On Friday, I was honored to host a series of industry leaders and innovation experts on the general topic of risk in innovation. During this session, I was further humbled by our guest speaker, Pravir Malik, who, among several accolades, runs the Forbes Tech Group for Quantum Computing.
The topic: Areas researchers and experts are missing in Quantum technology, and some of the main challenges we face from a “risk” perspective.
The main takeaways:
- We’re at the tip of technology’s largest iceberg with the potential this solution plays, and research is not focused as much on the vastly unexplored areas of quantum as they are just deriving value from what’s known.
- One of the several key challenges and risks, quantum encryption rests at the top of that list, so expect cybersecurity to lead in extrapolating value from quantum.
- The inflection points where quantum provides noticeable value to us are between 2034-2036.
My personal takeaway:
Quantum, in many ways, heralds the return to the era where hardware reigns supreme. Think of whole-room computers to the move to PCs and their subsequent evolutions: 086, 286, 486 SX, Pentium I, II, etc.
If we take history lessons from that evolution, new marketplaces will be created for:
- Software
- Energy
- Hosting
- Security
- AI optimization
- Simplification and UI/UX
- Quantum supply chain
A need arises again for focusing on software solutions to hardware problems
Energy moves to a new paradigm of importance. Software brokers for optimizing AI in Quantum may become their own market. The race for precious materials may increase. Cybersecurity may need to be redeveloped to mitigate attacks between newly developed software and hardware interfaces on quantum and natural-state platforms.
Then there is the case for miniaturization. Quantum hardware features in future interactions of wearable tech, smartphones, implants… It’s an important evolution to integrate this tech into sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, and energy.
I know so much of this is throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. But from my perspective, I feel quantum offers us in some way another bite at the apple (no pun intended) relative to what we experienced in the last century, so that we can achieve a more efficient and effective use of the technology sooner rather than later.
A huge thank you to Pravir Malik for his insights in the quantum realm. His latest book, “The Emperor’s Quantum Computer: An Alternative Light-Centered Interpretation of Quanta, Superposition, Entanglement and the Computing that Arises from it”. It can be found at: https://www.amazon.com/Emperors-Quantum-Computer-Light-Centered-Interpretation/dp/1734274360
