> The shift from transistor-based computers to quantum computers will be akin to the shift from vacuum tubes to transistors. The shift to quantum computers wil

> The shift from transistor-based computers to quantum computers will be akin to the shift from vacuum tubes to transistors. The shift to quantum computers will be much larger, more akin to the shift between the Jacquard loom and Turing equivalent languages. Transistors were (initially) an incremental improvement over tubes, which were themselves an incremental improvement over relays. Admittedly these "increments" were order of magnitude jumps. But you still had the same thing - it was smaller, faster, more efficient but still fundamentally a mere digital switch. Of course chances are good that we'll miss what quantum computers are really capable of (superposition) and just use them as better single-atom switches.