If it CAN be done, it SHOULD be done. And we're doing it with the Quantum Computer: Replacing simple silicon chips and their binary bits of 1’s and 0’s with qubits that offer more “states” so they carry more information. WAY more!
The required superconducting rare minerals at deep space temperatures (don’t try this at home) can out-perform our best silicon-based computer by a whopping multiplier with lots of zeros.
And herein is good and bad news.
The good news is that this will allow weather folks, industries or governments with access to these computational marvels to answer today’s insoluble problems. They could help us survive. We might know tomorrow's weather, for real, or be able to uncover all our lost socks at last, or find Waldo.
OTOH: One of the things Quantum Computers will be able to do at the advent of Y2Q (whenever) is crack any of the most sophisticated encryption methods in use today for banking, commerce and military and other “intelligence" including the artificial kind. Going forward from Y2Q, commerce and other private transactions must use encryption methods not yet available.
Working backwards, Y2Q touches me and you.
The world’s most successful hackers who have stolen millions of encrypted records over the years (like mine and yours) will finally be able to unzip them and do what crooks do with information. LOTS of information. Meh!
Some say this tech is all blue smoke and mirrors. Others say Quantum Computing will be a bigger game changer to humanity than the discovery of fire!
Governments and industry are betting that it is inevitable. And the time to Y2Q? Could be a decade, or the end of this one. Or as soon as 2-3 years. Y2K was so accessible. We put it on our calendar. We hoarded toilet paper. But Y2Q?
And the so-what of all this for you and me? What are the next actions for the common citizen? What say: blue pill or red pill? I just started following this topic, so I have no wisdom.
So now we know what may loom just over the horizon. Or not. Maybe we’ll come back to this in six months, by which time I’m guessing Y2Q will have made its way onto the public radar and into Colbert’s monologue, or at least to M E A N W H I L E:. . . . . .
Y2Q Will Be Here Sooner Than You Think
NATO and White House recognize post-quantum threats and prepare for Y20