Review of "The Quantum Spy," by David Ignatius

 Review of

The Quantum Spy, by David Ignatius, ISBN 9780393254150

Five out of five stars

The real prize of tech competition

 What makes this book significant and most interesting is that it is based on what is the real brass ring of international technology competition. While most of the commentary concerning international competition focuses on the development of artificial intelligence, (AI), the real brass ring is the development of a functioning quantum computer. Such a computer would immediately make the current encryption techniques obsolete as the speed of problem solving would increase several thousand times to a speculated 100 million times faster. This increase in speed will also put the solutions to many complex problems within reach. It is not unreasonable to say that any major breakthrough in quantum computing could be worth trillions of dollars.

 The premise of this book is an emphasis on the competition between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to achieve breakthroughs in quantum computing. To be more precise, the immediate classification of any potential breakthrough in quantum computing in the United States and the Chinese attempt to penetrate and steal the technology of the suddenly dark companies.

 There is a spy working for the PRC inside the American intelligence agencies and the American operatives go to great lengths in an attempt to root out the spy. The machinations of the spymasters on both sides of the competition are interesting, but not riveting. The internal interagency battles within the PRC are emphasized. There is little mention of the interagency battles and noncooperation between agencies in the United States.

 While the spy aspects are solid, there is not a great deal of tension and nothing in the way of physical battles such as gunplay. I found the plot very plausible, which is unusual for a thriller, where aspects of international competition are often significantly exaggerated.

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