"Quantum Computing", and why it might be a game changer to climate change solutions.
Nothing has changed the world more than our ability to compute. A large fraction of the global population now carries up to a billion transistors in their pockets, and universal internet access is rapidly following.
Without a doubt, climate change is the most pressing and complicated challenge that humanity collectively faces. Dealing with it appropriately will require a lot more strategies.
Our lifestyle will need to change to put less stress on the planet, consume more carefully, and more conscientiously preserve species diversity. But we may be able to innovate our way out of this terrific mess we have found ourselves in.
The good news is that a solution is at hand. A drastically different approach to computing that is profound both in terms of the fundamental laws of physics it exploits, and the transformations it will bring about in our lives, society and economy.
One way to do that would be to make scalable, efficient quantum computers.
Quantum computers are machines that use the properties of quantum physics to store data and perform computations. This can be extremely advantageous for certain tasks where they could vastly outperform even our best supercomputers.
According to a leaked draft of a paper by Google researchers, a quantum computer may have solved a problem in minutes that would take the fastest conventional supercomputer more than 10,000 years.
Developing quantum computing capacities at a scale similar to modern computers or even supercomputers could enable us to solve many of the intractable problems that climate change poses to us.
An example that touches all these areas is designing an economically viable process to capture carbon from the atmosphere, which could have the side benefit of generating fuel for cars, heating and electricity in the form of methanol.
Given the potential impact on climate change, our future might just depend on our ability to quantum compute.
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