Google has given a good bell with its announcement of "quantum supremacy", the empirical demonstration that there are certain calculations that, in practice, are only available to a quantum computer, a machine based on the mysterious physics that prevails in the subatomic scales, where one particle can be in two places at once, and two particles intertwine to act as if they were one, however far apart they are from each other. Following the initial proposal of Richard Feynman, one of the brightest physicists of the twentieth century, scientists have learned that these shocking properties of the microscopic world can be used to create qubits, a type of bit that can not only adopt values 1 and 0 , but also both at the same time, which speeds up computations due to vast factors.
And Google has just shown that a machine of only 53 qubits in three minutes makes a calculation that would take 10,000 years to the fastest conventional computer in the world.
The advance has been compared to the first plane of the Wright brothers, which flew 40 meters. Flying that distance is worthless, but it is proof of principle that an artifact denser than the atmosphere can be held in the air. Similarly, Google's calculation lacks practical interest, but proves the principle that a quantum computer surpasses the conventional one, at least for certain operations. We are not likely to see quantum computers in offices or in people's pockets in the short term. But, if the history of technology teaches us something, it is that what is experimental, expensive and ineffective today will be industrial, cheap and powerful tomorrow.
Among the foreseeable applications of quantum computing are cryptography and cybersecurity, drug design and the creation of new materials. But physicists in the sector know that this will be nothing more than the beginning. With a few more qubits and a few fewer errors, quantum computers will open a new continent to technology.
Evidence of the importance that large technology firms are giving to this line of research is the distressed reaction that another giant in the sector, IBM, has exhibited before the recent announcement of Google. IBM has been quick to deny that its powerful conventional computers will take 10,000 years to do the same calculation, and ensures that it would be aired in a few days. The quantum race is underway.
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