There are two flagship applications for quantum computing: (1)Shor's polynomial-time factoring algorithm and (2)Grover's unstructured search algorithm, which ha

There are two flagship applications for quantum computing: (1)Shor's polynomial-time factoring algorithm and (2)Grover's unstructured search algorithm, which has O(√n) running time [classically, if you have an unordered array of n elements fining some element is O(n) so it is a √-speedup]. Both of the above are //theoretical// applications, but the letter agencies seem to be confused about this and think they can actually computers that carry these out. All the quantum researchers working for the US military deserve a Nobel peace prize for all the money they are diverting from actual weapons and shit. My opinion is that (3)quantum simulations of physical systems will be the most useful part of the quantum computing industry. Also, quantum optics is very cool, and could lead to higher throughput for optical communications.