Will The Quantum Internet Replace Our Current One?
One of the CQN projects will involve building a test bed in Tucson — a quantum network spanning six buildings and 10 laboratory sites on campus. On the East Coast, CQN’s partner universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will build a Boston-area test bed to explore “quantum communications in a conceptually simple network setting over metropolitan-scale distances,” Guha says.
Whenever it arrives, the quantum internet will not replace the classical internet. Instead, users will see “an upgrade with a new service: that of quantum communication. The quantum internet would initially be used for research and targeted applications by government, academia and industry users, including national defense, banking and finance, the cloud computing industry, and pharmaceutical research and development, Guha explains. A biomedical researcher could use the quantum internet to simulate a new synthetic molecule. Eventually, a student could open a quantum cloud computing app on a handheld device to perform computations.
“The biggest impact on academia that I foresee is creating a transdisciplinary bridge and collaboration among researchers in disciplines that would not have otherwise worked together,” Guha says.