Quantum Supremacy

Quantum Supremacy – Michio Kaku

For decades, computers have grown more powerful by packing ever more transistors onto silicon chips. But this approach is approaching its physical limits. Physicist Michio Kaku, a professor at the City College of New York and a well-known popularizer of science, believes that the next great leap will come from quantum computers, machines that harness the strange laws of quantum mechanics. In Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything, he explains what this technology is and what it might make possible.

Kaku begins with the history of computing, from early calculating machines to digital computers, and then introduces the principles of quantum mechanics that make quantum computers different, such as superposition and entanglement. He explains how quantum bits, or qubits, can represent many possibilities at once, potentially allowing certain problems to be solved far faster than with classical computers. He describes the race among companies, universities and nations to build practical quantum machines and the milestone known as quantum supremacy, when a quantum computer performs a task beyond the reach of ordinary computers.

Much of the book explores possible applications. Kaku discusses how quantum computers might help design new drugs and materials, model the chemistry of life, improve batteries and energy production, address climate change, advance artificial intelligence, understand diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, and even simulate the universe. He also considers the risks, including the potential to break current encryption systems.

Enthusiastic and accessible, Quantum Supremacy will appeal to general readers curious about science and technology. Readers should note that many of its predictions are speculative and that the field is developing rapidly.