Who's afraid of quantum technology
The road to the quantum future may be longer and more tortuous than some expect, but the potential it holds is profound.
If the Sydney Harbor Bridge were to be rebuilt today, engineers would design, build and test the new bridge in a virtual world before the dirt was turned over.
Digital simulation has revolutionized science and technology, increasing efficiency, lowering costs, and dramatically reducing risk.
Digital simulation can do the same for medicine.
Today, drugs are not so much "designed" as "discovered" because digital computers cannot simulate molecular interactions in the body, and therefore cannot provide the valuable insights that drive the development of novel therapies and treatments.
This is where the promise of quantum computers lies.
In the future, chemistry will be simulated on quantum computers to design and test new drugs, new materials and exotic new forms of matter.
Only time will tell if this is utopia, technological Armageddon, or just a steady march of the mundane.
A quantum algorithm is a set of instructions that gradually changes quantum information, just as a conventional algorithm is a set of instructions that gradually changes digital information (the bits and bytes of cell phones and other computers).
Quantum information is encoded by tiny details of energy and matter that were revealed by quantum physics in the last century and can be controlled by precision engineering on a microscopic scale. Instead of the 0s and 1s of digital technology, quantum bits can be represented by a long string of numbers.
In the 1990s, it was discovered that problems could be solved in far fewer steps if they were encoded in quantum bits rather than bits.
This shortcut was so tantalizing that the international scientific community began working to build machines that would accomplish this goal in a fast and reliable way.
These machines were called quantum computers, and 30 years later, proof-of-principle prototype devices have been successfully built.
Researchers in quantum computer science have compiled a list called the Quantum Algorithm Zoo, which contains more than 60 quantum algorithms that are believed to run in fewer steps than the best classical algorithms for the same problem.
Web link:
https://quantumalgorithmzoo.org/
The first and most famous on the list: Shor's factorization algorithm. Factorization is the process of breaking a large number (e.g., 21) into smaller numbers, which are multiplied to produce a larger number (21 = 7 × 3).
This is a difficult problem for digital computers to solve for very large numbers, so the vast majority of communication systems (e.g., the Internet) use it for security.
However, Shor's algorithm requires far fewer steps to solve the problem, which is a big deal for privacy and security.
Many problems can be seen as a search for the best solution among a large number of possible solutions.
The Grover search algorithm is another well-known quantum algorithm that, for particularly difficult problems, requires fewer steps than the classical search algorithm to get to the answer.
It is not known which real-world problems yield significant practical advantages, but such puzzles abound in key areas such as climate modeling, financial portfolio optimization, and artificial intelligence.
Recently, researchers have proposed and provided proof-of-principle examples of quantum device learning by example training, which has the potential to usher in a new paradigm for artificial intelligence. Accurately modeling chemical interactions requires computations from quantum physics theory. Designing new drugs, fertilizers, batteries and other materials requires these calculations.
The details of the utility of quantum computers in any given situation remain to be worked out, but programmable quantum computers could in principle simulate the real world at this fundamental level.
Often, the truly transformative power of a technology lies not in its immediate applications, but in those that cannot be foreseen.
Looking back at the early days of the Internet, few could have predicted the emergence of online shopping, social media, or streaming services.
Similarly, while it is expected that quantum technology will revolutionize fields such as cryptography, drug discovery, and climate modeling, its ultimate impact may be unforeseen.
All of this potential has generated a great deal of hype. But along with the hype, we must also recognize reality.
Over the past decade, quantum computers have slowly moved out of university physics departments and into the engineering labs of large multinationals and start-ups.
Research has transitioned from pure scientific discovery to serving specific engineering challenges. In fact, these are some of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced.
Quantum computers currently require extremely low temperatures or ultra-high vacuums to operate. The degrees of freedom that encode quantum information are extremely fragile: every stray particle they come into contact with has the potential to cause irreparable errors.
While the lifetimes of current bits encoding digital information may be billions of years, the lifetimes of today's quantum bits are only a thousandth of a second.
Nonetheless, quantum technology has been steadily improving over the past few decades.
History teaches us that technological transitions are often slower than the initial hype predicted. The transition to quantum technology will not be like flipping a switch; it will continue to be a gradual process.
To put it all in perspective, we must remember that fear often stems from the unknown.
The complexities of quantum technologies may be daunting, but that doesn't mean they are insurmountable.
The road to the quantum future may be longer and more tortuous than some expect, but the potential it holds is profound. Therefore, humanity should look at this emerging technology with a realistic yet optimistic perspective.
Who is afraid of quantum technology?
--Perhaps those who fear change, the unknown, and the challenges that technological breakthroughs will inevitably bring.
However, embracing quantum technology is not so much about overcoming fear as it is about fostering understanding, encouraging patience, and keeping an open mind to the infinite possibilities this technology promises to bring.
Reference link:
[1]https://phys.org/news/2022-03-quantum-molecular-energy.html
[2]https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/quantum/concepts-the-qubit
[3]https://quantumalgorithmzoo.org/
[4]https://phys.org/news/2023-08-quantum.html
