Quantum Networks: Redefining Computing

Written by John Abram

Science and Technology Part I

We are at a time in which achievements in science and technology have surpassed every other endeavour ever made by man. Our uncanny intelligence is truly one of a kind. Functional, it has defined the way we live. We are now constantly online. Satellites orbit above us. An invisible information cloud envelops the world; we forget that it’s there. 

Processors are making more decisions in more areas of our lives. Machines have begun to learn, and artificial intelligence is expected to grow to orders of magnitude above the intelligence level of man. One of the pillar technologies that allow for this will be quantum computing, which is based on the science of quantum physics.

The first quantum computer sold for 10 million dollars. The technology is growing and will probably become mainstream. No longer will binary (0 and 1 value) bit computing reign; it is considered that quantum or n-bit processing will be orders of magnitude more powerful. Quantum computing offers so much promise, in fact, that the company that owns the most powerful and widely used quantum computer to this date—the most invested company in quantum computing—is IBM.

I was personally unaware of how greatly the science of physics had impacted computer technology. Allow me to share a couple of findings: Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau of the European physics superlab CERN invented HTTP and created the first website in 1991. On March 12th of this year, CERN will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web by hosting a special event.

Underground along the border of France and Switzerland lies CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, by which in 2012, physicists captured a Higgs boson for the first time. CERN will be revamped by 2026, the increased collision power allowing for even more discoveries. To support the upgrade and to be able to extrapolate the results of the increased collisions, cloud-based CERN computing systems will need to process exabytes of data. To help prepare for this challenge in data processing and storage they created a collaborative computer science and technology entity called CERN openlab. Google recently joined this group. Its areas of development are in the following disciplines: cloud computing, machine learning, quantum computing.

So, therefore, we have the world’s best innovators and the world’s best physicists teaming up to take us into a fully digital age. What are they really up to? Was it Aldous Huxley that said that the rulers of the new world will be of a technocracy? Was it Stephen Hawking that warned against an AI takeover? What else is underway, and how will these things further define our lives? 

Image: University of Chicago