Google’s Willow Quantum Chip: Speed and Multiverse Implications

The speed of Google’s new quantum chip might indicate the existence of a multiverse. Google introduced the Willow quantum chip, which performs calculations so quickly that developers suggest these calculations might occur in parallel worlds.

Developers claim they have halved the number of quantum errors, a major obstacle in quantum computing.

Quantum computers use qubits, units of information that can be both 0 and 1 simultaneously due to superposition.

However, qubits tend to exchange information quickly with their environment, making it hard to retain the data needed for calculations. Typically, more qubits mean more errors.

With Willow, developers achieved the opposite: more qubits result in fewer errors.

Google uses the Random Circuit Sampling (RCS) benchmark to evaluate quantum performance. They believe any team building a quantum computer should first test its ability to outperform classical computers using this measure.

The Willow chip performed RCS calculations in under 5 minutes.

A classical computer would need 10²⁵ years (10 septillion years) for the same task. For comparison, our universe is about 14 billion years old.

Developers suggest this means quantum calculations might occur in parallel universes, supporting the multiverse theory.

They also reported another key performance metric. They increased the average qubit excitation time (T₁) nearly fivefold—from about 20 microseconds in the Sycamore chip to 68 microseconds ± 13 microseconds.

However, RCS calculations have no practical application and only measure quantum computer performance. The next step is to demonstrate useful, non-classical calculations relevant to real-world applications.