It’s been clear to physicists for years that the long-established principles of
quantum mechanics can revolutionize computing and the internet. If quantum
bits can be tamed, they could run algorithms in just a few seconds that would
otherwise take years to complete. Stable photons could transfer information
across the world instantly in a way that likely could never be hacked while in
transit, since any disturbance would destroy the information.
To the rest of us, the quantum revolution might seem as if it has just
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It’s even possible that we’re currently experiencing something of a quantum
bubble—and that it might be about to burst. In 2017, most of the quantum test
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quantum bits to reliably process information in the same way classical
computers can. Now, there are more than a dozen functioning quantum
computers around the world, a few of which any software developer can access
via familiar services: say, an Amazon Web Services account. Within the past two
years, America has committed more than $1 billion in government funds to
quantum information research, quantum computing startups have closed
multiple venture funding rounds, and IBM announced that it is forging ahead
with plans to build a computer with more than a million quantum bits, up from
a maximum of around 60 today.
Despite advances coming at a breakneck pace, many of the people working in
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states are not yet reliable or understood well enough to replace traditional
computing and the internet. Some believe they never will be—that no one will
ever buy a phone with quantum bits instead of an Apple A12 Bionic, and that
quantum bits and other elementary particles will forever be relegated to
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Photo^ credit:^ Yuichiro^ Chino/getty.com