Podcast with Johannes Pollanen, Co-founder of EeroQ and a Professor of Physics at Michigan State University

Johannes Pollanen, co-founder of EeroQ and a professor of physics at Michigan State University, explains how EeroQ builds qubits from single electrons floating on a film of superfluid helium, and why he thinks the semiconductor chip is the only proven way to scale a quantum computer. He covers the different kinds of quantum computer, why helium never freezes, how much helium-3 a dilution refrigerator needs, how a computation runs on a qubit, and what EeroQ’s 10,000-qubit goal means next to IBM’s plans. 20:21 Is that thing behind you using helium-3? 26:15 How do you cool quantum systems? 31:08 How do you make more qubits? 35:15 How do you do a computation on a qubit? 43:45 Can IBM make a useful quantum computer? Mark Fielding: Disruptors and curious minds, welcome to the good ship thinking on paper. In a world increasingly vibe-coded by 20-year-olds and run by billionaires, this is where you can think for yourself about the impact of technology. Keep listening, and the algorithm can’t touch you, at least for 40 minutes. Sadly, Jeremy can’t be with us today. He’s been called away on a top secret data center mission. He signed a lot of NDAs, so the very…