Quantum hype and predictions for the future of technology
‘Predicting the future of technology is impossible—it happens when it happens.’ Sankar Das Sarma, a leading quantum physics researcher, summarized the possibilities of quantum computing in this manner.
He also criticized the current hype about quantum computing. In the near future, quantum computers won’t be able to make better drags or strengthen crypto-protection.
Das Sarma stated that it is difficult to predict when and if this will happen as ‘quantum mechanics is indeed weird and counterintuititive.’
He illustrated his uncertainty using parallels with aviation:
‘It took the aviation industry more than 60 years to go from the Wright brothers to jumbo jets carrying hundreds of passengers thousands of miles. The immediate question is where quantum computing development, as it stands today, should be placed on that timeline. Is it with the Wright brothers in 1903? The first jet planes around 1940? Or maybe we’re still way back in the early 16th century, with Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine? I do not know. Neither does anybody else.’
Source:Â Technology Review
