Next Big Question

The Advocates:

Ray Laflamme, Quantum Information Processing, Fellow and Director

Barry Sanders, Quantum Information Processing, Fellow

The Pitch:

A computer is essentially a tool for storing, retrieving and processing information. But what happens in a world where “information” means something other than what we normally understand it to be?

Quantum physics deals with just such a world. Subatomic particles such as photons, electrons, quarks and gluons don’t behave the same way as human-scale objects like baseballs, lightswitches, hammers and wires. In the normal world, an object is either in one place or another. A statement is either true or false. A switch is either on or off. Ascertaining the state of such objects is what we would call “gathering information.”

In the quantum world, though, something can be here, there or both here and there. A switch can be on, off or both on and off. It’s a concept called “superposition” and it’s one of many entirely counterintuitive aspects of the quantum world.

It makes it challenging to build a computer out of these strange particles that behave so differently from anything in the regular world. But if we can make sufficiently complex machines out of these particles, we can use them to process information in ways that are literally unimaginable – quantum computers can meaningfully process kinds of information that human beings would find paradoxical and impossible to reason with.

There are some very tangible, practical applications for quantum computing – things like creating unbreakable computer encryptions, and for creating complex scientific models, including those of the subatomic world. Even more important though, quantum computers provide a way for us to step into another world and gain access to a whole new kind of knowledge.

The Bottom Line:

“Where can quantum computing carry us?” is the Next Big Question because it will revolutionize our fundamental understanding of what information is.