Forget AI: This is the new, new thing
A primer on quantum computing, because you’re about to hear a lot about it.
Superposition in action
It’s not fun to feel like the dumbest person in the room, but sometimes, it pays off. That’s because you’re likely learning something new, and hanging out with people that are operating on another level than you are, at least in some ways.
That was my experience this past week, as I was working on a story about quantum computing. I’ve written and read a bit about quantum computing before, and frankly, it’s above my head. Way above. I don’t understand it.
But if I were to lay my chips on the roulette table, I’d say it’s the next big thing. The new, new thing. It could change everything — even more so than artificial intelligence throwing the world into a tailspin.
Given how important I think the topic is, and will be in the coming years, I wanted to put together a sort of primer, which can hopefully help establish at least a baseline understanding of what quantum computing is, how it works, and why it’s important.
To set the stage, most of what I know about the topic derives from conversations I’ve had with the team at a company called D-Wave. Their team has been extremely helpful in dumbing things down for me, and as a result, I was able to cover the news that the company has effectively “achieved quantum supremacy.” That means that it used a quantum computer to do something that would otherwise be impossible to do with normal, or “classical” computers. Their team was able to simulate the properties of a hypothetical magnetic material without actually creating the material. That would’ve taken a million years to do with a normal computer.
Imagine what else we could do with that technology!
What is quantum computing?
I’ll start with the most basic question: What is quantum computing? If you Google that question, the answer you’ll get will describe computing performed using the principles of quantum mechanics, or something along those lines. It’s confusing, abstract, and difficult to conceptualize.
In effect, quantum computers use wild concepts like “superposition” and “entanglement” to work things out. You may know that a classical computer, at its core, uses binary language, 0 and 1, to compute. Quantum computers use “quantum bits,” also called “Qubits,” which are actually 0s and 1s at the SAME TIME. That’s what “superposition” refers to: Being in two places, or two things, simultaneously.
Have a headache yet? Me too.
But you can think of it this way: If these computers can simultaneously look at or analyze the same thing in two different ways simultaneously, it can reduce the time and energy required to work out computations. That’s how it ultimately made the most sense to me.
On top of that, classical computers compute in a linear fashion. So, they read computer code and follow the instructions accordingly. Quantum computers, on the other hand, don’t need to work in a specific order, or operate one step at a time. They can do it all, all at once. It’s like that movie, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, which itself is a reference to the quantum realm.
So, if you want to boil it down? Quantum computers can, basically, do a bunch of things all at once, which means that they can do a lot more, a lot faster, and with fewer resources.
Is this stuff even real?
If you start reading about quantum computing, you’ll learn that a lot of this stuff is hypothetical. Theoretical. It’s pie-in-the-sky.
Notably, the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang (an Oregon State grad! Who knew?), recently ruffled feathers when he said that quantum computers were decades away. That, evidently, is not true. D-Wave has quantum computers, and has clients that are already using them. Other quantum computing companies likely do, too — a list that includes Rigetti Computing, IonQ, and others. Big companies are also in the mix, like IBM, Google, and Microsoft.
In fact, Microsoft recently made a quantum announcement of its own. The company unveiled a new quantum computing chip in February, and that was a couple of months after Google announced one of its own. Not to be outdone, Amazon also announced a quantum chip a couple of weeks ago.
So, yeah, there’s momentum in the quantum space. There’s money flowing to it, and people are working hard to make this all a reality. Or, more of a reality.
What’s next?
The big question for quantum computing, really the only question of any substance, is this: What does this all mean and how will it materialize in everyday life? Well, as noted, quantum computers are already in use. They’re being used in laboratories, and I was even told that some telecom companies are using them in various ways to help improve their networks.
But it’s the potential here that is particularly striking. Since quantum computers can do so many things, all at once, cutting down calculation time, there is immense potential. For instance, they could be used to try and find new drugs or cures for diseases — instead of having scientists and researchers physically create new drugs in a lab and test them out, it may be possible to use quantum computing to simulate their creation and then virtually test their effects. That could shave years off of development times.
They could be used to create unbreakable codes, helping the cybersecurity field. They could, as D-Wave demonstrated, help materials researchers develop new materials that power new and improved technology. And then think about how it may help with modeling in fields like finance or even meteorology.
Quantum computers could change everything. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. It’s not often that I learn something completely new that really blows my mind, but this is a topic that did.
Even if it did put me on my heels and take me out of my comfort zone, that’s what it’s all about, right? Imagine trying to teach your great-grandparents about ChatGPT? Or showing a medieval peasant an iPhone? In some ways, that’s how I feel—out of my depth.
But it’s cool, and probably best that we start learning about these technologies now, before they’re implemented into everything and anything around us, like AI.
Questions? Thoughts? Tell me: sammbecker@gmail.com