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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.

  • 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 one or a zero, and nothing else.

  • A bit is relatively simple;

  • it is the representation of one state or another, like if 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 qubits.

  • 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 a north and a south pole,

  • where the north pole represents “1”

  • and the south pole represents “0.”

  • 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 to find 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 to 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 zero and one dualities,

  • would have the power to solve these algorithms with relative ease.

  • So I guess we'll just have to cross our fingers that one of the "good guys" figures it out first.

  • Maybe we could 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.

Get rid of your old computers,

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