We’re Entering a New World…
We are slowly making our way to the pinnacle of the 2000s Technological Revolution
Our world is transforming around us faster than we can imagine. As systems around us become more and more complex, we can see our security needs increase exponentially…
Today’s article will be different from something you have read in a while. The technology of today is raising genuine concerns with some, and we must address those concerns before we move into the future of our world.
Perception vs Perspective:
In today’s world, different perceptions are put in front of us daily. We are often shown things that are meant to lead us to a particular state of mind, basically changing our opinion on these subjects. Especially in terms of upcoming technology, we tend to often see only the goods or harms something poses to our daily lifes.
One such example is the smartphone. How often in our lives do we tend to blame our phones or social media for the problems we have in life? However, many of us are unaware of just how much the smartphone has changed the world.
Now why am I talking about this in a post related to Cybersecurity?
I want everyone reading this to understand that every groundbreaking invention does not always bring only positive effects; it also brings negatives by its side. It’s like a package of pros and cons…
Therefore, when you read this article, there is no need to become worried or think that the upcoming changes in our world will only bring adverse effects. It might be the contrary, but this is my version of a prediction of the future.
Taking a Look at Quantum Computing:
Amongst the countless claims of how quantum computing is going to revolutionize the world for the positive, its negatives remain ambiguous to most regular people. Let’s first take a quick look at what Quantum Computing even is:
How it works:
The word “quantum” refers to the smallest measurable phenomenon in the system. So “quantum physics” refers to (for the most part), the branch of physics concerned with the smallest phenomena of life. The smallest “thing” that most scientists have known of for years (that adheres to some consistent and fundamental set of constructs and laws) are sub-atomic particles.
Subatomic particles are what make up an atom. You probably learned this sometime in middle school, but atoms are made up of Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons. The Bohr model of the atom is one of the most common models of the atom due to its simplicity in explaining lots aside from quantum physics, which makes things muddy for us.
Now, we will skip quite a bit of heavy quantum physics-related content and speed ahead quite a bit into the important stuff. As it is beyond the scope of this article to explain all the (slightly) complicated physics stuff, I will move on to only what is important to know about quantum computing. I do not wish to bore you with boring details which are not completely necessary to understand how this works.
As quantum mechanics progressed scientifically, an American Theoretical Physicist named Richard Feynman coined the idea of “quantum computing” in 1982. In basic terms, a quantum computer is a computing mechanism that uses quantum mechanics to allow it to do more than a regular computer can do. As this idea progressed, it slowly got implemented and here is the current state of quantum computers, oversimplified…
A normal computer stores data in 0’s and 1’s, as all of you may know. This is called “binary”, which derives its name from how it is a “base 2” numerical system, which means it bumps up a digit when counting up every 2 numbers. The current system we normally use for counting is “base 10", which is fairly obvious if you look at it. Time, if not measured in days, is a “base 60” system, as there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour.
However, a quantum bit uses something called a “qubit”, or a “quantum bit”. These qubits are particles which can not only exist in one state or the other (1 or 0) like a normal computer, but they can exist in both states simultaneously! This is called superposition.
In a simple “spin-based” quantum computer, we use the property of an electron called a “spin”. An electron can be thought of as a magnet, and due to that property it aligns with the magnetic field around it. This property is called “spin”. When we are at the “zero state” of spin, or “spin down”, the electron is aligned with the magnetic field of the Earth.
Therefore, when the spin is aligned oppositely compared to the Earth’s magnetic field, we can call it a “state of one”. When the electron is in superposition, it can have a spin which is not exactly opposite of the Earth’s spin, or with the Earth’s spin. Therefore, we can say it is in a mix of both states or that it is in superposition.
Now, we can look at something called “entanglement”. When we have two subatomic particles that are in entanglement, we can say that they can be in 4 states at once, as the first electron can be in two states at once and the second one can also be in two states at once (look at how I explained superposition above). Also, when particles are entangled, editing a property of one electron will automatically edit the same property of the other, so we can just look at one electron in a chain of entangled ones to tell the states of all of them.
A quantum computer with one qubit has a certain amount of subatomic particles. A 1 qubit computer can perform two operations at once, due to superposition. As a computer with one qubit can perform two operations at once, entanglement increases the amount of operations exponentially. If we think about it logically, we can even make up a formula for it. So let’s do that:
For a computer with n qubits, we can say that it can perform 2ⁿ calculations at once.
What effect will this have on the world?
With quantum computers becoming more and more developed, some algorithms have been created which allow quantum computers to factor numbers at near-rapid speeds, steamrolling even the fastest supercomputers.
Quantum computing algorithms such as Shor’s Algorithm make today’s asymmetric encryption methods like RSA useless, since these rely on complex math problems which a normal computer would take forever to solve. However, quantum computers can solve these problems with no issue and probably very rapidly, so, therefore, these encryption methods become useless when quantum computers start becoming relatively accessible to people (including those with sinister intentions).
As a society, we need to find new methods for asymmetric encryption that do not involve complex mathematical problems, so that the security of our programs is not affected.
Taking a Look at Artificial Intelligence:
Now, everybody already knows what AI is. It’s so used, that even major educational institutions like IB (International Baccalaureate) have started to allow the usage of Artificial Intelligence in their essays and Internal Assessments (IAs), if it has been referenced like a normal online source. (Link: https://www.ibo.org/news/news-about-the-ib/statement-from-the-ib-about-chatgpt-and-artificial-intelligence-in-assessment-and-education/).
What effect will this have on the world?
If take a look at current popular AI implementations like ChatGPT, we can see just how much it has changed our world today, let alone in the future. GPT-4 is already beating most high school kids in their exams, showing us just how replaceable we are if we try to beat a computer in our ability to do calculations:
Not only that, but an article from Harvard Magazine warned us about AI Hackers in the future.
Though this is scary, let me make it even scarier: AI is better than humans in terms of using old knowledge and recovering it to orchestrate attacks which have been done before. This means that theoretically, an AI with knowledge of how to carry out different types of attacks will be able to automatically find and attack devices with any form of vulnerability. Then, hackers can focus on finding even more exploits which in turn the AI will learn and it becomes a worse-and-worse loop from there…
Here, let’s get even worse with what could happen in the future.
On February 14, 2016, a humanoid robot named Sophia was unveiled by a Hong Kong-based robotics company called Hanson Robotics. Sophia is a humanoid robot who uses “her” surroundings via computer vision, and speech recognition technology to talk and behave like a human would. She was given citizenship Saudi Arabian citizenship in 2017. Now, without getting into too many details about Sophia, we can safely say that she is not alive, yes?
However, this is where the issue arises.
If Sophia is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, does that mean all laws that apply to other humans apply to her?
Should Sophia get citizenship in any other country, then would she have any rights and freedoms (considering that she is still a citizen of the country)?
As countries have laws for citizens telling them what rights they have, can she claim any of those rights (for example the right to bear arms)?
Looking at it from another perspective, we can also see that there are humans in our current world who cannot meet their basic needs and necessities.
Is it okay to introduce robot citizens to our society, especially when some humans (living) would have a lower socioeconomic status compared to these robots (non-living)?
Most countries in the world today have too many problems to worry about robot citizens. But, governments must consider making laws related to robot citizens, as they are very much a real thing and may become even more of a thing in the future. How would those laws look? These are the loaded questions of the upcoming decade, which we will be part of.
Taking a Look at the Internet of Things (IOT)
Just the devices in our homes have become more connected than we have to our fellow humans. Our thermostats, home security cameras, robot vacuums, and even our fridges have become connected.
What effect will this have on the world?
As our devices become more and more connected, we need to find a way to secure it more-and-more, especially considering just how much of an impact a hack could have on people’s lives. We also need to limit the monitoring of these devices by corporations, which are notorious for stealing every bit of your data that they can get their hands on.
Conclusion Thoughts
Technology shapes our everyday lives, and makes it better for us. However, if the same technology might pose issues to us in the future, we have to look at those issues discuss about them, so that we can prevent them as much as possible.
References:
Mavroeidis, Vasileios, et al. “The impact of quantum computing on present cryptography.” arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.00200 (2018).
Veritasium. “How Does a Quantum Computer Work?” Youtube, 17 June 2013, https:\\www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_IaVepNDT4.
Oberhaus, Daniel. “Prepare for AI Hackers.” Harvard Magazine, Harvard Magazine Inc., Mar. 2023, www.harvardmagazine.com/2023/02/right-now-ai-hacking.
“Statement from the IB about ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence in Assessment and Education.” International Baccalaureate®, June 2023, www.ibo.org/news/news-about-the-ib/statement-from-the-ib-about-chatgpt-and-artificial-intelligence-in-assessment-and-education/.
Einorytė, Aurelija. “Sophia the AI Robot: How Dangerous Is She?” NordVPN, 30 Jan. 2023, nordvpn.com/blog/sophia-robot/.