could be interconnected, forming a complexity like a tangled mess.

But at this moment, Li Qingsong didn't even have time to feel intimidated by these seemingly insurmountable, mountain-like obstacles, nor did he have time to contemplate just how difficult they would be to overcome.

'No matter how hard it is, just get it done.'

This scientific force, equivalent to that of ten ordinary Electroweak Civilizations, threw itself into the work with the perseverance of the Foolish Old Man who moved mountains.

Time slowly slipped by as Li Qingsong gave it his all.

One problem would be solved, only for a new one to emerge. That new one would be solved, and an even newer one would appear. It seemed to be an endless cycle.

But Li Qingsong's investment of brainpower and resources was also endless.

'Solve as many problems as come up. No matter how many more appear in the future, just do it!'

In what felt like just an instant, four and a half years slipped by unnoticed.

Looking at the enormous device before him—a behemoth that occupied an entire grand hall and consumed a staggering 100,000 kilowatts of power—a smile finally appeared on Li Qingsong's face.

The original five-year deadline had not yet arrived, but the crucial breakthrough was already complete.

He had finally built a practical quantum supercomputer with his own two hands!