Delayed trains, cyber attacks, species extinction: all of this could soon be a thing of the past. Quantum computers, when they are ready, have the potential to save our world. An overview of what could change with your help.
If you enter “quantum computer” in a well-known search engine, it will suggest “buy” as an addition. This shows how great the interest in such machines is – and yet it is a big misunderstanding: No private person can buy a quantum computer. And, strictly speaking, there isn’t one that really works properly yet.
It costs thousands of dollars an hour to use one of the large, buggy machines found at tech companies like Google or IBM – and requires far more than everyday programming skills. If that’s the case, why are billions of subsidies flowing into the technology? Why is there no digital conference without sessions on quantum computing?
And why are many millions of venture capital flowing into companies that develop hardware or software in this area? Because quantum computers have the potential, if they are ready, to save our world. They free us from the binary arithmetic in bits and bytes on which even the most expensive supercomputers are based.
Now save articles for later in “Pocket”.
We are therefore inferior to the nature around us, and even more so to the physical laws of the universe. The performance of quantum computers is measured in qubits. Billion dollar startups and corporations are racing to deliver as many as possible.
At some point in the next few years, it is hoped, “Quantum Supremacy” will be achieved – and a quantum computer will be thousands of times more powerful than all the smartphones or laptops in the world combined. But why does that save the world? We are finally no longer chasing after the consequences of our own behavior as humans, but can control it in real time.
A simple example: A train in the Deutsche Bahn network suddenly has to brake. This fact alone can trigger a chain reaction and delays that can last for days. Why? Because no computer in the world is able to make minimal adjustments to all timetables in a fraction of a second. A quantum computer can do just that. Punctual trains will not save the world.
Robert Jacobi is an entrepreneur and author of the book “Reboot”. As a founding partner, he runs the digital consultancy Nunatak based in Munich and Zurich. Most recently, he co-founded the company Aqarios, which develops software for quantum computers, cooperates with large corporations and is funded by the federal government, among others.
But just like optimized flight routes or delivery routes, they save energy and slow down global warming. Quantum algorithms could help us to develop much more powerful batteries – and thereby make us less dependent on oil and gas. Instead of painstakingly reproducing biological reactions, quantum computers manage to simulate them – which gives a huge head start in the development of drugs. Food can be delivered to where it is needed in an energy-saving manner instead of being left to rot in heaps.
Even the supposed wild rides of the stock markets can be avoided, and economic crises can be averted by reacting immediately to a changed data situation. Would you like more examples? We suddenly know which species are suddenly threatened with extinction by which influence and can act in good time instead of waiting until it is too late.
And we can instantly detect and respond to cyberattacks (although, admittedly, we need to become more secure against them at the same time, because bad guys will also be around in the quantum world).
If it works, we will free ourselves from the world of storage disks, on which more and more chips have to fit – and pay a belated honor to Albert Einstein, the father of quantum physics. “If God created the world, surely his main concern was not to make it so that we can understand it,” is one of his famous quotes.
Surf tip: You can find all the news about the corona pandemic in the FOCUS Online news ticker
Quantum computers represent the smallest unit in this world, they move on the level of atoms and molecules and thus on a level that cannot be understood intuitively. In short, because they liberate us from the binary world, qubits can create endless combinations in a wild dance.
At any point in time, if I look at this dance with an algorithm, it stops – and I immediately get the result of my complex calculation instead of chasing it through endless chains of bits and bytes. It all sounds wonderful, but surely there must be a catch? Yes, and not just one. First of all, it will still take a few years, at least, until this works as computer scientists and quantum physicists hope.
During this time we should not stop making the world a better place with the output of conventional computers. And secondly, even more relevant, even in the qubit world, it will be we humans who decide what is important to them and which world they want. The chance that we will pull ourselves out of the swamp by our own bootstraps is therefore greater than ever before thanks to quantum technology. We just have to want it.
