I'm so tired

of correcting quantum computing misconceptions

“Quantum computers will crack every encryption code because they are exponentially faster.”

Every. Fucking. Week I hear this kind of nonsense, online or in meetings. Each time it takes a small but measurable toll on my soul. Even otherwise respectable researchers or experts from other fields make mistakes that any LLM would’ve corrected.

So once again, as clearly as I can:

QUANTUM COMPUTERS ARE NOT FASTER COMPUTERS. They don’t run your code quicker. They don’t have a higher clock speed. Speed, in the conventional sense of velocity, is irrelevant to what they do.

QUANTUM COMPUTERS DO NOT TRY ALL ANSWERS SIMULTANEOUSLY. It's the most seductive yet wrong intuition. Superposition isnt parallelism. You can’t just “read off” all answers and pick the “best,” for measurement collapses the state.

QUANTUM COMPUTERS COULD ONLY SOLVE VERY FEW MATH PROBLEMS. Only integer factoring (as in RSA), discrete logarithms (as in elliptic curve cryptography), and a bunch of others could benefit from exponential superpolynomial speedup. Most problems you care about arent on that list.

QUANTUM COMPUTERS DO NOT SOLVE THOSE PROBLEMS BY BRUTE-FORCING FASTER. Quantum computers couldnt outrun classical ones by sheer velocity. Speedup, when it exists, comes from exploiting quantum interference and superposition, not from going harder.

QUANTUM COMPUTERS CANNOT BREAK AES AND OTHER SYMMETRIC CIPHERS. Data is encrypted (at-rest, in-transit) with symmetric ciphers, like the AES standard. Grover’s algorithm gives a quadratic speedup, but it doesnt mean AES-128 becomes AES-64. In any case, full 256-bit keys guarantee quantum-proofness.

TODAY’S QUANTUM COMPUTERS ARE USELESS. Don’t believe those press releases and marketing brochures. Current quantum computer prototypes are so tiny that they’re far from doing anything more efficient than classical computers.