2026: Quantum Computers change everything... and that's OK

June 2, 2026

You are using Quantum computers, primarily through the cloud, in all areas of your life. We have a completely new AI-driven internet. Blockchain has exponentially decentralized, infused & disrupted economies and supply chains like the web did for information in the 1990s. We are also starting an era that will completely change the hardware we had all but gotten used to. And you know what? Everything will be ok.

We saw in "2025: The New Digital Currency Paradigm" that AI, Blockchain, RFID and cryptocurrencies will be part of a the new integrated consumer experience (and thus strategic retail, supply chain and operational offense). There is a fourth Beatle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Quantum computing, which is being developed concurrently but will be an almost unimaginable catalyst to the evolutions we will all be experiencing in the next three to four years.

At a high level:

• Blockchain gets rid of the middleman, and uses encryption and complex math to certify general ledger activities.
• AI + RFID tells us where stuff is and what stuff is authentic or not authentic.
• Cryptocurrency serves as monetary assets based on Blockchain. No rules. No central bank. Pure supply and demand.
• Quantum computing takes us out of binary (0s and 1s) and adds "something in between". This simple third option opens unimaginable opportunities from physicists, who want to solve those pesky problems that all the current computers together on Earth can't solve, to cyber security, which wants next gen bad-guy-proof encryption to you having technology and opportunities that would make H. G. Wells blush.

There are many drivers for Quantum computing, some include: we've evolved so fast our best processing power can't solve some important new math. Commercially, we are equally evolving ecosystems like the Deconomy, access to information and decisions we are now allowing artificial intelligence to make. We need to be extra sure bad guys can't do bad things. This driver will "force" Quantum computing on the market: if nothing else, because we need to (try to) stay ahead of hackers.

Mistrust sometimes is the best catalyst for Innovation.

Think this is science fiction? You can take a test drive today on one of the few Quantum computers in the world right now. Check out IBM's Q Experience. Thanks to the modeling and simulation portal, I've made sure the Illuminati have zero chance to crack my Quantum encrypted 2025 NCAA March Madness mock bracket. Ok, maybe not zero chance but something like a trillion to the trillionth to one.

OK, so why should the LinkedIn community care about any of this? First, by definition, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (which, we already live in) is going to bombard us with wonderful opportunities and limitless options. That's great but also being practical: folks still will go to work, want to put their children through college, save for retirement, take out the trash, fight for the last piece of pizza, etc.

No one will know what flavors, adaptions or combinations of workflows will surface to the top as leaders of the pack, but as leaders, as mentors, as employers and employees, it is the perfect time to take a moment and embrace some key points:

We are entering an era of secured, decentralized, head-spinning fast decision making, so for each of us, especially who once did homework on a typewriter (#MsEdmond'sFourthGradeClass), we need to wire ourselves differently now in our careers. It's no longer about a central authority or the boss setting the rules of the game. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is about lightening-fast market evolution to meet the needs of consumers driven by independent peer-review verification.

Simply put: everyone is about to work in the era of the "We".

The other important opportunity for the LinkedIn ecosystem is to take the time to learn the principles of these new platforms and technologies. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to sell a tennis shirt or pizza or ocean-view condo to a rocket scientist, but you should be comfortable with the concepts of encrypted decentralized ledgers, cryptocurrencies and the growth space Quantum computing will deliver.

Whether LinkedIn, YouTube, PBS, the app du jour or online classes: empower yourself with the fundamentals. Despite how fast the Fourth Industrial Revolution is growing, you strangely enough have time right now to start to get familiar.

That's the beauty of infinite possibilities: within every infinite set is a pattern that best fits with you and your career.

And as for which Beatle is Quantum computing? I'll leave that up to the greater "We" to decide.

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Dr. Justin Lacche, MBA, PMP, ΑΚΨ (PhD Student, USA) complete published works (click here).