Speed Not the Qualitative Difference Between Classical & Quantum Computing

(TechCrunch) The illusory yardstick of speed has carried over into discussions of quantum computing. Classical computing’s preoccupation with speed is now viewed as antiquated and potentially harmful, as the search for speed blinded us to energy efficiency. Extrapolating this quantitative fixation to quantum computing is a distraction and doesn’t capture the qualitative difference between classical computing and quantum computing.
Instead, we should be thinking of problem-solving in a way we never even thought of. That’s what quantum computers are for. Quantum computers are completely different than classical computers in their design and they are capable of doing things we’ve never even dreamed of. We need to imagine what sorts of computational challenges will be quantum computing’s sweet spot. Quantum computing is meant for is to solve completely new problems we haven’t even dreamed of yet.