The quantum internet is coming.
China, leaps and bounds ahead of the United States and the rest of the world, has vastly expanded the scope of quantum signaling. As recently as 2014, laboratory quantum effects maxed out at distances of just meters or — at most — a kilometer. Now, thanks to China’s advanced Micius satellite, researchers are achieving quantum entanglement and teleportation across hundreds of miles of distance.
That’s a big deal. Two entangled particles, no matter how far they’re separated in space, function as the same particle. Whatever properties one has, the other will as well. Quantum teleportation doesn’t actually send a whole particle through the ether into another point in space, but it does send information between two entangled particles. Pull that off at a global scale, and you’re well on your way to a true quantum internet.
So at the pace things are moving, there’s a very real chance you’ll see the rise of the quantum internet in your lifetime. What will that mean?
The most immediate benefit of the quantum internet is security. A set of entangled particles can operate like a kind of uncrackable passcode. Each particle in your theoretical quantum-internet computer contains a qubit — the smallest chunk of quantum computing information — shared undetectably with its entangled twin in the computer you’re sending a message to.
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