Get rid of your old computers,
because the future of technology has arrived.
It's not artificial intelligence or virtual reality.
It's something called quantum computing,
and it could completely revolutionize every aspect of our society,
from healthcare to finance and even national security.
But what is it,
and how does it work?
When can we expect it?
And what could happen if it gets into the wrong
hands?
This is what if, and here's what would happen if
we had working quantum computers today.
Basically, a quantum computer is a super efficient version of
the regular computers you already know and love.
When a regular computer is used to solve a problem,
it has to filter through all the possible answers one
at a time,
whereas a quantum computer can filter through 1 billion possible
answers at once
to find the correct one in just a fraction of
a second.
The technology is so advanced that hardly anyone knows how
to program it,
let alone how to use it.
So how much power and control
would quantum computing give to the first country or person
who perfects it?
All right, to understand how quantum computers are going to
change your life,
it helps to understand how they would work first.
Today, computers are binary. They process information using bits where
every bit can only exist as a one or a
zero and nothing else.
A bit is relatively simple.
It's the representation of one state or another,
like if a light bulb is on or off.
In today's computers, a bit is represented by a current
pulse or an electrical voltage.
Are you still with me?
All right, we're almost there.
In the case of quantum computers,
information is processed using qubits.
These are similar to bits,
but they can be ones and zeros at the same
time.
To understand the difference between bits and qubits,
picture a sphere and give it both the North and
South pole,
where the North Pole represents one and the South Pole
represents zero.
With a bit, the poles are the only usable spaces
on the entire sphere,
and only one of them can be used at a
time.
With a qubit, the whole sphere becomes a usable territory.
You don't have to grasp the complicated physics behind it,
but the main point to take away is that qubits
can deliver more complex data and allow us to encode
more information into much smaller computers.
Some of the most progressive tech companies,
like Google, NASA and IBM have already made versions of
this technology.
Now they're racing to perfect it.
Once they're perfected, quantum computers will offer lots of benefits.
For one thing, they'd be a game changer in the
field of cryptography,
mainly because of their ability to enhance security protocols by
generating truly random numbers.
Because of this protection, communications devices that are quantum based
could be used to transmit medical and government records,
defense data, or other sensitive materials without fear of them
ending up in front of the wrong eyes.
Being able to calculate and process so much information so
much faster would help us to find new drugs to
treat diseases.
It would speed up the development of life changing medications.
Quantum computers would give us the power to better deal
with climate change by allowing for better software models describing
what is happening to our atmosphere,
and that could help us reverse the adverse effects of
climate change.
But it's not all good news.
As we said before, no one's perfected it yet.
If the first person who does wants to use the
tech for ulterior motives,
we could all be in trouble.
As soon as a working quantum computer exists,
our modern cybersecurity methods would become almost useless.
Today's encryption algorithms use huge math equations and problems that
are virtually impossible to solve.
A quantum computer, with its zero and one dualities,
would have the power to solve these algorithms with relative
ease.
So I guess we'll just have to cross our fingers
that one of the good guys figures it out first.
Maybe we could even use these early generation quantum machines
to perfect future models and make them even more powerful.
But that's a topic for another What if?