Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An exhilarating tour of humanity's next great technological achievement—quantum computing—which may supercharge artificial intelligence, solve some of humanity's biggest problems, like global warming, world hunger, and incurable disease, and eventually illuminate the deepest mysteries of science, by the bestselling author of The God Equation. • “Expertly describes and rectifies common misconceptions about quantum computing." —Science
"[Kaku's] lucid prose and thought process make abundant sense of this technological turning point.” —The New York Times Book Review
The runaway success of the microchip may finally be reaching its end. As shrinking transistors approach the size of atoms, the phenomenal growth of computational power inevitably collapses. But this change heralds the birth of a revolutionary new type of computer, one that calculates on atoms themselves.
Quantum computers promise unprecedented gains in computing power, enabling advancements that could overturn every aspect of our daily lives. While the media has mainly focused on their startling potential to crack any known encryption method, the race is already on to exploit their incredible power to revolutionize industry. Automotive makers, medical researchers, and consulting firms are all betting on quantum computing to design more efficient vehicles, create life-saving new drugs, and streamline businesses. But this is only the beginning. Quantum computing could be used to decode the complex chemical processes needed to produce cheap fertilizers and unleash a second Green Revolution; create a super battery that will enable the Solar Age; or design nuclear fusion reactors to generate clean, safe, renewable energy. It may even unravel the fiendishly difficult protein folding that lies at the heart of as-yet-incurable diseases like Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Parkinson’s. Already, quantum computers are being put to work to help solve the greatest mystery in science—the origin of the universe.
There is no single problem humanity faces that might not be addressed by quantum computers. With his signature clarity and enthusiasm, Dr. Michio Kaku, who has spent his entire professional life working on the quantum theory, tells the thrilling story of this exciting scientific frontier and the race to claim humanity’s future.
"[Kaku's] lucid prose and thought process make abundant sense of this technological turning point.” —The New York Times Book Review
The runaway success of the microchip may finally be reaching its end. As shrinking transistors approach the size of atoms, the phenomenal growth of computational power inevitably collapses. But this change heralds the birth of a revolutionary new type of computer, one that calculates on atoms themselves.
Quantum computers promise unprecedented gains in computing power, enabling advancements that could overturn every aspect of our daily lives. While the media has mainly focused on their startling potential to crack any known encryption method, the race is already on to exploit their incredible power to revolutionize industry. Automotive makers, medical researchers, and consulting firms are all betting on quantum computing to design more efficient vehicles, create life-saving new drugs, and streamline businesses. But this is only the beginning. Quantum computing could be used to decode the complex chemical processes needed to produce cheap fertilizers and unleash a second Green Revolution; create a super battery that will enable the Solar Age; or design nuclear fusion reactors to generate clean, safe, renewable energy. It may even unravel the fiendishly difficult protein folding that lies at the heart of as-yet-incurable diseases like Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Parkinson’s. Already, quantum computers are being put to work to help solve the greatest mystery in science—the origin of the universe.
There is no single problem humanity faces that might not be addressed by quantum computers. With his signature clarity and enthusiasm, Dr. Michio Kaku, who has spent his entire professional life working on the quantum theory, tells the thrilling story of this exciting scientific frontier and the race to claim humanity’s future.
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Community Reviews
Michio Kaku’s “Quantum Supremacy” is a wonderful primer on all things quantum. Taking us through multiple fields of the sciences to establish building blocks of understanding in part one. He later builds up a frame of understanding in later parts on unified models and what makes the quantum model so hard to stabilize. Lastly, he finishes off this structure with broad strokes on the biggest challenges we face as a species and how the quantum computing era can solve them.
It’s Kaku’s deep dives into the practical and theoretical applications of quantum computing to solve long, perplexing problems that will draw most readers in. It’s his philosophical hope for how these machines ca. bring about a more vibrant future that will make most stay. Kaku is whimsical at times but generally adamant that the key to unlocking some of the universe’s greatest mysteries is ultimately the quantum computer. Making them the physicist’s equivalent to the philosopher’s stone.
Pragmatically, there are numerous impediments that remain in the way of achieving the quantum computing reality. Complex math problems, challenging constraints with superconductors, sustaining coherence, and so on. Luckily, will is not one of them. That surplus of spirit could be the existential concern that we all should worry about. The God like power that could be put into the hands of the most nefarious among us. This is a topic that Kaku completely passes over and hurts the book.
Especially given the recent turns against science funding and research in the US. That said, Kaku remains skillful at taking the very complex topic of Quantum Theory and distilling it down to digestible anecdotes for all audiences. Again, those nuggets of understanding are built carefully upon to bring every reader to a profound realization beyond quantum computing. This point being that Quantum Mechanics is the nexus point where almost all other fields of the science will converge as we make advances.
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