Quantum computers are the talk of the scientific world, but what does their emergence mean for ordinary people? We'll look at how quantum computing could change the world we live in and whether we'll ever have quantum laptops.
Quantum computers have been actively developed since the 1980s, and the first working model appeared in 1998 and contained two qubits - the minimum units of information corresponding to bits in a conventional PC.
Multi-qubit computers are currently being developed by several major technology companies – Google, IBM, Honeywell, Intel, Amazon, and others.
Google's 53-qubit Sycamore quantum computer is currently considered the most successful. In 2019, it was reported to have completed a calculation in about 3.5 minutes that would have taken a supercomputer about 10,000 years. But the report was later removed, so it's hard to say for sure that it has the so-called quantum advantage.
Google's Sycamore quantum computer
However, it is already obvious that in the future quantum computers will be able to perform the most complex calculations in a short time. The fact is that their calculation speed is much higher than that of conventional computers. This is achieved through two quantum states - superposition and entanglement. Superposition means that qubits contain not just zero or one, but both at the same time. Entanglement means that the interaction of qubits is possible even over a long distance.
stage, and they have at least two main problems: extreme pakistan number data operating conditions and a large number of errors in calculations.
For normal functioning of these devices, cooling with liquid helium to approximately -273 ℃ is necessary. Also, quantum computers use the probabilistic principle instead of the deterministic one, and this often leads to inaccurate calculation results.
IBM quantum computer
All this leads to the fact that so far there are mainly theories about how quantum computers will affect our world. And among them are time travel and the discovery of parallel universes. But in reality, everything is a little more prosaic.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning. Quantum computers, which have enormous potential for processing large amounts of data and ultra-fast calculations, can be useful in this area.
Cybersecurity. In the field of cybersecurity, there is the concept of quantum cryptography. It is about creating new security protocols that are almost impossible to crack. There are already special communication lines in which information is protected by special quantum encryption.
Drug development. Quantum computers are hypothetically capable of predicting the outcomes of situations, and this could be used in medicine. It is believed that one day they will be able to predict how molecules will behave in different scenarios, and therefore how drugs will affect the human body. This will help make the drug development process faster and less expensive.
As for home quantum computers, they are unlikely to appear in the near future. The current level of technological development simply does not allow you to make a compact laptop out of a huge quantum computer, the cooling system of which takes up an entire room.