By Isaac Singer ‘21

Last Wednesday, Google published the experimental results of its newly developed quantum machine, which they say can compute in 200 seconds what takes current day supercomputers roughly 10,000 years.

The development is very exciting as it shows quantum’s capability of accomplishing what is considered to be impossible by standard computing practices. How it works is, instead of computing using a binary machine language of ones and zeros, quantum computers can be in three states: data can exist as a one, a zero, or a combination of the two simultaneously. This final category allows for processing speeds which are magnitudes faster than any traditional method in existence.

In China, universities and corporations are investing billions in quantum, specifically focusing their attention on quantum communication, or the development of quantum encryption. The implementation of this new cyber security is predicted to be so difficult to crack that foreign spies would be deemed effectively useless.

Despite Google’s breakthrough into the quantum computing space, quantum technologies have been long emphasized by China and by no means are they behind the curve. China has nearly twice the number of Quantum-related patents compared to the US, nearly $15 billion has been pumped into funding projects for quantum, and it was emphasized in the country’s 2016 five-year-plan. 

Recognizing the threat quantum encryption methods would create has led Washington to respond. In 2017, Trump signed a bill into law to increase quantum spending by $1.2 Billion over the next five years. However, more than just money is the need for talented scientists to push the boundaries of the field.

Unfortunately for the progression of science, we are stuck in an arms-race situation, where top talents are bound by national loyalties and are unable to collaborate.  Whoever is able to succeed in implementing quantum communication first will gain a massive military edge over the world. Luckily, unlike the nuclear arms race, quantum computing does not have disastrous physical potential.

Regardless of ensuing complications, Google’s machine solved the problem faster than any supercomputer, very exciting news which shows we are at the break of a quantum revolution.