The application of quantum computing that most excites me is the possibility of simulating chemical systems. In this Google Research blog post [1], the author mentions that with 100 reliable qubits, one could simulate the process by which bacteria fix nitrogen. It's not as cool and futuristic as powering AI and breaking RSA, but the post mentions that we humans spend 1-2% of the world's energy fixing nitrogen industrially. The energy savings (or the amount of nitrogen we could fix for fertilizer) would be tremendous if we could use the process bacteria use on an industrial scale.
It seems to me that there are likely many other applications of quantum computer like this one that, while they don't appear in pop-science articles as much as applications in AI and crypto, would change the world in a huge way. Hopefully those applications will become more evident as the power of quantum computers increases.
It seems to me that there are likely many other applications of quantum computer like this one that, while they don't appear in pop-science articles as much as applications in AI and crypto, would change the world in a huge way. Hopefully those applications will become more evident as the power of quantum computers increases.
[1] - https://research.googleblog.com/2016/07/towards-exact-quantu...