• masterspace@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Me in high school computers class:

    Hey Teach, I get how code logic flows, but if computers are just bunches of transistors and transistors are just switches, how does any of this actually run or work?

    You know, I don’t actually know, I only ever learned coding…

    * 3 years of electrical and computer engineering Later *

    Huh, those are the most wildly complicated and impressive things ever built, thank god I finally got a grasp on it.

    * 1 year of quantum and optical computing later *

    quiet sobbing

    • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Optical computing won’t change anything. The compiler takes care of it.

      Even quantum computing basically works just like a GPU. You give it an algorithm and data to retrieve the result a bit later. Someone will make a quantum equivalent of CUDA before commercialization.

      • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        It doesn’t really matter, it’s not enough for me to just black box it and say the compiler will handle it, I want to have a rough idea of how every part of the stack works, otherwise I’m right back to high school.