#RBCDisruptors - Quantum Computing: Superconducting the Future

Canada is leading the way in a new form of computing based on quantum mechanics that has the potential to change everything from portfolio management to cancer research to fantasy football.

While quantum computing can seem like the stuff of science fiction, experts say the technology is already a reality.

Yet building a new form of computer that can solve certain kinds of mathematical problems thousands of times faster than traditional machines isn’t easy, and a quantum machine won’t be helping you decide between drafting Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers anytime soon.

That’s the message from the three quantum computing experts who spoke at the #RBCDisruptors panel in Roy Thomson Hall on June 1st.

They said quantum approaches to computing that take advantage of the upside-down world of subatomic particles to make calculations can change the world—just not quite yet.

Rumi Morales runs the venture capital wing of CME Group, the largest owner of financial exchanges in the world, and says quantum computing has the power to affect the way banks do business within five years.

"We handle one quadrillion dollars in notional value every year, we have 15 million contracts traded a day," she said. "There is so much data, there is so much information to try to capture and be able to create efficiencies."

Quantum computers can find these small optimizations because of their affinity for crunching numbers—in certain situations, a quantum computer can operate thousands or even millions of times faster than classical computers.

"It's not just the core business of financial services," Morales said. "Quantum [computers] could affect security systems, encryption technology, cryptography, and so on and so forth. There are many different aspects, even in the financial services industry, that are important to us."

Yet while the potential for quantum computing is vast, there are challenges before the technology moves out of its specialized niche into everyday applications.

How quantum computing works
Every operation a computer can do, from Call of Duty to Snapchat, is at its core a series of mathematical functions performed in binary. When your mobile phone or your PC does the math that’s at the heart of modern computing, it has to line up all the individual binary digits, or bits, in just the right order.

While classical computers think in the binary bits of ones and zeroes, quantum computers think in ones and zeroes at the same time—a phenomenon known as superposition. These quantum bits, or qubits, make quantum computers much better at dealing with huge datasets all at once.

When you ask a quantum computer the right kind of mathematical question, it already knows the outcome—because its qubits are already in the right order, as well as all the wrong ones.

Andrew Fursman, CEO of quantum software company 1QB Information Technologies, said that, like most people, he doesn't think about what exactly is happening at the core level in his regular computer, and quantum computers will be no different.

"It will be interesting to know that we have moved from bits to quantum bits," he said.

"But we'll still have the mouse, the keyboard, the screen. It's just that the things we do with those machines will be much more powerful because of that transition."

The coldest place in Canada
Canada is already a world leader in quantum computing. Vancouver-based quantum computer provider D-Wave Systems was a pioneer in commercializing quantum computers, and a so-called “genius cluster” around quantum computing has sprung up around Vancouver and the University of British Columbia.

D-Wave’s 1,097-qubit 2X device is by some measures the most powerful quantum computer in the world. Organizations such as Google and NASA have bought D-Wave’s technology and installed the shielded black three-metre-square cubes that house its thumbnail-sized quantum processors. 

"It looks a little like a Dr. No death-ray apparatus," said Murray Thom, director of professional services at D-Wave. "James Bond should be lying on a table underneath."

The inside of the computer is refrigerated, but it’s not the kind of cold that keeps your lettuce crisp. D-Wave's quantum computer takes advantage of the unique electrical properties of superconductors, which only operate within a few degrees of absolute zero.

That means the area around the processor is roughly minus 273 degrees Celsius, or colder than the very depths of space.

"In a way this is really the first computer revolution," said Fursman. "This is the first time that computers will work different at a really fundamental level since the types of computers that we are familiar with, starting in the 1940s, came on the scene."

Putting uncertainty to work
Superconductors, superposition—quantum computing leads to head-scratching math and physics that make it hard to define the technology’s true promise. Yet those involved say quantum computing could have a broad array of applications.

Think about the complexity of air travel, with thousands of planes flying thousands of routes all around the world every day. Planning the safest, most fuel-efficient route for each plane is a massive computational challenge—a challenge familiar to anyone who has looked at the bewildering array of options available when booking a multi-stop trip.

For quantum computers that can see every variable at once, such a challenge is trivial. They can’t make the security lines go any faster, but quantum computers could make planning a European tour a much simpler task.

The same sorts of optimizations can be applied to picking the stocks and financial instruments that make up an investment portfolio, revealing deeper health insights from drug trials and treatment using individual medical records and even genetic data, and building the most statistically effective combined NFL team to dominate your fantasy season.

"These computers allow you to search through a large number of combinations to find the best combination," said Fursman.

"From the entire universe of stocks, or even better from the entire universe of investible assets, if you're looking for a particular threshold of risk, how do you choose a small number of assets that will give you the best possible return? That’s what the hardware that’s available today has the ability to do."

Almost anything with huge amounts of data and many complex variables can be solved quickly with quantum power.

Quantum code-breaking
Quantum computing isn’t just about finding optimizations, however. It has significant implications for computer security, and could spell the end of some of the encryption that’s in use today.

We live in an encrypted world online, freely entering our credit-card information and personal data on websites that are protected by advanced levels of security and encryption. These security protocols are based on mathematical algorithms that use huge numbers to obscure their results—something classical computers aren’t very good at decoding.

It is theoretically possible to break some of the encryption used today, but it requires an incredibly powerful computer and thousands of years of processing time. Even services that use blockchain distributed ledger technology, such as Bitcoin, are encrypted based on this idea of the limitations of classical computers.

Quantum computers, as you may have guessed, make breaking such encryption much easier.

"No one's talking about the Achilles heel of blockchain, which is its reliance on cryptography and its reliance on the security systems of today," Morales said. "We're looking closely at the post-quantum world. You have to skate to the puck. Quantum integrates through everything, at least the possibility of it does."

The future of quantum computing
While D-Wave is leading the way with its powerful 2X system, other companies and organizations in America, Australia and beyond are working on their own approaches to quantum computing.

D-Wave’s computers are designed to solve a certain type of narrowly defined problem. More general-purpose quantum computers have yet to be developed on a commercial scale.

That means that while quantum computers will take over certain functions in the financial industry and beyond within the next decade, it could be many years before use expands to the general public.

So don’t count on a quantum computer in your pocket any time soon, not least because that would be a very chilly proposition. Maintaining a computer in a state of quantum uncertainty and doing calculations with it is still a task for those with PhDs.

Yet when those general machines do hit the market, quantum computing is poised to disrupt many traditional industries through its super-fast data analysis and calculation.

"I don't think it's going away," Morales said. "The genie is out of the bottle. But there is still time yet to feel that this is something that can be harnessed to our advantage and not something to be scared about."