Why quantum matters to everyone: ammonia, fertilizer and 5% of energy

Yeah. So what I typically start with is that. we're building the next generation of computers. and rather than computers which will be great for memes and cat videos, ⁓ we're building computers that will help solve problems that we don't really understand as a human being. or as a human species and those are typically things like designing new drugs ⁓ or medicine, ⁓ designing new catalysts for the environment or new materials for aerospace. is where I normally start with because that's really the major benefit that quantum promises. It's not necessarily going to help you watch Netflix at a higher resolution. So instead 4K, it's 8K. It's really going to fundamentally change how we view the natural world around us.

What do you think? Like, what do you think would break? Let's fast forward. You achieved what you want to achieve, what you are aiming for at the moment. What is gonna change fundamentally? Why should I care as a normal person who has nothing to do with quantum computing?

Yeah, great question. I think we'll start with why you should care. And you're right. You don't have that much to do with, let's say quantum computing and building the technology. But the everyday person also isn't building GPU clusters or designing new silicon chips. ⁓ But they are directly impacted by that research and that work on the frontier. ⁓ by just using tools like chatgpt.com because that all benefits from companies such as Nvidia, TSMC, Global Foundries making these excellent high quality silicon chips and GPUs that we can now have computers that pretty much pass the Turing test. And so the future of those quantum is rather than computers passing the Turing test, and us achieving let's say AGI, I think what we're going to be looking at is ANI, maybe artificial natural intelligence, where instead of prompting GPT saying help me with this essay, it's, you know, given my, let's say latest ⁓ blood test results from a doctor, what do you think the best medicines for me would be? And rather than it being based on, let's say, hundreds of years of scientific literature and tests, it's actually based on fundamental tests and science that can be run on an actual quantum computer. And if you extrapolate from that, there's the medicinal side, but I think one great example of where this feeds into our everyday world is the food we eat. is often you know, farmed in an industrial way and we can feed the world because of excellent fertilizer. To make that fertilizer we require ammonia. Ammonia is made by a standard process known as Fritz Haber Bosch, which was, you know, came around the second and first world war, but it's very energy intensive. And without that process, though, we wouldn't be able to basically feed, you know, the eight billion people we have on the planet. And then some coming up, there are many people who actually have more food than, you know, the bottom four billion. And that's another discussion to be had. But that process consumes about five percent of the world's energy usage runs at 400 degrees centigrade in manufacturing ammonia. Now, When you look at nature, there exists cyanobacteria that can manufacture ammonia at room temperature. And, you know, these tiny little bacteria just chilling there in their little solution, and there they are making the ammonia. And then, you know, the undergrad says, well, why can't we do that too, right, you know, in their chemistry class? it's, we don't understand how it works. So we can't replicate it.