Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

The quantum disruption

Practical quantum computing is second only to sustained over-unity nuclear fusion in terms of the significance of such tech if it is created.

We all know that the availability of almost limitless cheap, clean energy, such as that we'd get from practical fusion reactors, would change the world forever.

Our attempts to slow or even reverse the rate of global warming would be given a huge shot in the arm as we could switch from CO2 producing energy sources to clean fusion for much of our requirements. Of course this could have a rather destabilising effect from a geopolitical perspective, as oil-producing nations faced a sudden downturn in demand for their products. Given that many of those nations are in areas where tensions are already high, there could be some rather negative outcomes, at least in the short term.

However, it's the field of quantum computing that stands to also have some significant impact on the world.

Being able to perform in seconds, operations that would take a traditional non-quantum computer years, centuries or even millennia to complete opens some very interesting doors.

One aspect of quantum computing that must be exciting governments to a considerable degree is its impact on cryptography.

According to all the claims, a quantum computer could break any traditional cryptographic protection in almost the blink of an eye -- whilst also delivering potentially unbreakable protection against conventional attacks.

Governments would no longer have to try and force software and network companies to insert back-doors into encrypted messaging systems because they could simply decrypt those messages as and when they chose. It would also be much harder for the public to criticise this quantum back door capability because, at least at the start, quantum computers would be rare, expensive and as a result, pretty much limited to huge corporations and governments.

You don't have to worry about hackers exploiting a back door if they don't have the quantum processing hardware needed to do it.

It's pretty easy to see why governments are said to have thrown around US$40 billion at the task of creating practical quantum computers in 2024 alone.

As best as I can find out (thanks Google Gemini), only around US$7 billion was spent chasing the elusive goal of fusion power during the same 12 month period.

It's pretty easy to see where the priorities are, at least from a government perspective.

In the modern world, information is even more valuable than energy -- albeit you do need the latter to obtain the former.

That holy grail of quantum computing is not too far away either, if reports like this are to be believed.

What mysteries of the universe will then be unlocked and what chance will we, as mere citizens of the world, have to retain our last bastions of privacy? One must also wonder just how much of a destablising force the first truly useful quantum computer will represent, at a time when the superpowers appear to be increasingly rattling their sabres and preparing for war.

Carpe Diem folks!

Please visit the sponsor!

Here is a PERMANENT link to this column

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font