One Question
Classical computers work with “bits” (short for “binary digits”) that are in one of two states: 0 or 1. Quantum computers are more powerful because they are not limited to two states.
Will we ever need to buy laptop quantum computers?
Quantum computing has a great deal of potential in various fields where highperformance computing is used. But a quantum computer isn’t simply a faster version of a classical computer. Instead, it is theoretically capable of performing certain tasks much more efficiently than its classical equivalent. In some cases — for instance in the high-accuracy calculation of the energetics of molecules — a large quantum computer could perform calculations within days that would take a classical computer longer than the age of our universe (13.8 billion years).
The ability to perform such calculations could have a vast impact on a number of fields — encryption techniques, for example — and quantum computers could be the key to creating smarter materials, clean energy devices and new pharmaceuticals.
Although it has developed rapidly over the past few years, quantum computing technology is still relatively young. Nevertheless, there have been attempts to start finding practical and commercial uses for it in the near future. In 2017, Google called for the commercialization of quantum technology within five years. As quantum computers speed up only certain types of algorithm, there’s no obvious reason at the moment why one would ever buy a quantum computer in the same way one might buy a laptop. One possibility, though, is that companies and institutions that are actively pursuing quantum computing will provide a cloud service in the same way that much high-performance classical computing does today.
Quantum computing will power many of the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and could become one of the most disruptive technologies of the future. We might have to wait until the Fifth Industrial Revolution, however, to see it used in everyday life and work.
It could become one of the most disruptive technologies of the future