The quantum journey begins with a series of epiphanies and takes many detours with more than a few moral temptations and ethical dilemmas along the way. There is the risk of an apocalyptic end, like other great modern scientific discoveries from the great extinction at the tail end of the industrial age or the nuclear winter, should deterrence fail in the atomic age, or the proliferation of meta-verses in the waning years of the information age. There is then the potential for good, as well as evil.
We face an exponentially accelerating quantum race to build the first quantum computer, a computer that could surpass classical computers and speed and scale, simulate complex problems, mitigate climate change and create super strong materials and optimize the flow of goods, resources and money. But the same technology could crack all classically encrypted messages, take surveillance, data mining and face recognition to Orwellian levels of omniscience, create super sensitive sensors and super powerful weapons in a global battle space, and produce an artificial intelligence that is superior to humans and knows it.