What is quantum mechanics and why you should care?
André Melo on what quantum mechanics actually says about the world, why it took a century to turn into a machine, and what that changes for the people building on top of it.
I'm In →Quantum computing turns up in the news every few months with a headline number attached, and from outside it is close to impossible to tell whether anything actually moved.
André Melo builds the machines. He will start with the physics itself: what quantum mechanics says is going on underneath ordinary matter, why the gap between the theory and a working computer took a hundred years to close, and where those computers stand today.
Then the part the title promises. Which problems a quantum machine is genuinely faster at, which ones it will never touch, and what timeline is worth planning around if your work runs anywhere near encryption, materials, logistics or drug discovery.
No physics background assumed. Bring the question you have always been slightly embarrassed to ask, and stay for the glass afterwards.