Another awesome property qubits can exhibit is quantum entanglement, in which 2 qubits are mysteriously linked, no matter how far apart they may be in the physical world, and react to one another’s states. Using this property, we can measure one qubits and be able to know the properties of its entangled qubit at the same time.

And yet another property we can take advantage of is called qubit manipulation. Our regular computing logic gates get a set of inputs and gives us a single output. A “quantum gate” takes an input of superpositioned qubits, rotates probabilities, and outputs a new superposition. At that point the qubits can be measured and we get the 0’s and 1’s that represent the data we need. The key here is that ALL of the possible answers are generated at the same time, not just the single output in a traditional logic gate. The answer we get is probably correct, but there is a very slight chance it might not be. However, because ALL of the possibilities have already been created, it’s quick work to go through the rest until we get the exact right one.

So while this isn’t exactly a perfect thing, what really makes quantum computing super special beyond how much we can store with it is how fast and efficient it is. One great application of this is databases. We can now store stunningly massive amount of data and also search through it far faster than with traditional computing.

“It’s my personal belief that quantum computing will help us make sense of the deluge of data we find ourselves creating to solve some very interesting problems. There are systems generating billions of data sets a day, and those might be the solution to some critical problems affecting society…”

William Hurley, chair of the Quantum Computing Standards Workgroup at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Simulations also benefit greatly when using quantum computing. The massive numbers of calculations and probabilities can be generated at amazing rates. These quantum simulations will benefit us in research on weather, genetics and disease, quantum physics (of course!), and generally anything that requires massive amounts of number crunching.

Because of this capability, quantum computing will greatly empower:

• Chemical engineering and molecular modeling
• Factoring and cryptography
• Improved analysis of new space findings and SETI data
• Artificial and machine intelligence evolution
• Civil engineering and city planning
• Facial and pattern recognition in counterterrorism efforts
• Particle physics modeling
• Genetic engineering and mapping
• Weather forecasting and climate prediction

In addition, a quantum internet is going to bring information access to entirely new heights as well as allow distributed computational efforts to reach even greater heights.

One “bad” result is that since quantum computing is so fast, cracking security with it can be a breeze compared to brute force attempts using a traditional computer.

A new paradigm has to be realized in order for our progress to continue, and quantum computing is it. We probably won’t see quantum computers in households anytime soon, but they are being used for large-scale science and research applications.

The Information Age has been a hugely prosperous time for our world: The power of computing has led to amazing advances in nearly all fields of human endeavor while also contributing greatly to raising the quality of living for most people. We now generate more new data and knowledge every year than we’ve recorded in all of human history previous. But as we advance ever further in the power of these artificial minds, we are playing with a tool that’s even more powerful and dangerous in some ways than even atomic power.

Quantum computing will remove any conceivable limits that an AI might have between it an singularity. Quantum computing in the wrong hands can lead to genetic tampering that might produce supersoldiers or super diseases.

We need to continue to push full steam ahead on research so that we can understand these dangers while benefiting from the advantages of quantum computing.

Thank you for reading and sharing!

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