Quantum computing will impact many areas of society, including medicine, security and economy and the research community.
In terms of medical advancements, one possible concept is, a patient having undergone tissue sparing breast cancer surgery 20 years ago and since been cancer-free, and undergoes regular follow-up screening. Using high-speed imaging, 20 minutes after the scan, the patient’s image was put into an electronic health record that was encrypted using quantum encryption. The software used quantum computing to identify a 1/10th mm square cluster of cancer cells near the original surgery site. The patient was scheduled for high precision radiation treatment, where a quantum computer used direct radiation beams to destroy any cancer cells with extreme precision and not harming surrounding tissue. Quantum computing in the medical field allows for these types of procedures to take place and benefit society as a whole, potentially leading to the eradication of cancer. (Solenov 2018, p.463)
In the financial sector, complex computational problems, such as optimisation of financial portfolios or risk analysis, would gain a significant advantage using quantum computing. IBM Quantum researchers are working on new algorithms that may be able to quadratically speed-up simulations, which may allow a reduction in runtimes – overnight to almost real-time, or days to hours (IBM 2020, para 15).
The use of quantum computing in research will drastically increase the time taken to research areas of physics. For example, ‘Quantum computers can perform tasks that a classical computer cannot do in a reasonable timeframe. Google and NASA’s quantum computer was able to solve a problem in 200 seconds that would take the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to complete’ (Baumhof 2019, para. 20).
This technology is both disruptive and emerging. Disruptive to today’s supercomputers and everyday computers and emerging as it is still a relatively new technology. The theory has been around for many years; however, a physical quantum computer was only constructed in 2019 by IBM.