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get rid of your old computers because
the future of technology has arrived
it's not artificial intelligence or
virtual reality it's something called
quantum computing and it could
completely revolutionize every aspect of
our society from healthcare to finance
and even national security but what is
it and how does it work
when can we expect it and what could
happen if it gets into the wrong hands
this is what if and here's what would
happen if we had working quantum
computers today basically a quantum
computer is a super efficient version of
the regular computers you already know
and love when a regular computer is used
to solve a problem it has to filter
through all the possible answers one at
a time whereas a quantum computer can
filter through one billion possible
answers at once to find the correct one
in just a fraction of a second the
technology is so advanced that hardly
anyone knows how to program it let alone
how to use it so how much power and
control would quantum computing give to
the first country or person who perfects
it all right to understand how quantum
computers are going to change your life
it helps to understand how they would
work first today computers are binary
they process information using bits
where every bit can only exist as a 1 or
a 0 and nothing else a bit is relatively
simple
it's the representation of one state or
another like of a light bulb is on or
off in today's computers a bit is
represented by a current pulse or an
electrical voltage are you still with me
all right we're almost there in the case
of quantum computers information is
processed using Cuba
these are similar to bits but they can
be ones and zeros at the same time to
understand the difference between bits
and qubits picture a sphere and give it
both the North and South Pole where the
North Pole represents one and the South
Pole represents zero with a bit the
poles are the only usable spaces on the
entire sphere and only one of them can
be used at a time with a qubit the whole
sphere becomes a usable territory you
don't have to grasp the complicated
physics behind it but the main point to
take away is that qubits can deliver
more complex data and allow us to encode
more information into much smaller
computers some of the most progressive
tech companies like Google NASA and IBM
have already made versions of this
technology now they're racing to perfect
it once they're perfected quantum
computers will offer lots of benefits
for one thing they'd be a game-changer
in the field of cryptography mainly
because of their ability to enhance
security protocols by generating truly
random numbers because of this
protection communications devices that
are quantum based could be used to
transmit medical and government records
defense data or other sensitive
materials without fear of them ending up
in front of the wrong eyes being able to
calculate and process so much
information so much faster would help us
define new drugs to treat diseases it
would speed up the development of
life-changing medications quantum
computers would give us the power to
better deal with climate change by
allowing for better software models
describing what is happening to our
atmosphere and that could help us
reverse the adverse effects of climate
change
but it's not all good news as we said
before no one's perfected it yet if the
first person who does wants to use the
tech for ulterior motives we could all
be in trouble as soon as a working
quantum computer exists our modern
cybersecurity methods would become
almost useless
today's encryption algorithms use huge
math equations and problems that are
virtually impossible to solve a quantum
computer with its 0 and 1 dualities
would have the power to solve these
algorithms with relative ease so I guess
we'll just have to cross our fingers but
one of the good guys figures it at first
maybe we can even use these early
generation quantum machines to perfect
future models and make them even more
powerful but that's a topic for another
what-if
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