this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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[–] user28282912@piefed.social 3 points 3 hours ago

So the thing with useful quantum computers is that if they ever do make it actually work and manage to scale it up, the first thing they will do is render most modern encryption obsolete over night. My guess is that Bluffdale has a mountain of encrypted data they'd start cracking immediately.

My cynicism can't allow me to think that we'd hear about it until years after that backlog is cleared and the NSA (and now by extension Israel and Russia) have backdoored any network of interested 10 times over.

The far more likely scenario is that this like stable/cold-ish Fusion, practical graphene, CRiSPER miracle cures are still way more theory than driveable cars at this point and for next several years at least. These folks just want more money and have to keep claiming they are close to get it.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 4 points 5 hours ago
[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 23 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Wake me when they make the contemporary analog to the Apple 2e. Otherwise, this just sounds like a bunch of giant corporations that continue peacocking around in an effort to get VC money.

I applaud the scientists, however, who do this kind of stuff for the love of discovery. Good luck to all of them.

[–] certified_expert@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

With the "vision" of current corporations... that won't happen.

[–] RedWeasel@lemmy.world 33 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

So, around 1947. Took about 14 years to get to being able to put into chips. So another decade and a half?

Edit: and another 15 to 25 years after that for it to be in consumer households?

[–] photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

From the byline:

Quantum tech is at its transistor moment—promising, real, and powerful, but still years of hard work away from changing the world

So pretty much, yeah.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago

Well years could be 3 years or 300 years so that doesn't really confirm OP's guess.

[–] funkajunk@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Seeing as we now have a multitude of tools available to us that we didn't have in 1947, I imagine it would be faster.

[–] Gsus4@mander.xyz 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

And an already existing consumer base with expectations that were only for hobbyists before...maybe that's a bad thing, because it will constrain QC to evolve in ways that it would be better to explore rather than try to fit modern use cases (or worse: MBA-driven hype)

[–] bibbasa@piefed.social 6 points 9 hours ago

science is being slopified

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip -1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Call me if they create a basic calculator.