Michio Kaku: Quantum computing is the next revolution

• We all know that digital computers changed virtually every aspect of our life. Well, the arrival of quantum computers could be even more historic than that. We're now in the initial stages of the next revolution. We're talking about a new generation of computers: the ultimate computer, a computer that computes on atoms, the ultimate constituents of matter itself.

The question is: Who's involved in this race to perfect quantum computers? And the answer is: everyone. All the big players are part of this race because if they're not, Silicon Valley could become the next Rust Belt. Also, anyone who's interested in security is interested in quantum computers. They can crack almost any code that is based on digital technology. That's why the FBI, the CIA, and all national governments are following this very closely. Quantum computers will change everything: the economy, how we solve problems, the way we interact with the Universe. You name it, quantum computers will be there.

I'm Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, and author of "Quantum Supremacy," about the rise of quantum computers. You see, computers have gone through three basic stages: Stage one was the analog computer. So, 2,000 years ago there was a shipwreck, and in the boat that sank was a device, and when you brushed away the dirt and debris, you began to realize that it was a machine, a machine of incredible complexity. It was, in fact, the world's first analog computer, and it was designed to map the motion of the Moon, the Sun, and the planets to simulate the Universe.

But as we primitive peoples became more prosperous, we had to count things- count how many cows you had, count how much profit you made. Analog computers could be based on sticks, bones, whatever it took to count. So, this went on for thousands of years until finally we reached the work of Charles Babbage. He creates the ultimate analog computer with hundreds of gears and levers and pulleys. And by turning the crank, you could then calculate longitude, latitude, you could calculate interest rates.

It was very valuable to have an instrument like that for the banking industry, for commerce. Then, World War II comes along. Babbage's machine is simply too primitive to break the German code, so the job was given to mathematicians like Alan Turing. Alan Turing was the one who codified a lot of the laws of computation into what is called, and of course, it's digital. Now, the digital revolution is based on transistors. It operates on zeros and ones, zeros and ones at the speed of electricity. Every digital computer is a Turing machine.

The next step beyond digital computers is the quantum era. Richard Feynman was one of the founders of quantum electrodynamics, but also a visionary. And he asked himself a simple question: How small can you make a transistor? And he realized that the ultimate transistor is an atom—one atom that could control the flow of electricity, not just on or off, but everything in-between. We have to go to quantum computers, computers that compute on atoms rather than on transistors.

Transistors are based on zeros and one, zeros and one. Reality is not. Reality is based on electrons and particles, and these particles in turn act like waves. So, you have to have a new set of mathematics to discuss the waves that make up a molecule, and that's where quantum computers come in. They're based on electrons, and these electrons, how come they have so much computational power? Because they could be in two places at the same time— that's what gives quantum computers their power.

They compute on not just one universe but an infinite number of parallel universes. At the fundamental level, quantum mechanics can be reduced down to a cat, Schrodinger's cat. Let's take a box. In the box, you put a cat, and the question is: Is the cat dead or alive? Well, until you open the box, you don't know. It is alive and dead simultaneously. It's in a superposition of two states. In other words, the universe has split in half. In one half, the cat is alive. In t...