The New Quantum Era

Chapter 11. Qambrian Explosion

But to me, quantum computing is not an impossible dream; it is a possible dream. It is a dream that can be held without flouting the laws of physics as currently understood. It is a dream that can stimulate an enormously productive collaboration of experimenters and theorists seeking deep insights into the nature of decoherence. It is a dream that can be pursued by responsible scientists determined to explore, without prejudice, the potential of a fascinating and powerful new idea. It is a dream that could change the world. So let us dream.

John Preskill

Making a real quantum computer available for anyone to try out on the internet in May of 2016 will forever cement IBM’s place in all future histories of the field. However, if the company hoped it would enable it to exhibit the dominance of this new technology it had enjoyed during the mainframe era, it would rapidly prove not to be the case. For many, the event served as a starter’s pistol, creating more awareness than anything that had happened before, and waking the private sector to the technology’s potential. Quantum computing research had been experiencing diminishing interest from the public sector funding sources like DARPA. Since the original jolt of Shor’s algorithm in 1995, the realization was dawning on the intelligence community that “breaking encryption” was going to take thousands and thousands of high-quality qubits, while all current efforts were topping out under 10, and low-quality ...