Why Quantum Computers Will Be Super Awesome, Someday

Satya Nadella, the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., calls quantum computing one of three emerging technologies that will radically reshape the world, along with artificial intelligence and augmented reality. But it’s easier to describe quantum computing’s importance -- that is, its potential importance, because it barely exists now -- than to say what it is. Understanding quantum mechanics, whose principles underpin quantum computing, involves a lot of mental mountain climbing. Something about a cat in a box that might or might not be dead? Not to worry: The basics of quantum computing aren’t as complicated as you might think.

One that uses quantum mechanical properties to perform its calculations. These devices were first conceived in the early 1980s by, among others, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. But it was only in the late 1990s that the first rudimentary quantum computers were built by academic researchers. And it is only in the past decade that progress has been made toward creating larger, more powerful machines.