With the quantum computer, humanity is on the brink of a technological revolution of unimaginable potential. When present record-keeping methods require us to know the beginning and end of an exchange, how will accounting adapt to the reality of transactions generated by quantum computers – when there is no difference between beginning and end?
Introducing Quantum Accounting
The vast speed power of the quantum computer comes from the physics of quantum entanglement – in which signals are both on and off at the same time. This is called “superposition”, the phenomenon in quantum physics that provides no indication of the order of a sequence. What is the past and future, what is the cause and what is the effect, when the trade between buyer and seller simultaneously exists and doesn’t exist? The binary computer you are using now keeps a reliable record of the order of its signals because of the time it takes to switch between on and off, but accounting will have to adapt to maintain an accurate record of cause and effect in the account of exchanges of data in the quantum computer.