Editorial Board
Welcome to the Age of Quantum Computing
Google has accomplished a striking scientific feat. Is the world ready for what comes next?
Where it all begins.
Photographer: Erik Lucero/Google
Has the era of quantum computing finally dawned? In a field long plagued by hype and hubris, there’s reason for some cautious optimism.
A team of scientists at Google’s research lab announced last week in the journal Nature that they had built a quantum computer that could perform calculations in about 200 seconds that would take a classical supercomputer some 10,000 years to do. An age of “quantum supremacy” was duly declared.