Robyn Williams: But what about jobs now in areas like quantum computing, even before those computers exist? Well, Pauline Newman has just met Michele Reilly who is a quantum entrepreneur, and when she started, only the second one in existence, we're told.

Pauline Newman: Michele, I think that you said you were only the second entrepreneur in quantum technology in the world.

Michele Reilly: At the time that I started the company, that was definitely the case. The industry is growing very rapidly, we are seeing a lot of different efforts, so it's an interesting time to be involved in quantum computing.

Pauline Newman: So tell me what quantum technology entrepreneurs do.

Michele Reilly: We in particular are focused on what I have now started to call digital error correction, to distinguish it from control of errors at the hardware level. So the thing to understand is that quantum computers have an extensive classical infrastructure in order to manage the errors. So we are building an operating system for quantum computers. And the amount of data that is going to be coming out of these machines is upwards of 50 terabytes a second, depending on which particular hardware chipset technology we're talking about.

In the case of superconductors and silicon, it's upwards of 140 terabytes a second, so this is more data than the LHC is currently managing. So from our perspective, most of what we see that comes out of the machine are errors, so we set up a company to work on that now because it's a critical problem that is currently not the focus of a lot of major technology companies, and we know that in order for these machines to even run in the first place, this is necessary. Without this technology, no quantum computer will be running quantum algorithms any time soon.

Pauline Newman: In fact you are way ahead of the curve, aren't you, because quantum computers don't exist, and they may not exist. I don't know, it may be 15 years, maybe never.

Michele Reilly: Yes, this is a big debate in many different communities, how to address this, and I think any effort that is going for visionary purpose of solving some of the biggest problems has to address. Yes, it's an exciting time to be part of this.

Pauline Newman: And if you can actually get that done, the world's problems could be solved, or some of them, but more will be created.

Michele Reilly: Yes, we are all reluctant to over-promise, but there are pretty strong indications that this should work. If it doesn't work, it would be sort of a revolution in physics.

Pauline Newman: Okay, in terms of the impact on human life, what matters to people, what will quantum computers do?

Michele Reilly: Well, I suppose if we are talking about the ultimate limits of this technology, there is an exciting aspect of can we even be thinking about life extension due to chemical searches in these machines.

Pauline Newman: You mean find new drugs that might help us, things like that?

Michele Reilly: Yes. In some sense I could imagine a world wherewe have these very lengthy clinical trials to bring a drug to market, we're talking about upwards of ten years, in some cases decades, and I can imagine a world where the regulatory environment requires having these machines in order to do a search in advance on what is the correct molecular compound, and in some sense the promise is getting rid of lab science or reducing the amount of lab science. I don't think it's going to go away completely, but it would be something that would be very, very supportive in parallel to the current empirical process that we have.

Pauline Newman: Maybe the uses will become more apparent when the machines exist.

Michele Reilly: Yes, right. We've always hadeven in the development of the computers we know and love today, the applications weren't obvious in the '40s and the early '50s. If you asked the original founders of transistors 'what's a computer, and what is it going to do for society', most of them would decline to comment. And it's similar today.

Pauline Newman: Which brings me back to one of my first points, you are an entrepreneur, so I always thought that entrepreneurs tried to make money, but quantum computing is so far ahead. What is your business model?

Michele Reilly: So we are focused on building out and developing all the IP that's going to be needed to run these machines. So without this digital error correction component that I've been talking about, really if you pick up your cell phone there are about 1,500 pieces of IP in that that control noise. And so in a quantum computer the noise is even more egregious because of this thing called decoherence. And so we have taken up this providing all of the middleware, if you will, for controlling the errors in a quantum computer.

Pauline Newman: So people will need you when they come to actually build the real thing.

Michele Reilly: Yes, when everybody gets here, we've got the tools to make them run.

Pauline Newman: And you're quite interested in satellite communication, aren't you, satellite to Earth.

Michele Reilly: Well, I've been noticing there is definitely a rush towards space, and I've been watching these plans very closely on the satellite launches. We are seeing OneWeb, and Jeff Bezos's company and SpaceX launch these satellites to give the entire globe internet broadband connections, and I think that's important to think about the security of all these satellites that are going to be providingour tech luminaries are calling it broadband for the entire Earth. There is a question as to the security of this technique.

Pauline Newman: Because how do you keep it secure? You've got a signal coming down from a satellite, pretty easy to intercept, you'd think.

Michele Reilly: There you go. So what's always on my mind is quantum and quantum security, quantum technologies, and the main focus has been trying to launch a satellite into space to do quantum encryption. This is a very simple demonstration, a one-hertz information transfer capacity. But the issue with that is that they lose seven orders of magnitude of content in the atmospheric attenuation and it only works for an hour, and it only works at night. But it's evidence that we should be paying attention to this now.

Pauline Newman: So that satellite is actually using quantum technology.

Michele Reilly: It is. What they did is quantum. That would be the secure version. This is a very basic proof of principle of how to get to fully secure internet one day, in a world where we eventually have quantum computers and we need this type of security.

Pauline Newman: You're talking about the key technology. We're using key technologies, aren't we, in our general internet security. When you see the little lock on your computer screen, something like that, isn't it, that makes our communication secure?

Michele Reilly: Well, we have great security for the pre-quantum regime. Part of the excitement and the concern around quantum computers is that they would be able to break this. Once these quantum computers are up and running, most of our current systems, like in banking, will no longer be fully secure, and so this is something that many people are starting to think about today of how to keep these systems secure. And I've just been looking up into space and thinking, okay, we are all launching these satellites. I think that there are other ways to do that security in a way that's not as expensive or cumbersome as having the satellite launch and you on land. So we are looking at being able to provide the internet in a post-quantum world.

Pauline Newman: Right, so you'd somehow have to be very careful with sending quantum signals and not to degrade the signal.

Michele Reilly: Right, so we have a technology that acts as a memory that stays coherent for very long periods of time, up to years of time, depending on how much memory is added into the system. This is something that has been very much on my mind.

Pauline Newman: Have you had lots of backers for your company?

Michele Reilly: We've gotten a lot of interest

Pauline Newman: How about Jeff Bezos with his satellites?

Michele Reilly: Yes, I think this is something Jeff should be taking a very serious look at. The technology is there and ready, and we'd love to talk to you Jeff, if you're listening!

Robyn Williams: Jeff Bezos? Never misses a Science Show, surely! Michele Reilly is based in Vienna.

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Startup building the infrastructure for quantum computing - The Science Show - ABC News