I’ve been very unconvinced on the reality and benefits of quantum computing.  Sure, a lot of people with fancy degrees from fancy places say it will work miracles.  Sure, they make really impressive machines with cooling units that look like they’ll beam you into the movie Tron.  Sure, Microsoft just released a new chip with a Hollywood-grade video, B-roll of high-end oscilloscopes included.  All of it is based on some very-theoretical theoretical physics, and I’m not sure that these machines will deliver what they promise.  Sure, I may be wrong.  I’m often wrong with technology predictions.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, announced their Majorana 1 chip, their leap forward in quantum computing, by saying “Imagine a chip that can fit in the palm of your hand yet is capable of solving problems that even all the computers on Earth today combined could not!”

Is it just me or does anyone else find that statement, I dunno…maybe…a little fucking concerning?

More computing power than ALL of the computers on Earth combined?  Do we ever stop to think if this sort of thing is really a good idea?

Oh sure, their video, with slick and well-spoken physicists, extols the ability of their topological qubits to invent medicines, develop new materials, run EV batteries forever, and all but solve world hunger.

On the other hand, nuclear physics gave us both nuclear power and nuclear weapons.  Science fiction movies have been warning about world domination by machines for decades.  If we unleash ChatGPT powered by more horsepower than all computers combined, what the hell is it going to invent?  Why would this be confined to materials scientists in a lab?  Wouldn’t the machine start doing whatever it wants?  Why wouldn’t it invent a fatal virus, unleash it, and rule the world itself?  Or at least, wouldn’t nefarious human beings try to use it to cook up a weapon that could hold the planet hostage, like in a James Bond movie?  Could it enable mass-scale spying and privacy invasion by governments?  Will it be smart enough to warn us of the negative consequences of the materials it invents, or will we be inundated by worse than the microplastics in our brains which weigh as much as a spoon?

I’ve been sick of the tech industry’s worship of technological progress for a long time.  All the hype assumes that technological progress is always and everywhere good.  But that’s been proven false, time and again.

Meanwhile, Nadella makes the asinine statement:  “When productivity rises, economies grow faster, benefiting every sector and every corner of the globe.”  I assume a computer that is more powerful than all computers put together will eliminate a hell of a lot of jobs.  Perhaps it might render human beings redundant.  Technological innovations always tend to replace human labor (except where it depends on third-world exploitation), wouldn’t a computer this ridiculously powerful destroy entire industries and career paths?

I’ve seen enough marketing to suspect Microsoft is exaggerating here.  They’re more than likely less interested in selling quantum computers, and more interested in selling quantum-ready products and services.  Anyways, I sure hope so.