Practical quantum computers may still lie some way in the future, but researchers are already getting excited about the next leap: the “quantum internet.”
This is a still-theoretical way to connect quantum computers to one another, one day allowing people to compute and exchange data across distant devices. And there’s already a lively debate about how involved the government should get in its development.
Much like the classical internet of zeroes and ones, a quantum internet is based on the premise that you can do a lot more over a network linked with other computers and data systems than you can when limited to the processing power of a single machine — even if that machine has the unusual powers of a quantum computer.
Scientists think future quantum communication networks will be especially useful for solving complex problems in the fields of finance, medicine, and scientific research that quantum computers may struggle with alone. They also promise nearly unbreakable encryption, making it essentially impossible to intercept or eavesdrop on messages encoded in quantum states.
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