Quantum physics and tiny satellites hundreds of miles above Earth will form the basis of the next leap in global communications.
“Quantum communications.” That’s what scientists call this stunning development. And it’s at an inflection point.
The hardware to make it work is already operational. Applications are en route. Together, they will supercharge the way we exchange information.
Traditional computers are little more than elaborate box switches. Based on electricity, they interpret the world through a binary lens of “off” and “on.”
But scientists made a strange discovery when they studied the behavior of light …
According to quantum mechanics, the protons, electrons and neutrons that make up matter don’t follow binary rules. They are not on or off.
In fact, they can act as though they are in two places at the same time.
A skeptical Alfred Einstein had an amusing, non-technical term for the absurd idea of traveling outside time and space. He called it “spooky action at a distance.”
In 2014 Japanese researchers put this idea into practice. They put a 13-pound satellite into orbit 372 miles above Earth.
The diminutive Socrates orbiter carried a quantum-communication transmitter. And it contacted a base station in Tokyo. The transmission proved the veracity of quantum key distribution (QKD).
QKD is a system developed to make communications safe. It’s unhackable because it records data in the quantum state of photons.
If you remember high school physics, or happened to catch the tail end of the “Breaking Bad” television series, you probably know Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. It states that you can’t observe a quantum particle without changing its state.
Any nefarious attempt to decode a quantum transmission breaks the QKD signature. And that instantly prevents the hack.
The Chinese have taken a step further in the direction of spooky …
Their unhackable quantum communications project involves teleportation. Memories of campy “Star Trek” episodes aside, the idea harkens back to Einstein.
The Chinese found a way to make information travel outside of time and space.
Their satellite Micius successfully beamed entangled photons to a base station on Earth. The experiment involved two tiny particles that were separated, but kept stable enough to remain linked at 870 miles.
Think about that for a moment. They set up a method of data transmission. One that’s unburdened by the shackles of time and space.
The promise has many researchers thinking about a new, exponentially more powerful internet. The current web is saddled with latency that was born out of time and distance complexities. Even faster fiber-optic cable setups would pale in comparison to a satellite-based, quantum internet.
Information would be instantaneous.
Quantum communications can’t come soon enough for businesses and government. All data encryption based on traditional computing will become obsolete when quantum computers arrive.
Even the concept of these supercomputers was science fiction a decade ago. Now progress is happening at an exponential rate. Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM (IBM) all have large teams of engineers devoted solely research and development.
In technology circles, inevitability is a forgone conclusion.
In the middle of July, Wired reported black hat hackers were already buying large blocks of encrypted data. This information is useless in its current state. The plan, according to industry experts, is to harvest the data and wait for decryption using affordable access to quantum computers.
There are plenty of opportunities for investors, too. Already one public company is making plans to launch a constellation of thousands of custom satellites.
There is a startup working on a smaller network. Its cookie-cutter spacecraft are powered by easy-to-source smartphone sensors and integrated circuits.
Semiconductor and software companies will also be winners. The push toward quantum communications has all the early earmarks of an arms race. Semis and software are the arms.
These ideas are waiting to be plucked by astute investors before they go mainstream. Stay tuned.
Best wishes,
Jon Markman
