And that means we need quantum computers. They offer us the opportunity to go from a world of discovery to a world of design. The current iterative process of riddles, synthesis and test tests is comically inadequate.
In some attractive cases, we came across materials, such as superconductors, with almost magical properties. How many others could these new tools reveal in the years to come? We will finally have machines with millions of qubits which, when used to simulate crystalline materials, open a large design space. It will be like waking up one day and finding a million new elements with fascinating properties on the periodic table.
Of course, the construction of a quantum computer with a million qubit is not for the less heart. These machines will be the size of the superordinators and will require large amounts of capital, cryoplant, electricity, concrete and steel. They also need photonic silicon components that work far beyond everything in the industry, error correction equipment that runs fairly quickly to drive out photons and unprecedented photons detectors with unprecedented sensitivity . But after years of research and development, and more than a billion dollars in investment, the challenge is now going from science and engineering to construction.
It is impossible to fully predict how quantum computer science will affect our world, but a thought exercise could offer a mental model of some of the possibilities.
Imagine our world -free world. We may have wooden houses built with stone tools, agriculture, wooden plows, a mobile type, impression, poetry and even scientific periodicals in a thoughtful way. But we would have no idea of ​​phenomena such as electricity or electromagnetism – no engines, generators, radio, MRI machines, silicon or AI. We will not miss, because we would be unconscious of their existence.
Today, we live in a world without quantum materials, unconscious of unrealized potential and abundance that are just out of sight. With quantum -scale quantum computers on the horizon and progress in quantum algorithms, we are ready to move from discovery to design, at an unprecedented era of dynamism in chemistry, materials and medicine. It will be a new era of mastery on the physical world.
Peter Barrett is a general partner of Playground Global, which invests in deep technology companies at the start of the stage, including several in quantum IT, quantum algorithms and quantum detection: Psiquantum,, Phasepraft,, NvisionAnd Ideon.