by Amara Graps

What Will Be Quantum Technology’s First ‘Killer App’?

Quantum researchers have addressed this question since 2019 in their research articles, in a variety of (sometimes surprising) ways.

O’Brien et al., 2019 proposed the answer was quantum chemistry with a focus on the FeMoco molecule, while von Burg et al., 2021 agreed that quantum chemistry, in particular, the calculation of quantum electronic energies in molecular systems, was the killer application. Lau et al., 2022 pondered the question, but didn’t have an answer. Instead, they offered a comparison timeline for classical computers to demonstrate their effectiveness, including the period when the circumstances of WWII called for a killer app to break German cryptographic codes. Cordier et al., 2022 embraced the broad area of quantum simulation as the killer app, while Huang et al., 2022 stated that we still needed to find the killer app for the NISQ era. Dalzell et al., 2023 jumped into the area of PDE solvers after quantum chemistry as a killer application. Finally,  Cheng et al, 2023 was optimistic that the emergence of quantum killer applications, that is essential for human society, will happen in the future.

Astute quantum observers held a similar discussion online.

When Lawrence Gasman (Inside Quantum Technology), asked this question on LinkedIn (Fall 2022),  André M. König’s (GQI) answer was another question:

What was the first classical Killer App?

Gasman’s answer: Visicalc

Which highlights my first two Ingredients for a killer app:

  1. multi-purpose
  2. multi-platform

Here’s where I want you to think bigger with a third Ingredient:

  • The killer quantum computer app will need to connect people all over the world.

Connecting people, was also the selling point of NCSA Mosaic, in 1993.

Earlier this week, Massimo commemorated on Twitter/X, the first Internet Search Engine, 31 years ago called the W3Catalog. What he was commemorating, in fact, was its catalog, while the search access was likely carried out by a tool called WAIS.

I know WAIS, because I educated co-workers about it, in my 1993 Newsletter to the NASA-Ames Space Sciences division called Digital Explorations. In 1993-94, the Internet’s new tools opened a new world of computing possibilities, including the most important application, NCSA Mosaic, the first Internet browser. Mosaic was described on the same WAIS description page of that newsletter (see next Figure).

The multi-purpose aspect of Mosaic was achieved by collecting Internet protocols with their open-source implementations, then integrating the implemented tools, in order to perform a variety of internet functions, such as database access, communications, Internet monitoring, and more.

Quantum Communications Device, Networks and Protocols of the First ‘Killer App’

For visionaries, notice the Connections across the quantum value chain, in the Figure below. I have outlined, in a red rectangle:  the Quantum Communication Device, Networks, and Protocols portion, which is layered on top of the middle Communications and Networking layer. (*)

I believe that we are at a very (very!) early stage, of a similar journey of the Mosaic journey, decades ago.

Figure. Slide from the GQI Presentation called Quantum Technology Introduction. This interactive deck is a 20-slide, broad and deep presentation of the state of quantum technology today, stepping through the hardware components with basic quantum principles. (*)

A Demo Inspiration for the First ‘Killer App’

Every killer app needs a good demo. Here I present to you an example of that killer 1993 Mosaic app: The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact into Jupiter, July 1994. When the first day arrived of impact, of the SL-9 cometary train of rocky fragments into Jupiter’s atmosphere: July 16, 1994, the international planetary scientists and their astronomer colleagues and scientist friends were taking data. The Internet killer app: Mosaic and the World Wide Web were ready to help the scientists communicate their data.

As the Jupiter data was posted in real-time on the email lists from astronomers / planetary scientists, and subsequently to local data-servers, the observers experienced the Earth turning in that surreal, connected, data-collection marathon. Each observer’s vantage point on the Earth had its own view to Jupiter during those 6.5 days. It will be hard to top that killer app demo, but I encourage you to try.

(*) GQI offers five others for customers which describe the State of Play in various sectors. . If you are interested to learn more, please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected].

September 7, 2024

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