Beneath the exhibition galleries is another space that is filled with machinery to maintain the conditions in which the collection survives.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors pass through the gallery each year without ever seeing this other world. Air from outside the gallery is brought in, warmed to a higher temperature, then cooled and dehumidified. The equipment runs continuously to ensure the gallery is maintained at 21.0 ± 1°C with a relative humidity of 50% ± 5% over 24 hours and no more than 3% change in relative humidity in one hour.

This effort is out of all proportion to what visitors see when they walk through an exhibition. Few would have any idea of what it takes to preserve an art collection.

This imbalance is analogous to what it takes to make a quantum computer work.

What the machinery protects

Earlier articles in this series described superposition, which allows a quantum bit (qubit) to hold a combination of possibilities, and interference, which converts those possibilities into useful answers. Both depend on the qubits remaining coherent long enough for a calculation to be completed.

The difficulty is that almost anything can disturb them.

Heat is particularly problematic because it can cause qubits to lose the coherent state on which the calculations depend. Loss of coherence is called, somewhat obviously, decoherence. Controlling for it is one of the biggest difficulties to be overcome in building a quantum computer.

Many solid-state quantum computers require operating temperatures near absolute zero, about minus 273°C, which is colder than deep space.

Quantum cooling equipment is a whole engineering system in its own right. Room-sized refrigerators are often used, combined with elaborate shielding and control wiring threaded down through descending stages of cold. The suspended assembly is often called a chandelier because of its shape.

Three different approaches

There are different ways to manage decoherence. Australian companies Diraq and Silicon Quantum Computing, both spun out of the University of New South Wales, are pursuing different silicon-based approaches. Quantinuum, headquartered in Colorado in the United States, uses trapped ions in yet another approach.

Diraq uses silicon qubits that operate at around one kelvin rather than the millikelvin temperatures other solid-state systems require. This allows the Diraq systems to use simpler and cheaper cooling systems.

Silicon Quantum Computing uses individual phosphorus atoms in silicon to deliver high-quality qubits at 3.7 kelvin in a system that is highly scalable.

Quantinuum employs a completely different approach, using trapped ions held in a vacuum by an electromagnetic field. A second ion species is cooled with lasers to remove disruptions and keep the qubit ions stable.

Protecting one qubit with many

But even with this protection, errors cannot be eliminated. A further line of defence is quantum error correction.

The problem of qubit instability is addressed by adding more qubits. But first it is important to know there are two types of qubits: physical and logical.

Quantum information is spread across a large number of physical qubits, which are vulnerable to noise and error. Across this group, the system checks for patterns that reveal and then correct errors, thus protecting the logical qubits.

Hundreds or thousands of physical qubits may be required to get a single logical qubit that an algorithm can actually use.

While vendors may extol the number of qubits in their systems, this can be misleading. Far more useful to know is how many logical qubits the machine can produce and how often these logical qubits make errors.

The other qubits are like the air conditioners and control systems beneath the gallery. They are the hidden infrastructure that keeps the fragile things in perfect condition.

What boards should ask

Avoiding the hype of the total number of qubits, the questions to ask are:

• How long do the qubits hold their state?

• What are the physical and logical error rates?

• How many logical qubits does the system support?

• What infrastructure is required to keep the system stable?

At the National Portrait Gallery, climate-control systems operate continuously to protect the collection. In a quantum computer, qubits also need continuous protection if the machine is to produce masterpieces of its own.

Disclaimer: I am an investor in Silicon Quantum Computing.

Next week: Which Problems are Quantum Computers Best Suited to Solve?

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When the surfing is done, we ride the swells home. We call these runs skates and the skis gather speed as they race down the face of each swell.

As we approach the rock groyne (breakwater for US readers) at Cottesloe main beach, the ride becomes unsettled. Earlier swells have struck the rocks, reflected and returned to slap against our skis.

There is a pattern in the chaos. It is the same phenomenon a quantum computer uses to turn many possibilities into a useful answer.

When the crests of two waves meet, the water rises and when a crest meets a trough, they flatten each other out. Physicists call this interference and it is the third concept in this Making Sense of Quantum series after superposition and entanglement.

Creating the possibilities

Quantum computers work with massive possibilities that are enabled by superposition, which allows a qubit to hold multiple states, and entanglement that links qubits so they behave as parts of one system.

When the qubits are read, or measured as the physicists say, a result is delivered.

If the measurement is done at random the result will be random. So what makes a useful outcome more likely to appear?

The waves do the work

The answer is interference.

Each possible state of a qubit system has an amplitude, a quantity with a size and a phase. Amplitudes form a pattern similar to a wave, much like the height and timing of the swell and backwash at the groyne.

Some algorithms test for the conditions that a useful answer must satisfy and adjust the amplitudes so that those associated with correct answers reinforce each other and unhelpful possibilities cancel out. This is interference.

By the time the qubits are measured, unhelpful possibilities have been suppressed and a useful answer is more likely to appear.

Knowing when to stop

As with a lot of things in life, the key is knowing when to stop.

One example is Grover’s algorithm, which runs a series of operations designed to maximise the probability of a useful result. Run too few iterations and the probability remains low. Run too many and it begins to fall again. The algorithm therefore runs for a calculated number of iterations before the qubits are measured.

As the system is dealing with probabilities, the process may be repeated multiple times to build confidence in the result.

Why the possibilities are not enough

It is often said that quantum computers process all possible answers simultaneously. The real power lies in using interference to arrange the possibilities so that a useful answer is more likely to appear when the qubits are measured.

This is why a quantum computer is not just faster than a classical computer. Quantum works in a fundamentally different way that, for specific problems, allows it to reach answers in far fewer steps than classical methods.

Where quantum makes a difference

While superposition and entanglement provide a range of possible results, it is interference that converts those possibilities into a useful outcome.

For many everyday tasks, this process is unnecessary and using a classical computer is a better option.

For boards and executives exploring quantum solutions, the key question is whether an algorithm exists or could be developed to solve an important organisational problem that is beyond the reach of classical systems.

Potential candidates include analysing financial risk across vast numbers of scenarios, modelling molecules to develop new drugs and optimising complex transport, energy and supply networks.

Here in Perth, researchers tackling these issues include those at the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Quantum Information, Simulation and Algorithms. The Centre and its counterparts around the world are working with industry to turn quantum principles into practical applications.

At Cottesloe, waves meet at the groyne. Sometimes the waves form up into bigger waves, at other times they flatten out in a dance determined by the rocks and the swell. Quantum algorithms use the same principle, but deliberately shape the pattern so that a useful answer is the one most likely to stand up when you look.

Next week: Why Are Quantum Computers So Difficult to Build?

Creating quantum possibilities is difficult. Keeping them alive long enough to be useful is harder.

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A friend suggested Reiki and said his wife, a practitioner, could treat me. With nothing to lose, I went to see her. Standing behind me, she moved her hand around the back of my shoulder, without touching it. The pain suddenly shot up to the point where I had to ask her to stop. I couldn’t explain it, she couldn’t explain it, but I could certainly feel it.

A few days later, a sceptical friend asked, “JB, I know you’ve got an open mind, but Reiki ...really?” He had a point. I didn’t have an explanation and neither did anyone else.

It left me with an unanswered question: can two separated things be connected when nothing obvious passes between them?

Physics has a phenomenon that sounds almost as strange, although repeated experiments have confirmed it. Known as entanglement, it allows two particles to behave as parts of one system, even when they are far apart.

A pair of gloves

Imagine posting one glove to a friend in Sydney and keeping its pair in Perth. Neither of you look inside the boxes holding the respective gloves. When your friend opens theirs and finds the left glove, they instantly know yours is the right one. Nothing mysterious happened. The gloves had fixed identities from the start and opening the box merely revealed them.

Entangled particles are different. Particles that are entangled behave as respective parts of one system, even when separated. When measured, their results are linked in ways that cannot be explained by each particle carrying its own pre-arranged answer.

One shared quantum state

Last week’s article Dead and Alive: How Qubits Hold Two Possibilities at Once discussed superposition, the ability of a qubit to occupy a combination of possible states before it is measured.

Entanglement takes that idea further. Two particles, say photons, can share a joint quantum state that links their possible measurement results. When both are measured in the same way, the result for one determines the result for the other, even if they are far apart.

The gloves were left- and right-handed from the start. But entangled particles cannot be explained as having similarly pre-set answers.

No messages cross the gap

Because measuring one photon lets us immediately infer the result of an equivalent measurement on the other, it is tempting to imagine a message travelling between them faster than the speed of light. But entanglement does not work that way. On its own, the measurement of each particle looks random and the correlation only becomes apparent when the two sets of results are compared. And that comparison must be communicated via an ordinary communication channel, such as by telephone, email or a beam of light through optical fibre. You may be relieved to know that Einstein’s speed limit remains intact.

Einstein’s objection

Nonetheless, Einstein was deeply troubled by this. In 1935, he and two colleagues argued that quantum mechanics might be incomplete and that additional, hidden information could explain the correlations.

In 1964, physicist John Bell worked out a way to test this hypothesis. Experiments conducted since 1972 have repeatedly ruled out the notion that each particle carries its own local, pre-set answer.

Why it matters

In a quantum computer, entanglement lets qubits encode relationships with other qubits. Together with superposition and interference, entanglement allows some quantum algorithms to represent and manipulate complex relationships among many variables.

As an example of how this can be applied, researchers hope this will improve simulations of molecules and their interactions, potentially accelerating drug discovery.

Entanglement can also support highly secure communications. In what’s known as entanglement-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), two parties compare selected measurement results to test whether their correlations have been disturbed. Unexpected errors may reveal eavesdropping, alerting the parties to an unwanted breach.

Company directors and executives will increasingly hear QKD discussed in relation to Post-Quantum Cryptography. For an introduction to the risk and the available threat-mitigation for Post-Quantum Cryptography, see an earlier article They buy now. You pay later and a piece on risk mitigation at Cyber risk has shifted. Most boards haven’t

Quantum Key Distribution uses specialised quantum hardware to distribute encryption keys, whereas Post-Quantum Cryptography uses classical software designed to resist attacks from quantum computers. Both aim to protect sensitive information against threats associated with quantum computing, using different approaches.

While my shoulder pain remains unexplained, quantum entanglement is based on a proven and repeatable body of evidence. Experiments show that separated particles behave as parts of one quantum system, without sending faster-than-light messages across the gap.

Next week: How does a quantum computer turn many possibilities into one useful answer?
The answer lies in interference, which strengthens some possibilities and cancels others.

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The question was framed in the context of quantum computing and what are known as qubits, the basis of quantum computing capabilities.

The laptop, tablet or phone you may be reading this on stores information as binary digits, or bits. Each one of them is a 0 or a 1 and everything the machine does is built from billions of them.

Quantum computers use a quantum bit, qubit. It is created using an atom, an electron, a photon or a superconducting circuit. The difference to a bit is that a qubit can exist in two states at the same time: 0 and 1. This is not some value partway between zero and one. It’s both at once.

When the qubit is read, a process that physicists call measurement, it collapses to a single definite result: either 0 or 1. What makes it strange is what happens before it is measured.

Two Kinds of Uncertainty

Our daughter Grace once photographed a derelict hospital near our home late one night. The building had stood empty for decades and had only ever housed men. But in one photo, an old woman appears to be looking out from an upstairs window.

Despite much conjecture back at home, none of us were able to explain it. Perhaps it was a reflection, a camera artefact or something else in the field of view. Whatever it was, we assume an explanation exists. Our uncertainty comes from something we don’t yet know.

For centuries, scientists assumed nature worked the same way in that more information would eventually reveal an answer. Quantum mechanics challenged that assumption.

Before a qubit is measured, it does not contain a hidden 0 or 1 waiting to be found. Its state is described by both outcomes at once and the probability of each appearing when it is finally read.

The term superposition describes the state a qubit is in before measurement. Loosely, think of super as multiple and position as possibilities. In superposition, the qubit incorporates both possible outcomes, 0 and 1. When the qubit is measured, those possibilities resolve into one definite result.

The analogy of a spinning coin is often given to explain superposition. While the coin spins, we don’t know whether it will land heads or tails. But the coin has a definite position, speed and orientation at every given moment. If we had enough information, we could theoretically predict which way it will land. The uncertainty is in our lack of information.

A qubit’s uncertainty is baked into the quantum system.

About Those Cat T-shirts

You may have seen shirts with ‘Wanted: Dead & Alive’ printed under a picture of a cat. The joke refers to a thought experiment by physicist Erwin Schrödinger.

In 1935 he imagined a sealed box containing a cat, radioactive material, a hammer and poison. If the atom decayed, the hammer would release the poison and the cat would die. If the atom remained intact, the cat would live. Quantum mechanics describes the atom as occupying a superposition involving both possibilities before measurement. Because the cat’s fate depends on the atom, the same reasoning appears to leave the cat alive and dead until the box is opened.

Schrödinger devised the thought experiment to show how absurd quantum rules appear when extended into everyday life.

Why Possibility Matters

The superpowers of superposition become apparent when qubits work together.

Two classical bits have four possible combinations: 00, 01, 10 and 11. At any moment, however, they occupy only one of them.

Two qubits can occupy a superposition involving all four configurations. A third qubit gives eight configurations, a fourth sixteen. As qubits are added, the number of possible configurations doubles each time, creating exponential growth (2ⁿ).

With just 50 qubits, a quantum computer can process more than a quadrillion combinations at once (a quadrillion is 1 followed by 15 zeros). With 500 qubits, the number of combinations exceed the number of atoms in the observable universe.

This matters because many hard problems contain enormous numbers of interacting variables. For example, drug molecules can take countless forms, some of which produce beneficial patient outcomes and others that have terrible consequences; financial systems have massive numbers of variables continuously influencing each other.

Many of humanity’s most intractable problems remain unsolved because they contain too many variables for classical computers to model in full.

Alzheimer’s disease is one of them. The disease involves immensely complex interactions between proteins, genes, brain cells and chemical pathways. Because molecules obey quantum laws, sufficiently powerful quantum computers may eventually simulate their behaviour more accurately than classical machines. Related quantum research into Alzheimer’s disease is already underway in Melbourne, including new approaches to sensing and molecular imaging.

Together, these advances raise the possibility that quantum technologies could accelerate progress against Alzheimer’s and other diseases that have so far defied effective treatment.

Which brings us back to where we began: uncertainty. Grace’s photograph remains unexplained. Maybe one day we will come across a simple explanation. Perhaps it was a reflection, a camera fault or someone we never knew had entered the building.

Quantum mechanics requires us to accept the stranger idea that uncertainty is central to the physical world. That insight gave us the qubit and an entirely new way of solving problems.

Where classical bits store certainty, qubits store possibility.

Next week: How can two particles remain connected across any distance?

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🎧 90-Second Briefing

Recently, I’ve been asked one question more than any other.

“Can you explain quantum to me?”

Initially, I talked about qubits, superposition and other ideas that seemed …well, kooky. Then I realised people weren’t really asking about the physics.

They were asking something much simpler.

Why should I care?

The answer has changed dramatically.

Not so long ago, quantum was regarded as an intriguing scientific curiosity. Whenever I mentioned it, the response was often outright scepticism.

“Quantum? It’ll never happen”

Today, quantum has crossed an important threshold.

It has moved from the physics laboratory into the real world. Governments are investing billions. Businesses are beginning to rethink cyber security, drug discovery, advanced manufacturing and logistics. Australia is building one of the world’s first utility scale quantum computers.

But I’ve learnt over many years that the technology itself is rarely the most interesting part of the story. What matters is what it enables.

To understand that, I often describe quantum as a key.

Behind a locked door sit some of humanity’s most difficult problems: cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, climate change, the need for better batteries and countless others that have resisted our best efforts for decades.

We know that locked room exists. We simply haven’t had the key.

Quantum may be that key.

It may not unlock every door, but it could open doors that today’s computers simply cannot.

That is why so much investment is pouring into quantum technologies.

Which leads us back to that first question.

How Does it Work?

This article is the first in a short series called Making Sense of Quantum, designed to answer that question, sans physics degree.

Over the coming weeks I’ll explore the three major branches of quantum technology:

• Quantum computing

• Quantum sensing

• Quantum communications

Each article will explain one concept at a time, using practical analogies rather than mathematics. I’ll also include a short AI-generated video for readers who prefer to watch rather than read.

At the outset, it’s worth recognising Australia’s remarkable position.

Australia is one of the world’s leaders in quantum research. Our universities have led many of the pioneering discoveries in the field, we have more than 40 quantum companies and Australian researchers continue to influence developments around the globe.

Importantly, this leadership gives Australia an opportunity to create and use quantum technologies and, where it matters, to retain sovereign capability.

A Different Way of Solving Problems

Most quantum publicity promotes the speed of quantum computers. I have done that too as it is very impressive, with calculations that would take today’s supercomputers millions of years being completed by quantum machines in a matter of hours.

But what makes quantum different is the ability to solve problems that would overwhelm even today’s most powerful supercomputers.

Consider a maze. You enter at one point, take many wrong turns, backtrack and finally find the correct path to the exit. A classical computer uses the same approach, testing one pathway at a time.

Now imagine hovering above the maze. You can see every possible path at once and select the correct way out.

A quantum computer works this way, processing many variables simultaneously.

While not perfect, this analogy captures the essential idea that, for certain types of problems, quantum uses a fundamentally different approach to classical computers. Such problems typically involve vast numbers of possibilities. With increasing numbers of variables, today’s computers are much slower as they have to work through possibilities sequentially.

This ability to parallel process makes quantum ideal for work in financial modelling, logistics optimisation, drug discovery and advanced materials.

While the speed of quantum is impressive, it is the potential to solve problems that to date have been beyond our reach that is the real area for profound breakthroughs.

Next Wednesday

All this is based on one extraordinary idea: the qubit.

Today’s computers calculate using bits (binary digits) that can be either 0 or 1.

Quantum computers use qubits, which behave in ways that seem almost impossible from our everyday experience.

Understanding the qubit is the first step to understanding everything else in quantum.

Next Wednesday: How can something be 0 and 1 at the same time?

This is the first article in the weekly series Making Sense of Quantum.

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Our house was burgled twice. The first time, we didn’t realise it had happened. Nothing obvious was missing. We had recently moved in and assumed we’d misplaced things in the chaos of shifting boxes. It was only later, much later, that we understood what that first visit actually was. They were scouting. Identifying what was worth taking and noting which locks were weak.

The feeling was visceral. Somebody had been in our home. Worse, we had no idea whether they would return. Worse still, we had noticed the weak locks and done nothing about them.

They came back weeks later and took everything.

If you’ve worked in an organisation that has suffered a cyber breach, you may recognise the feeling. Bad actors inside your systems for weeks, perhaps months, before they’re discovered. Uncertainty as to what they’ve taken and what they might do with it. If you were aware of the potential weaknesses, there is also the guilt of knowing you’d seen the vulnerability and done nothing about it.

Major threats often become real because we fail to act on warnings that are already in plain sight.

Harvest now, decrypt later

Right now, adversaries are stealing encrypted data even though they can’t decrypt it. They are storing it and waiting.

Last week, Anthropic made its Mythos model available to selected Australian partners such as Commonwealth Bank. Financial institutions and telecommunications companies are now confronting what agentic AI means for their cyber defences.

The release of Anthropic’s Mythos model highlighted one emerging cyber threat. Another is already underway, operating on a longer fuse. (see my earlier article on Mythos)

State actors and criminal organisations are harvesting your encrypted communications, intellectual property and customer data, storing it until quantum computers mature.

The strategy is called harvest now, decrypt later.

This is how it works. Encryption today protects your data from today’s computers. Many experts believe quantum computers capable of breaking today’s encryption will arrive within the next decade. When they do, adversaries holding that protected data will be able to decrypt it retroactively.

They buy now… you pay for it later.

This changes the way boards must think about cyber risk. The threat is no longer limited to what attackers can do today.

The same uncertainty we felt walking through our house after the first burglary applies here. Someone had been here. We didn’t know what they saw. We didn’t know when they’d be back. Except in the case of your data, they may not come back for years and you may never know they were there at all.

The clock is already running

The Australian Signals Directorate, responsible for cyber security, has published guidance with specific deadlines:

• By end of 2026: Organisations should have a refined plan for transitioning to post-quantum cryptography.

• By end of 2028: Transition should begin for critical systems and long-lived sensitive data.

• By end of 2030: Transition must be complete.

Those deadlines are calculated on when your data is no longer secret.

If your sensitive data must remain confidential until 2038 and quantum computers arrive in 2033, with migration expected to take three to five years, then you need to start before 2030. It’s now 2026.

For intellectual property, customer information and strategic communications with longer confidentiality requirements, the calculation is even starker.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, overseeing US cybersecurity, published post-quantum cryptography standards in August 2024. These are available now.

What may be missing is board-level action.

What’s available and what needs to happen.

Two approaches are now available.

The first is to update your current encryption software using the new NIST standards. The challenge is knowing where to start as most organisations have never mapped where encryption is used across their systems.

The second is a hardware approach for your most sensitive data, the information that absolutely cannot be compromised.

One example is QuintessenceLabs, a Canberra-based company developing quantum-enhanced security technologies for critical infrastructure. For organisations with highly sensitive data, it offers an additional layer of protection beyond conventional encryption.

QuintessenceLabs is already deployed on critical infrastructure in Australia and overseas, counting Westpac, JPMorgan Chase and the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) among its clients.

For boards, four questions can help frame the discussion:

· Where is our sensitive encrypted data and who holds it?

· Which data would cause the most damage if it were decrypted in ten years?

· Can our systems switch to new encryption without major disruption?

· What is our migration plan and when does it start?

Risk Register Template

Harvest now, decrypt later may not have appeared on your organisation’s risk register yet.

To help boards begin the discussion, I asked Claude AI to draft a sample risk register entry.

The Lock We Didn’t Fix

Beyond just the house theft, our guilt stemmed from knowing that we’d seen the weak locks, assessed the risk and chosen not to act.

Many boards may be in a similar position now.

The standards exist. The timeline is known. The tools are available. NIST algorithms can be integrated into new systems immediately and providers such as QuintessenceLabs can help you protect your most sensitive data flows today.

What remains is the decision to act.

Q-Day is the term used for the moment quantum computers become capable of breaking today’s encryption.

Boards that wait for Q-Day will face the same regret we felt after our second burglary. The vulnerability was visible but the locks weren’t changed.

Harvest now, decrypt later is a present-day threat with dire future consequences.

Will your organisation be the one that fixed the locks before the burglar returned, or the one that realised too late that the warning signs were there all along?

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Since then, I have said to many director colleagues that it is only a matter of time before one of their boards faces a breach.

That moment has just moved closer.

AI company Anthropic has assessed its latest model, Mythos, as too dangerous to release publicly. During testing, Mythos identified weaknesses in every major operating system and web browser, including some that had existed 27 years without detection.

Once inside a system, it moves laterally, identifies further gaps and chains them together. It does all this autonomously, without human direction.

More concerning, Mythos escaped its secure sandbox during testing. It was instructed to try, but not told how. The model constructed a multi-step exploit to bypass network controls and gain internet access it was not meant to have.

In some cases, it appeared to understand its actions were not permitted and attempted to conceal them by erasing logs. In scenes reminiscent of Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence, it even ‘sandbagged’ a test, deliberately underperforming to avoid detection.

The US Treasury and Federal Reserve responded by calling a meeting of Wall Street leaders. The EU, UK and Japan followed.

The Reserve Bank of Australia noted it “will continue to assess the implications of these technological advancements to ensure the ongoing safety and resilience of the financial system”.

That is reassuring. But the greatest risk is not to the most defended institutions. It is to the least.

The UK’s AI Security Institute, with direct access to Mythos, has made this clear. The exposure lies in weak infrastructure, outdated software and patch cycles measured in months.

This is the reality in most Australian businesses, nonprofits and government agencies.

Most directors and CEOs are not running major banks. They are leading organisations whose IT environments were designed for a pre-agentic world. That world no longer exists.

The first obligation is hygiene: know whether your patching is current. Many executives, and most boards, do not.

Most breaches, including the one I was closest to, do not begin with sophisticated attacks. They begin with known gaps left open long enough to be exploited.

No amount of advanced technology closes a door that governance has left open.

Get that right. Then prepare for the next threat.

Agentic AI risks the present. Quantum risks the future.

Encrypted data taken today does not need to be read today. Governments and private actors are already harvesting encrypted communications, financial records and intellectual property with the expectation they can decrypt it later.

Harvest now, decrypt later.

Quantum computing will render many current encryption methods ineffective. Post-quantum cryptography refers to new forms of encryption designed to withstand these future attacks, allowing organisations to protect data that must remain secure for decades.

This is not theoretical. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has already published guidelines on what that transition requires.

The question is timing. Will your organisation begin before or after the harvest becomes a crisis?

Data created today may be compromised twice: once on entry, once in retrospect.

Government meetings are not sufficient. Three actions Australian enterprise leaders should take now include:

1. Audit your software patch cycle against the agentic threat timeline. If your IT team is working in weeks, and many are, the window they are defending has already compressed to hours.

2. Map where your sensitive encrypted data resides and who holds it.

3. Begin the transition to post-quantum cryptography before it feels urgent. By the time it does feels urgent, the harvest will have occurred.

If this seems like a future problem, your timing is already wrong.

The practical question of what this transition requires is the subject of the next piece, informed by the Quantum Australia Conference 2026 in Adelaide.

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Michelle Simmons saw both sides of that character. A British-born physicist, she came to Sydney in the late 1990s seeking academic freedom and collaboration in a place where discovery wasn’t confined by hierarchy or habit. Australia’s culture of open enquiry drew her in and would later test our resolve to back our own ideas.

Simmons later founded Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC), and her latest announcement of a quantum AI chip marks not only a technological breakthrough but also a moment of national self-belief.

The paradox of Australian invention

We’ve seen this story before. Australians invent Wi-Fi, the black box flight recorder, Google Maps … and then watch the rest of the world monetise them (even Bluey).

As Simmons warned at the Tech Council Summit in September, “we excel at research, but we often lose belief at the point where it matters most – commercialisation.”

Her call to action was simple: get products into the hands of customers. That is exactly what SQC is now doing.

A quantum machine for the AI era

The new chip, an AI accelerator for quantum machine learning, was originally slated for 2028. Yet by mid-2024 it was already being trialled by customers in a world-first feat of atomic-scale accuracy.

Built atom by atom, with precision about one-millionth of a millimetre, it demonstrates engineering that positions Australia at the forefront of the quantum-AI race.

Traditional silicon chips rely on billions of transistors that switch on and off to perform calculations sequentially. SQC’s quantum chip instead manipulates quantum states, where electrons can exist in multiple conditions simultaneously. A single qubit can be both 0 and 1 at the same time, enabling parallel computing far beyond the capabilities of classical computers. This phenomenon, superposition, gives quantum processors immense power and efficiency.

For Telstra, Australia’s national telecommunications provider, SQC’s juicily named Watermelon chip is predicting network congestion and faults in days rather than weeks.

For Telstra customers, it means fewer network dropouts, smoother video streaming and a network that fixes itself before it fails.

SQC’s work shows that Australia’s combination of public funding, university research and corporate partnerships can produce technology of global consequence. It’s the clearest sign yet that we can turn frontier science into commercial power.

A strategic pivot

The importance of this moment goes beyond the chip itself. It marks a strategic pivot from research excellence to product delivery.

Australia’s first quantum ‘centre of excellence’ was established in 2000, long before most nations had even coined the term. That early investment seeded a deep scientific capability through the Australian Research Council and has since produced companies like SQC, Diraq and others.

Simmons notes that “we got in early”. Australia’s early investment in quantum research gave it a crucial head start, long before many countries recognised its potential.

Deep-tech industries such as quantum don’t emerge overnight. They are built on advanced science and engineering rather than incremental innovation. Success demands decades of patient collaboration between universities, government and industry. And all with an outcomes focus.

That commitment is now paying off. Australia’s early ambition has matured into a national capability, with companies like SQC turning world-class research into globally significant technology.

Australia’s fear of commercial failure has long been a handbrake. The SQC chip shows what happens when Australia chooses boldness instead.

Belief as infrastructure

Quantum computing will redefine how AI learns, predicts and discovers across every domain, from medical research to climate modelling.

But the bigger story is cultural. Belief itself has become a form of infrastructure.

When Simmons says, “get products into the hands of customers”, she’s speaking not just to engineers but to the national psyche.

SQC’s Watermelon chip is a proof of concept for Australia’s capacity to build and back its own ideas. We began the quantum journey as a research nation. Now, with this announcement, we step into our next role as a nation that delivers.

And in the strange world of quantum physics, it is fitting that a single atom in Sydney could collapse Australia’s wave of self-doubt into something real.

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The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and quantum computing could transform how we understand, research and ultimately cure disease. WA can lead that change. If we act.

This may be our second “internet” moment: a chance to reshape the future of medicine through bold uptake of AI and quantum technologies.

Serving six years, three as chair, on the board of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research has highlighted the imminent shift awaiting research leaders and policymakers who embrace AI and quantum computing strategically.

It signals real promise for institutes like the Perkins and for transformative facilities like the proposed Perkins WA Comprehensive Cancer Centre, which could potentially integrate advanced technology to deliver unprecedented outcomes for the benefit of people everywhere.

To understand the scale of what’s coming, consider this: the rise of AI and quantum computing in medicine is as significant as the birth of the internet in the 1990s. That digital wave connected researchers, enabled global collaboration and gave rise to entirely new fields of data-driven science. It revolutionised how we conduct clinical trials, share medical records and access health information.

But unlike the internet, which largely reorganised information and communication, this new wave will supercharge discovery itself. AI already helps clinicians diagnose diseases earlier, identify treatment pathways and make sense of complex datasets with more speed and accuracy than ever before.

When paired with the raw computational power of quantum systems, AI opens new possibilities. Research can now target problems previously considered too complex or time-consuming to solve.

Quantum technology represents the next significant leap in technological advancement, with an impact potentially beyond that of the internet and artificial intelligence.

This leap isn’t incremental. It’s not even exponential. It is fundamental.

Quantum computing does not simply accelerate research — it redefines what is possible. Molecular behaviour that once defied simulation can now be modelled in hours, reducing years of trial and error.

Together with AI’s ability to recognise patterns and learn, it opens a new frontier. One where potential cures are not merely discovered but predicted and tested, before a lab experiment even begins.

This capability is already transforming molecular simulation. For instance, quantum-enhanced simulations by IonQ and AstraZeneca reduced critical drug discovery processes from months to days, reshaping how new treatments are developed, including the potential to tackle intractable diseases like cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

Consider the implications for drug discovery. Quantum-powered AI systems could test thousands of compounds against a disease model in minutes. Researchers can simulate how proteins misfold in Alzheimer’s or how viruses mutate and evade treatments, without touching a petri dish. This is not just faster research. It is a fundamental rewrite of the research process.

Yet despite housing the largest public supercomputer in the Southern Hemisphere at WA’s Pawsey Centre, and the powerful DUG facility nearby, interstate institutions are quicker to take advantage. Pawsey even hosted the world’s first room-temperature quantum computer.

We own a Ferrari. But we’re cycling to work.

The adoption of these technologies remains patchy, yet Perth is uniquely positioned. WA now has a 10-year science and technology plan. Like all good plans, though, it will ultimately be measured by the actions we take.

While individual researchers are using these tools, the institutes are not. At least, not in a co-ordinated way.

While some startups and researchers are embracing AI and quantum, most institutions have yet to make these technologies central to their research strategy. This is where the comparison to the internet is instructive: in the 1990s, those who understood its power and adapted quickly reshaped their industries. Those who waited were left behind.

Australia’s research institutes, universities and medical centres are now at a similar crossroads. Will AI and quantum computing remain peripheral experiments, or become embedded in the heart of our scientific infrastructure?

Doing the latter will require more than money. It will demand leadership, collaboration and a willingness to rethink research models. It means training researchers fluent in both science and computation. It means creating shared data environments that are powerful and ethically sound. And it means government and industry stepping up to build the digital and quantum infrastructure of this next revolution.

The potential rewards are profound. The tools to unlock answers we’ve long sought are within reach. The question is whether we will act with the urgency and foresight required to use them.

This moment will not last forever. Just as with the internet, the leaders of this transformation will set the agenda for decades to come. Those who wait may find themselves locked out of the future of medical innovation.

We are on the cusp of something extraordinary. Let’s ensure that, when we look back on this era, we did not hesitate at the threshold. We stepped forward and built a healthier world.

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Quantum technology is a difficult subject - even for those immersed in it. One of the moderators at the Quantum Australia Conference 2025 joked that she understood quantum “only half the time”. This article does not attempt a full technical analysis but offers a primer: a structured overview of quantum technologies and their strategic implications, aimed at making this complex but critical field more accessible.

In a recent article, Entangled with the Future, I proposed that quantum technologies are developing faster than most realise. This companion article goes deeper, bringing together key insights from the Quantum Australia Conference, which I attended 26–27 March 2025 in Brisbane, Australia. The conference attracted more than 700 delegates from 18 countries, including many of the world’s leading researchers, technologists and strategists in quantum technologies.

Quantum technology represents the next significant leap in technological advancement, with an impact potentially beyond that of the internet and artificial intelligence.

This leap isn’t incremental; it’s not even exponential.

It is fundamental.

Quantum computing will solve problems far beyond the capabilities of our current classical computers, creating opportunities in drug discovery, potentially solving intractable diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, helping solve climate change through better modelling and in resolving complex optimisation tasks.

Quantum sensing provides unprecedented precision and is already transforming healthcare diagnostics, geophysical exploration and secure navigation in GPS-denied areas such as underground, in underwater environments and where GPS is blocked by military or terrorist threat actors.

Quantum communications will deliver genuinely secure encryption and networking capabilities, addressing critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities in our increasingly digital world.

Patterns from the Past

In the early 1990s, the internet was often dismissed as merely an academic curiosity. By the early 2000s, 'big data' was a specialist term confined to niche analytics teams. Less than a decade ago, artificial intelligence was considered speculative science fiction by many industry leaders.

Admittedly, the internet was limited in its capabilities in 1993 and AI had endured many ‘winters’ during which the hype failed to match reality. Yet each of these technologies did reach a point where they moved rapidly from being dismissed to becoming indispensable.

Quantum is following the same trajectory, but at an accelerated pace and with potentially greater implications.

But some prominent voices, including respected business leaders, still dismiss quantum technology as improbable or far-fetched.

The facts suggest otherwise.

Australia is investing significantly - over $1 billion combined across state and federal governments - to build quantum capabilities. The landmark collaboration between PsiQuantum and Australian governments in Brisbane demonstrates serious intent and strategic investment in quantum computing infrastructure.

And other countries are investing heavily as shown below, led by China.

Quantum Technologies: Computing, Sensing and Communications

Quantum technology spans three interlinked domains: computing, sensing and communications.

Each is developing at a different pace, offering different opportunities and challenges.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing uses quantum mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement (see breakout below) to perform calculations impossible or impractical for classical computers. Its strength lies in solving complex optimisation problems, modelling molecular interactions for drug development and running simulations that require enormous parallel processing. Full-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers remain several years away, but hybrid classical–quantum approaches are already delivering early value in research and industry pilots.

It's important to recognise that Quantum computing does not merely offer an exponential leap in processing power – it redefines what is computationally possible.

Why Quantum Computing Is More Than Just Faster Computing

Exponential advances in classical computing – famously captured by Moore’s Law (approximately, the doubling of compute capacity every 18 months) – gave us faster processors, greater storage and broader access to information. Yet even the fastest classical supercomputers are ultimately bound by the physical limits of binary computation: ones and zeros, processed sequentially or in parallel.

Quantum computing represents something fundamentally different.

By harnessing principles such as superposition, entanglement and quantum interference, quantum computers are not simply faster. They operate according to a different set of rules – rules that are from the underlying laws of nature.

Superposition enables a quantum bit (qubit) to hold multiple states simultaneously. Entanglement links qubits so that the state of one instantly influences another, no matter the distance between them. Quantum interference allows correct answers to be reinforced and incorrect paths to be cancelled out.

The result is a computational model where certain classes of problems – such as molecular simulation, cryptographic analysis and complex optimisation – can be solved in ways that are simply not possible by classical means.

Even if we built a classical supercomputer the size of the planet, some problems would remain unsolvable: modelling the behaviour of a single molecule; designing new materials that conduct electricity without loss; developing safer, longer-lasting batteries; and, among other things, discovering new drugs that will finally cure diseases that to date have been incurable.

A properly scaled quantum computer could solve problems that have otherwise been unsolvable.

Quantum computing therefore does not merely accelerate existing processes. It changes the frontier of what can be known, modelled and manipulated computationally.

This is why quantum computing is regarded not as an evolution of classical computing but as a technological leap of a fundamentally different order.

Quantum Sensing

Quantum sensing uses quantum properties to achieve unprecedented levels of precision in measuring physical quantities such as magnetic fields, gravitational forces and biological signals. Unlike computing, quantum sensing is commercially viable now, with applications in healthcare (MRI and brain imaging), defence (GPS-independent navigation) and mineral exploration. Australia, through organisations like DeteQt and leading universities, is already establishing itself as a hub for quantum sensing innovation.

Quantum Communications

Quantum communications use principles such as quantum entanglement and quantum key distribution to create secure transmission of information. These technologies promise ultra-secure networks resistant to traditional hacking methods. Research towards building a quantum internet is advancing rapidly, with Australia contributing significantly, particularly through its work on satellite-based quantum encryption and secure fibre optic links.

Quantum Basics: Superposition, Entanglement and Interference

Superposition refers to the quantum property where a particle can exist in multiple states at the same time. In classical terms, a light switch is either on or off – but in the quantum world, a switch could be both on and off until measured. This property underpins the extraordinary potential of quantum computing, because it enables quantum systems to process many possibilities simultaneously, dramatically reducing the time needed to solve complex problems.

Entanglement links qubits so that the state of one instantly influences another, no matter the distance between them (a phenomenon Einstein famously described as “spooky action at a distance”). This allows quantum computers to coordinate information across multiple qubits with extraordinary efficiency, enabling complex calculations that would overwhelm classical systems.

Quantum interference allows correct answers to be reinforced and incorrect paths to be cancelled out, enabling quantum computers to find solutions more efficiently by amplifying successful outcomes and suppressing errors.

Current State: A Reality Check

Quantum computing, despite impressive recent demonstrations like Google’s Willow chip and China’s Zuchongzhi 3.0 processor, remains in the challenging transition from theoretical and experimental stages towards practical, scalable solutions. Google’s Willow processor achieved a key technical milestone, completing a complex quantum sampling task in seconds — a task estimated to take thousands of years on today’s fastest classical supercomputers. While this showcases quantum advantage for specific problem classes, general-purpose, fault-tolerant quantum computing remains a longer-term goal.

China’s Zuchongzhi 3.0 has demonstrated even faster performance on similar sampling tasks, with greater fidelity, further underscoring the accelerating pace of quantum capability development.

Despite these impressive advances, formidable technical challenges remain before quantum computing achieves broad commercial application. Key hurdles, particularly error correction and decoherence, remain significant barriers. General-purpose, fault-tolerant quantum computing, capable of addressing broad and complex real-world problems, is still at least five years away from widespread commercial viability.

However, quantum sensing and quantum communications are far closer to practical deployment. Quantum sensors already offer dramatically enhanced capabilities in healthcare, geophysical exploration and navigation without relying on satellite signals, which is critical for defence and aerospace applications.

Strategic Opportunities

McKinsey research indicates quantum’s potential economic value could be up to $2 trillion by 2035. The sectors in which the technology’s potential is greatest include:

• Chemicals

• Life sciences

• Finance

• Mobility

The global landscape of quantum computing companies saw an increase in the startups in 2024 and a dramatic increase in the number of companies with more than 100 employees, jumping from 9 percent of the total in 2023 to 39 percent in 2024.

Emerging quantum technologies will impact all Australians, from better healthcare with more advanced imaging techniques, to safer and more efficient transport systems made possible through quantum computing’s unparalleled data processing capabilities.

Recognising the strategic potential of quantum, Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM, led a series of Quantum Meets workshops during 2024 - a national initiative designed to introduce quantum opportunities to sectors across the economy, bringing business, government and researchers together to identify challenges that quantum technologies could address, and to define the problems requiring focused attention.

The Quantum Meets series engaged with a wide range of sectors:

• Sport

• Resources

• Space

• Energy

• Public Service

• Finance

• Health

• Logistics

• Communications

These workshops fostered new collaborations, expanded quantum literacy across industry sectors and helped lay the foundation for quantum capability to support the delivery of the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This broader national effort has been complemented by a growing ecosystem of Australian quantum companies, several of which are already achieving global recognition.

Examples of leading quantum technology companies in Australia include:

• Silicon Quantum Computing, led by Australian of the Year, Professor Michelle Simmons AO, is a pioneer in quantum computing and atomic manufacturing, embedding qubits in a silicon chip to enable manufacture at scale.

• Quantum Brilliance and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth, Western Australia demonstrated the world’s first installation of room-temperature quantum computers, integrating seamlessly with traditional supercomputing for real-world applications.

• DeteQt has emerged as a frontrunner in quantum sensor technologies, securing defence contracts and expanding into medical imaging and mining sectors.

• Q-CTRL is building quantum control infrastructure and error mitigation software.

• Diraq specialises in silicon spin qubit architectures.

• QuintessenceLabs is delivering quantum cybersecurity solutions.

• PsiQuantum is an international player developing photonics-based quantum computing technology to deliver high scalability and fault-tolerant capabilities.

Furthermore, companies like NVIDIA and QuEra Computing are working closely with Pawsey, ensuring Australia remains at the forefront of quantum emulation and software innovation.

Together, these companies reflect a growing national capability - not only in hardware and sensing, but across quantum software, cybersecurity and industrial integration. Australia’s quantum sector is no longer in the early experimental phase: it is steadily positioning itself as a globally recognised contributor to the future of technology.

These developments are not isolated successes; they reflect the early momentum of an industry that will increasingly shape Australia’s technological, economic and strategic landscape over the next decade.

Beyond Australia’s national positioning, the broader strategic significance of quantum technologies lies in their intersection with artificial intelligence.

Quantum and AI: A Powerful Synergy

Perhaps the most transformative potential of quantum lies in its intersection with artificial intelligence. Quantum-enhanced machine learning (QML) is rapidly evolving and potentially enables the realisation of the ambitious, long-term objective of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

There are two aspects of the respective technologies: Quantum for AI and AI for Quantum.

Quantum for AI will dramatically accelerate AI processes and training models, enabling further improvements in computation, problem-solving, learning and breakthroughs in AI research.

AI for Quantum will enhance the development, optimisation and practical application of quantum computing solutions.

Challenges and Risks

Despite these advancements, the Quantum Australia Conference underscored critical challenges that remain:

• Workforce Development: Quantum literacy and specialised training lag significantly behind industry demand. Immediate, strategic investment in education and skills development is essential.

• Public and Leadership Awareness: Less than a third of Australians recognise quantum as an emerging technology. Without increased awareness, businesses risk falling behind global competitors.

• Cybersecurity Implications: Quantum computing poses immediate threats to traditional encryption, necessitating urgent development of quantum-resistant cryptographic methods.

As physicist Professor Brian Greene emphasised, quantum narratives must become more accessible to the public, policymakers and business leaders alike. Quantum technology's profound impacts necessitate broader, informed participation rather than being confined to specialist communities alone.

Time to Act

The central challenge today is not merely recognising quantum technology’s potential but strategically preparing for its profound impacts. Australia’s research institutions, government agencies and private sectors must actively continue to shape this technological leap, rather than passively accept innovations developed elsewhere.

With strong early research breakthroughs and government investment, Australia has made a promising start.

It is imperative these initiatives endure and use-cases continue to be identified to apply the technology.

Most importantly, industry should be actively considering how quantum can or will contribute to competitiveness. The risk is that, like all technologies, quantum is ignored or ridiculed and the opportunities to learn, apply and benefit from the advancements are lost.

Quantum technology isn’t arriving with fanfare; it is quietly but irrevocably embedding itself into the fabric of modern technological, economic and social structures. Leaders who grasp this pattern early – who recognise the urgency behind quantum technology – will position themselves and their organisations decisively ahead.

One of the most notable features of the Quantum Australia Conference was the visible leadership and participation of women across all areas of quantum research and industry. In a field that is highly technical and exclusive, the rapid growth of quantum technologies is creating real opportunities for women to build, influence and define the field as it evolves.

Professor Michelle Simmons AO, founder and CEO of Silicon Quantum Computing, observed, “Quantum is so complex and so difficult that it attracts an extraordinary calibre of people with entrepreneurial talent, curious people drawn to complex, difficult challenges.”

Her observation reflected a broader truth: quantum technologies are attracting people drawn not just to technical complexity, but to the challenge of building something new – an environment where talent and curiosity, not background, are becoming the true currencies of progress.

Quantum technology is shaping as an industry that promises profound technological and societal changes – and offers an inclusive future for those ready to meet its challenges.

Quantum technology is not just another innovation: it is the foundation of the next technological era. Those who move now – with curiosity, courage and clarity – will not simply adapt to the future. They will shape it – and benefit from it.

This article was written in collaboration with an AI large language model, ChatGPT, to synthesise and summarise insights from the Quantum Australia Conference 2025, including presentations, notes and recordings.

John Barrington AM is Chair of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and writes on technology, strategy, innovation and the arts.

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If you’ve done a Google search today, you may have noticed the spinning discs above the search bar. They’re celebrating World Quantum Day. More than a neat animation, they illustrate superposition, one of quantum’s strangest and most powerful ideas.

You may have heard of quantum. Actually, you may not have. Just a quarter of Australians have. But it’s the next major wave of technological change. More than that, I believe it’s the next profound shift in society - not just technology - given how deeply tech now shapes our lives. Think of the arrival of the internet. Then AI. In this series of articles, I’ll explore the quantum world and its implications, in plain English, for decision-makers, researchers and curious readers alike.

Today’s Google Doodle is based on a thaumatrope - a 19th-century optical toy with two pictures on either side of a spinning disc. When spun, our brain fuses the images into one. It’s a simple way to illustrate superposition: when a particle exists in multiple states at once.

It’s clever, cute even. But what it represents is anything but trivial. That spinning disc illustrates an entire field that’s shifting from theory to application.

Quantum technology has been steadily moving from the lab into the real world. It’s already reshaping logistics, accelerating drug design and enabling new forms of secure communication. But many still think it’s science fiction or decades away. The question isn’t whether it’s real, it is. The question is whether we’re ready.

We’ve seen this pattern before. The internet. Big data. AI. All began as fringe ideas, dismissed in boardrooms before they reshaped everything. Quantum is following the same arc - only faster. This time we have the benefit of hindsight. And less time to get organised.

Australia is investing big: $940 million into PsiQuantum, whose co-founders include two Australians. There’s also $231 million in national grants and $1 billion allocated to quantum development through the National Reconstruction Fund.

Quantum computing is accelerating drug design at Moderna, boosting asset modelling at Goldman Sachs and potentially reforming logistics planning for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

But awareness remains low. Just 27% of Australians have even heard of quantum technologies. Countries like the US, China, Canada and the UK are also investing heavily. Australia’s continued focus on this is important, for without deliberate action, we risk being consumers of other people’s breakthroughs.

Quantum isn’t arriving with fanfare. It’s developing quietly through better sensing, faster simulation and optimisation tools that suddenly work better. And it’s not just labs in Boston or Beijing. It’s happening here. In Perth, at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre and at The University of Western Australia. In startups like Quantum Brilliance and DeteQt.

UWA is a recognised world leader in quantum sensor and quantum communications technologies.

The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, in partnership with Quantum Brilliance, is hosting one of the world’s first room-temperature quantum computers - no supercooling required. Pawsey is also working with NVIDIA and other partners to explore how quantum can work alongside traditional supercomputers. And through programs like the UWA/Pawsey Quantum Computing Centre and Quantum Girls, it’s helping build the next generation of Australian quantum talent.

If you’re a research leader, policymaker or CEO, this is the moment to act. Quantum is an emerging technology that boards in research and innovation fields should now be considering.

At the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, we’ve appointed the head of digital at Australia’s leading scientific organisation to advise Perkins on AI, quantum and other high performance compute technologies.

Quantum is no longer a fringe science – it’s now in the real-world. For leaders, I’d suggest start thinking and reading. Talk about it with your team. You don’t need to leap, but you do need to begin. Like technology generally, quantum won’t wait. And we’ve seen what happens to those who do.

Want some more information, including use cases, funding and where Australia is leading? Watch for the forthcoming companion piece: I’ve Seen the Future Before: Why Quantum Feels So Familiar.

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I’ve started a new part in Notes from the Intersection on quantum technology because I believe it’s going to matter. Soon, and in ways we don’t yet fully see. This isn’t a prediction from a physicist. It’s an observation from someone who’s worked through big shifts before. I was in the IT industry when we moved from mainframes to distributed computing. In 1994, I created a virtual organisation around the internet, when most people still thought email was a novelty. I launched a data mining firm in 1999, well before “big data” became a buzzword. And in 2018, I co-founded a medical technology company using AI. I’ve seen how new technologies move from fringe to fundamental. Quantum feels like it’s entering that same phase. I don’t want us to miss this one.

That gap, between what’s happening and what people think is happening, is where we get caught out. I’ve seen this before. When the internet began, many leaders thought it would never go mainstream. When AI started gaining traction, it was written off as hype. But behind the scenes, a small group of people got ready. They shaped what came next.

Today, I see signs of the same pattern in quantum. The science is still hard, but it’s moving. Some tools are already working. Australia is investing billions. Startups are finding use cases. Meanwhile, many decision-makers still think quantum may be 20 years away, if ever. That’s the risk.

Quantum won’t arrive with fanfare. It won’t knock on the door and announce itself. It will creep in sideways - through sensors, through AI, through problems that suddenly get solved faster. It’s not about waiting for a quantum computer in every home. It’s about knowing when something is changing and understanding that change.

That’s why I’m writing this series. To track what’s happening, to explain it in plain language and to connect it to the things we already care about: health, research, security and innovation.

You don’t need to understand quantum principles in detail. You don’t need to become a physicist. But it helps to be aware. I’ll do my best to help with that, sharing what I see, what I learn and what it might mean for all of us.

Thanks for being curious. That’s the best place to start.

This post is part of Notes from the Intersection - a series exploring how AI, the arts, quantum technologies and strategy are reshaping how we think, create and lead.