by Lawrence Klaes, Science Editor
We are at the threshold of a real revolution in computer technology, one that will literally change how our society currently functions and interacts with the machines and systems we operate now in ways we can only imagine.
This technology is quantum computing and its key aspects, namely security. This computing system is so named for it operates on the very foundations and principles of quantum physics. Utilizing the seemingly magical properties of the quantum state in our macroscopic world, quantum computing offers the ability to store data in quantities that may seem as unbelievable to us as a modern laptop holding terabytes of information would to someone at the start of the Computer Age in the mid-Twentieth Century.
Protecting the New Gold Standard: Information
In the often prescient 1992 film Sneakers, the character of Cosmo explains what has become the true ultimate commodity of the modern technological era:
“The world isn’t run by weapons anymore, or energy or money. It’s run by ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It’s all just electrons.
“There’s a war out there, old friend, a world war. And it’s not about who’s got the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information …what we see and hear, how we work, what we think. It’s all about the information.”
Our civilization runs on information of all sorts every second of every day. Most of this information is now stored, analyzed, filtered, and run through our elaborate systems of computers and the networks that deliver and collect them.
While much of the information our society needs to function is widely available, there is also a plethora of data that requires being protected for reasons ranging from personal privacy to national security. While current computers have a wide range of methods to secure the information placed on them, it is not always enough. Someone always seems ready and able to find a way to break through even the most sophisticated security cyphers and codes.
Quantum computers can change all this. Using the rules of quantum physics, more information could be stored on such a system than would ever be possible on a machine in the macrorealm. These same physics can also provide encryption protection that would make it virtually impossible to decode or otherwise break both stored data and its transmission from one computer system to another.
This medium is new and pioneering. There are many obstacles to overcome. Nevertheless, quantum computing and cryptography are real and offer possibilities that could transform our world and our species in ways we now only think of as science fiction. Quantum Light is leading the way in this incredible tomorrow. Learn how here