Abstract
A transistor, despite its roots in energy band structure, does not invoke quantum mechanically coherent transmission between terminals. The impressive progress in the past decade in mesoscopic physics, when combined with studies that have analyzed a totally quantum mechanical computational process, suggest that we may be ready to move toward more quantum mechanical procedures for information processing. I believe that this possibility is beset by problems. The case can be made via two separate but complementary arguments. On the one hand we can analyze proposals which have been made, invoking some sort of specific machinery. The extended companion paper [1] does that in some detail, expanding on earlier related discussions [2]. The other critique of totally quantum mechanical computation proceeds by an analysis of the existing discussions that describe Hamiltonians (not apparatus) which can accomplish computation. That portion of Ref. [1] summarizes the earlier conclusions of Ref. [3–5] and will be taken up in more detail elsewhere [6].
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Landauer, R. (1995). Is Quantum Mechanics Useful?. In: Welland, M.E., Gimzewski, J.K. (eds) Ultimate Limits of Fabrication and Measurement. NATO ASI Series, vol 292. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0041-0_33
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0041-0_33
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