{"id":51099,"date":"2025-07-31T22:47:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T22:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/51099\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T22:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T22:47:15","slug":"the-uncertain-possibilities-of-quantum-computers-south-side-weekly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/51099\/","title":{"rendered":"The Uncertain Possibilities of Quantum Computers \u2013 South Side Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, another startup announced its plans to join the growing group of businesses, universities, and government agencies at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP)<\/a>. The facility, a multibillion-dollar, 128-acre research campus that is being built on the former site of the U.S. Steel South Works on the Southeast Side, is backed by Gov. JB Pritzker but has drawn criticism from neighbors<\/a> who have accused the site selection process of lacking transparency and community involvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As companies begin what seems like the next space race<\/a> to develop increasingly complex quantum computers, the promise of quantum computing could mean an unprecedented future, and profits, for whoever can say use quantum computing to develop new forms of data encryption, or determine how to model molecules to develop drugs for diseases long thought to be incurable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

IQMP would bring together local universities such as the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, along with the U.S. Department of Defense, and private companies like PsiQuantum, IBM, and Infleqtion<\/a>, announced that they were the latest to join in at IQMP.\u00a0 The two start-ups will receive almost $100 million in state tax breaks, according to Capitol News Illinois. <\/a>They, along with state leaders, hope to build what they call a National Quantum Algorithm Center<\/a>, to put Illinois at the forefront of quantum computing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quantum computers, which potential IQMP tenants hope to develop for widespread use, function totally differently than conventional computers, down to their most basic units.<\/p>\n

A digital computer uses bits, or binary digits, as its most basic building blocks. They can either be a 1 or a 0. These bits are combined in circuits to store data long-term, add and multiply numbers, and send messages across networks, creating the computers and internet we know. They allow us to browse Instagram on our phones and send emails. Every computer works like this. Quantum computers are different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about a bit as being like a light switch, for example, it could be 1 or 0, it could be on or off\u2014but it\u2019s not both at the same time,\u201d said Daniel Slichter, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. A theoretical quantum light switch, conversely, could exist in three states: on, off, or both on and off at the same time\u2014a state quantum physicists call a \u201csuperposition.\u201d \u201cThings that obey the rules of quantum mechanics\u2026the rules that we\u2019re used to in our sort of everyday experience, some of them don\u2019t apply,\u201d Slichter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The quantum world functions very differently than how we understand the world to function, and quantum computers reflect that. A quantum computer at a fundamental level doesn\u2019t work with just 1 or 0, but rather in units called quantum bits, or qubits, that aren\u2019t just confined to either\/or, but can encapsulate quantum superpositions like 1 and 0, or 1+0, or 10 percent of 0, or 90 percent of 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slichter said that because quantum computers work in totally unprecedented ways, \u201cthere are certain ways in which you can use these weird quantum properties to be able to perform calculations that you would never be able to do with a regular, conventional computer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

By tapping into the weirdness of the quantum world, scientists hope to design computers that can perform far more calculations\u2014and do so much faster\u2014than conventional computers can.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are problems that we seem to be able to solve, at least in theory, faster than we could do with any classical computer,\u201d said Santiago Nunez-Corrales, Quantum Senior Research Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Urbana-Champaign. \u201cFaster doesn\u2019t mean that the computer is going to run more quickly on every single step. It means that the algorithms you write allow you to move things that would take very, very long times into a fraction of the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

How does one build a quantum computer? That\u2019s part of what researchers are still trying to determine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of different ways that people are trying to make [a computer] that behaves in this quantum mechanical way, and each one has strengths and weaknesses,\u201d Slichter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slichter\u2019s lab uses atoms trapped in a vacuum chamber. PsiQuantum is trying to build a computer using particles of light. Other labs use special circuits cooled to temperatures lower than those in deep space.<\/p>\n

Light-based quantum computers work through a series of lasers, mirrors, and light detectors. One of the advantages of light-based quantum computers is that they don\u2019t need to be cooled down to extremely low temperatures. Another is that there is more existing research<\/a> on these types of quantum computers. Jiuzhang, a photon-based quantum computer developed by researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China, performed a calculation impossible<\/a> for a classical computer in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Building the largest quantum computer in the U.S., like the one that PsiQuantum is attempting to do, is itself an experiment\u2014a potentially very lucrative one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to invent a wholly new computer that\u2019ll do things that you could never do before, it\u2019s interesting for technology that you can do that, but also it can be, you know, worth a lot of money to be able to do something new,\u201d said John Martinis, former head of Google\u2019s Quantum Computing lab<\/a> and co-founder of Qolab, a quantum computing startup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But metrics that are handpicked by the entities doing the research only give you one part of the equation. For example, PsiQuantum\u2019s metric of building the largest US-based quantum computing facility<\/a> doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it will be the best or the most efficient, according to Slichter. Quantum computers, like regular computers, have varying metrics by which they function and Slichter says that the massive size of a quantum computer like the one PsiQuantum is building doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it will work better than others.<\/p>\n

PsiQuantum did not respond to a request for comment by press time.<\/p>\n

\u2736 \u2736 \u2736 \u2736<\/p>\n

Richard Feynman, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who developed the field of quantum electrodynamics, gave talks at MIT in the early 1980s in which he proposed the idea of a quantum computer. It would be decades before anything similar to what Feynman proposed could be constructed in reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only in the last two decades that scientists have brought those theories into labs and started to prove them through experimentation, usually at publicly funded research institutions. But in the past decade, companies such as Google, IBM, Amazon Web Services and myriad start-ups are investing in quantum computers with the promise that a greater understanding of quantum computing could yield huge profits. What remains in question is whether any of these lab experiments are bringing us closer to a functional quantum computer that can solve useful problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of excitement. The excitement comes from a very legitimate, sort of scientific place,\u201d said Bill Fefferman, an associate professor in the computer science department at University of Chicago. \u201cBut it also comes separately from a lot of hype that\u2019s created by a lot of different actors that, in many cases, is not justified.\u201d<\/p>\n

The promise of the facility being built on the Southeast Side isn\u2019t just that the quantum computer that could be developed there will succeed when others have failed. It\u2019s that the problems this computer will solve can push the field further and reach critical benchmarks that people have only theorized about, such as using a quantum computer to break encryption<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Currently, encrypted messages, like those sent on WhatsApp or Signal, work by turning text into something indecipherable using a key (in this context, a very long number). While classical computers could figure out the right key by running through all the possibilities, they would need between thousands to hundreds of billions of years to do so. In theory, quantum computers could find the key\u2014and therefore decipher your message\u2014in a fraction of that time, some hours or even minutes. That could threaten everything from your bank passwords to your phone security. But this use for quantum computers is not going to happen anytime soon, according to Fefferman, who specializes in quantum computing and encryption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually we have a sufficiently large-scale quantum computer, and again, the timeline is a bit uncertain, but we will certainly be able to use that quantum computer to break into essentially every type of encryption that\u2019s used on the internet today,\u201d Fefferman said. \u201cOn the other hand, that\u2019s not a near term thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The selection of Chicago isn\u2019t a coincidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin Chicago and also within the greater Illinois area, there\u2019s a bunch of people working on multiple different kinds of quantum computing technologies like this,\u201d Slichter said. \u201cIt\u2019s actually a rich area of research.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Research universities such the University of Chicago, Northwestern, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and labs such as FermiLab and Argonne National Laboratory, are all invested in the promise of quantum computing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martinis described the influx of private and public dollars into the quest to create a functional quantum computer as a \u201cspace race\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company, the country that first has access to this will obviously, have some advantages that are a little bit unforeseen,\u201d Martinis said. These advantages could include the ability to break encryption, for example, or to use quantum sensing to detect stealth bombers<\/a>. Martinis described the U.S. and China as major players in the race to develop a functional quantum computer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are also civilian applications for quantum computers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know all the things that [quantum computers] will be eventually useful for,\u201d Slichter said, adding that there are some things scientists are hopeful about. \u201cOne is, let\u2019s say you want to design a molecule. Maybe it\u2019s a protein that helps cure some disease. Maybe it\u2019s a molecule that helps you make fertilizer with less energy input. Anytime you\u2019re trying to design something that\u2019s a molecule or a protein, you\u2019re dealing with a system that is inherently quantum mechanical.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One thing about quantum computing that is clear is how uncertain its future is at the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of promise that is not yet realized and there are many different horses in this race, and PsiQuantum is one of them,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not clear that there\u2019s a winner and a loser right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2736 \u2736 \u2736 \u2736<\/p>\n

Siri Chilukuri is a freelance journalist based in Chicago who reports on climate change, culture, politics, and labor. She also is a team lead at City Bureau where she helps emerging journalists sharpen their reporting and engagement skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, another startup announced its plans to join the growing group of businesses, universities, and government agencies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[191,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-51099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-computing","9":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}