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How Close Are We To A Quantum Future?
Quantum computing will change the world. But when?
In recent weeks I’ve spent a lot of time reading and writing about quantum computing and the impact it may have on our world. There is no doubt that the development of a powerful quantum computer would send shockwaves through society. The threat they present to modern computer security cannot be understated, but how much we should already be worrying about this is not clear.
Part of the challenge in understanding quantum computers is that they rely on extremely non-intuitive physics. The quantum world is nothing like the classical everyday world we know from birth. Even physicists struggle to understand why quantum things happen. We can describe that world very well with mathematics and equations, but what all it all really means, and implies, is hazy.
For computer scientists used to dealing with definites — black or white, yes or no, one or zero — quantum computers are something quite alien. Quantum bits, or qubits, are not one or zero, they are both, simultaneously. What is worse, they do not behave independently, but instead influence each other through the phenomenon of entanglement.
This is one reason why quantum computers promise so much power. Whereas classical computers scale in proportion to the number of…
