…Such a device could help address climate change and food scarcity, or break the Internet…

The earliest electronic computers, from the forties, had to beat only humans. Quantum computers must prove their superiority to supercomputers that can run a quintillion calculations per second.

 

…Google plans to build a computer that will require a freezer as large as a one-car garage… From there, researchers could start to run Shor’s algorithm at full power, exposing the secrets of our era… 

…Will the U.S. or China get there first?

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