Quantum Computing For Dummies

Chapter 10

Racing for the Perfect Qubit

IN THIS CHAPTER

Trisecting qubit achievements

Winning with qubits

Taking a stroll through the qubit zoo

Finding reality in modalities

Choosing a way forward

The race for the perfect qubit is the Space Race of our time.

The peak years of the Space Race began in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth, by the Soviet Union, backed by the Eastern Bloc and China. The Soviets followed with the first animal (a dog, Laika), the first man (Yuri Gagarin), and the first woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in space. And the Soviets conducted the first-ever spacewalk in 1965.

The launch of Sputnik was terrifying to Americans, the citizens of Western Europe, and the rest of what was then called the free world. This fear arose because the Space Race was an outgrowth of the worldwide arms race, which saw the US and USSR rapidly building up their nuclear weapon capabilities. There was much talk of throw weights and kill ratios. The single ...