Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Welcome back. Like fusion power, quantum computing is a revolutionary technology that has been in the works for a long time \u2014 and perhaps always will be. But top tech figures are now starting to expect that the technology will move from its experimental phase to serious commercial use \u201cnot in decades\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009but in years\u201d, as Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella put it last month.These hopes could of course be dashed \u2014 but it\u2019s still worth building an understanding of the world-altering potential of this technology. For today\u2019s newsletter, I spoke to the head of one of the world\u2019s most prominent quantum computing companies, who argues that the quantum age will be with us much sooner, and with much more profound consequences for human welfare, than most of us realise. Buckle up.The uncertain promise of the quantum era\u201cIf you think you understand quantum mechanics,\u201d the legendary physicist Richard Feynman famously remarked, \u201cyou don\u2019t understand quantum mechanics.\u201dThe quip fairly reflects the head-spinning complexity of this field of science, which shows how the universe, at the subatomic level, breaks all the physical rules we\u2019ve learned from observing the world around us.Yet Feynman was also the first to suggest how the science of quantum mechanics could be put to powerful effect, to build computers with near-godlike processing capacity. For most of the 44 years since Feynman\u2019s seminal paper on quantum computing, it had looked like an intriguing area of science with no foreseeable prospect of moving beyond the experimental stage.But in the past few months, a flurry of high-profile announcements by Big Tech giants has stoked expectations that quantum computers may soon be much more than an academic curiosity. Among technology industry leaders, the debate is no longer whether quantum computers will reach commercial deployment, but when.\u201cI think the world is not quite prepared, and not thinking deeply enough about it,\u201d said Jeremy O\u2019Brien, chief executive of PsiQuantum, the most deeply funded quantum computing company taking on the likes of Google and Microsoft.The commercial deployment of quantum computing would have a game-changing effect across much of the modern world \u2014 but especially for challenges around climate change, health and food security, O\u2019Brien argued.How it worksO\u2019Brien and his rivals are aiming to harness one of the most mind-bending aspects of quantum mechanics: the \u201csuperposition\u201d of subatomic particles such as electrons and photons.Conventional computers represent data using \u201cbits\u201d: ones and zeros, processed through silicon transistors that function as electronic on-off switches.In contrast, quantum computers use subatomic particles to create \u201cqubits\u201d. According to quantum mechanics, an electron (if not actively observed) is neither in one place nor another, but has a certain probability of being in each. Similarly, a qubit is neither one nor zero, but has a mathematical possibility of being either.The science is too complicated to explain fully here (check out this brilliant FT visual explainer, and this equally good FT podcast series, if you\u2019re curious to know more). Suffice to say that, in theory, quantum computers would be able to perform, in minutes, some operations that would take today\u2019s most powerful supercomputers many millions of years.So great is the disparity with conventional hardware that \u201cit\u2019s unhelpful to think about quantum computing as a more powerful computer\u201d, O\u2019Brien told me. \u201cI\u2019m on the verge of saying that I think it\u2019s unhelpful to think about it as a computer at all.\u201dPsiQuantum has raised $665mn from investors including BlackRock, Baillie Gifford and Temasek, as well as a $617mn investment last year from the Australian government. It\u2019s building, near Brisbane, what it says will be the world\u2019s first \u201cutility-scale\u201d quantum computer, with a target of switching it on in 2027. Designed to be scaled up to a million qubits, it would be orders of magnitude more powerful than those already developed by others, which have performed mathematical calculations with limited real-world utility.What to do with itPotentially the most important application of quantum computing, O\u2019Brien said, would be in modelling the behaviour of complex molecules to a level that\u2019s impossible using even the most powerful conventional computers. That could have powerful consequences for human health, he argued, by enabling the development of precisely targeted new drugs with unprecedented efficacy and minimal side-effects.Future beneficiaries of that science, he suggested, might consider it \u201ckind of crazy that we\u2019re willing to put [medicines] into our bodies when we don\u2019t really know how they function\u201d.Another crucial application, O\u2019Brien said, could be in removing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to tackle climate change. While several companies have developed systems to do this, the cost remains prohibitive \u2014 but it might be reduced dramatically if quantum computers could be used to identify the perfect substance to use for carbon absorption.There could be big implications for global food security too, he said, with the promise of more effective, less polluting fertilisers.The road aheadPsiQuantum\u2019s investors would do well to keep the champagne on ice. The inherent fragility of any system relying on subatomic particles makes this a fearsome engineering challenge, even if PsiQuantum claims that its system, with qubits built around photons rather than electrons, will be more robust than that of its rivals.And those rivals are an intimidating crowd. Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all announced significant advances in their own quantum computing efforts in the past four months. Last week, US start-up D-Wave claimed its quantum computer had solved a problem too complex for any conventional system to tackle, sending its share price surging.Despite these advances, some top technology names have recently poured cold water on the near-term prospects for this sector. Jensen Huang, chief executive of chip powerhouse Nvidia, in January said he thought truly useful quantum computers were still 15 to 30 years away. That followed a claim by Demis Hassabis, the Nobel-winning founder of Google DeepMind, that artificial intelligence running on conventional computers might be able to handle problems long thought to be addressable only by quantum computers.And then there are the risks. Quantum computers could penetrate the encryption that secures the internet and many of the systems that underpin the modern world \u2014 potentially opening a dangerous new avenue of cyberwarfare.But if PsiQuantum or one of its rivals can defy the doubters to build a quantum computer that functions reliably and at scale, this might yet create an important new range of opportunities for tackling humanity\u2019s most urgent challenges. \u201cIt\u2019s about solving problems that are otherwise forever impossible to solve,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.Smart readsNo quick fix Artificial intelligence developers are promising that \u201cfrugal AI\u201d practices will address the sector\u2019s swelling carbon footprint. Is this realistic?End of the road Filmmaker Richard Curtis\u2019s Make My Money Matter campaign, aimed at encouraging the public to push for greener pension schemes, has closed after five years.Sweet deal The head of the obesity programme at the world\u2019s largest philanthropic organisation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, works as a paid adviser to chocolate maker Ferrero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Welcome back. Like fusion power, quantum computing is a revolutionary technology that has been in the works for a long time \u2014 and perhaps always will be. But top tech figures are now starting to expect that the technology will move from its experimental<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-244122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}