The Quantum Nightmare

"We must awaken to the threat of a quantum computer getting into malicious hands."

"Computing the risk: 'I have developed a fear of what a quantum computer could do in the hands of evildoers with wealth and resources,' says Stephen Page. 'We must start building safeguards now.' "
Link
Source: Betterhumans

Transcending Moore's Law with Molecular Electronics and Nanotechnology
Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, has an interesting point of view:

"Once quantum computers become available, engineers working at the nano-scale will be able to use them to model and design nano-scale systems just like today’s aerospace engineers model and design airplanes—completely virtually—with no wind tunnels (or their chemical analogues).

This may seem strange, but really it’s not. Think of it like this: conventional computers are really good at modeling conventional (that is, non-quantum) stuff—like automobiles and airplanes. Quantum computers are really good at modeling quantum stuff. Each type of computer speaks a different language.

Based in Vancouver, Canada, D-Wave is building a quantum computer using aluminumbased circuits. The company projects that by 2008 it will be building thumbnail-sized chips with more computing power than the aggregate total of all computers on the planet today and ever built in history, when applied to simulating the behavior and predicting the properties of nano-scale systems – highlighting the vast difference in capabilities of quantum and conventional computers. This would be of great value to the development of the nanotechnology industry. And it's a jaw-dropping claim. Professor David Deutsch of Oxford summarized: ‘Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that would take a classical computer longer than the age of the universe.’

While any physical experiment can be regarded as a complex computation, we will need
quantum computers to transcend Moore’s law into the quantum domain to make this equivalence realizable."

Link
Source: Draper Fisher Jurvetson
[via Northwest VC]

See also:
Quantum computer - Wikipedia
How Quantum Computers Will Work - Howstuffworks
Centre for Quantum Computation
Quantum Computers - Google News
Quantum Internet Search