⚛️Chapter 4 : How Quantum Computers Work?

Privacy engineers need to become familiar with quantum computing, quantum communications, quantum networks, and quantum key distribution in order to assess the risks of the next decades.

Quantum computers exploit quantum principles to transform how information is acquired, encoded, manipulated, and applied.

Quantum computers, which use qubits and quantum operations, will solve certain complex computational problems more efficiently than classical computers.

As Red and Kyle hurtled through the vastness of space toward D'adana, Red couldn't help but stare out into the endless expanse and contemplate the mysterious signal they'd received. She was sure it was from Ray, and she was eager to investigate.

Quantum communications use entanglement or a transmission channel to transfer quantum information between different locations. For quantum information applications to be successfully completed, fragile quantum states must be preserved or kept coherent.

The basic challenges in quantum technologies are so great that we are still so early in their development.

In classical computing, the transistor is the basic technology used to create bits, and that technology scaled dramatically but the basic idea of silicon-based transistors has not changed.

Unfortunately in quantum computing, no consensus has emerged for the fundamental qubit technology. This is caused by the scaling problem of quantum computers. Where scaling is so much more difficult due to the noise generated with each added qubit to the computer.

Quantum computing will shine through as taking computing to a whole new generation or whether we will face a quantum winter scenario is yet to be seen. It is depending on a transistor-like invention for quantum states to become the scalable machine where the privacy of humanity will face a new challenge like never before.

This chapter will dive into quantum computers and how they work.

As privacy engineers of the following decades will eventually face of with the privacy risks of quantum computers. Some of these scenarios might be an encryption-breaking weapon or a quantum sensor that will elevate government and private industry surveillance on individuals to new heights.

A next-gen Manhattan Project focusing on surveillance perhaps?

The History of Quantum Computing

In the 1980s, Richard Feynman proposed that the kinds of mathematical problems that quantum physicists need to solve might be more efficiently worked on using a computer based on quantum mechanics.

The idea was that computer engineers would embrace the uncertainty, non-determinism, and inherent randomness that come with quantum properties.

It's a proposal for a new type of computation that is based on quantum mechanics. In the last couple of decades, we have seen quantum computers go from theory to working machines that can solve real problems.

Quantum computers do not generally produce the same results as classical computers.

So there are no right answers in quantum computing but there is a range of possible answers.

What is Quantum Computing?

Quantum Computing is a family of approaches for building computers that switch information with quantum interactions, rather than with the electronic interactions that power today’s computers.

What is Quantum Supremacy?

You can use the quantum computer to solve a well-defined task much faster than any known algorithm in any classical computer.

Everything a quantum computer can do, a classical computer can eventually do if it has no limits on time or memory. Quantum computers are efficiently computable that’s the core difference from classical computers.

Before delving into the details of how quantum computers work and their possible effects on privacy here is a little summary of what you need to know.

Quantum computers don’t work by trying every possibility at once.

Quantum computing is reversible.

Quantum computers are faster for only a certain set of problems.

What’s going to happen in the next decade?

People are racing to build quantum simulations with thousands of qubits in the next decade.

The first use case will not be going to be breaking cryptography in because it requires too much in way of error correction, the best shot is to show the quantum simulations something that is useful for telling the material scientists, chemists, and nuclear physicists that they don't already know.