Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

The expensive one?

In recent weeks, the new quantum computer has been installed at the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computing Center. The batch is called the IBM Quantum System Two, a power of 156 Qbits, and is said to be among the 6 most powerful computers in the world. This has been widely reported by the media.

This is a remarkable milestone for those of us who are growing up. When we were young, we were told about the mysterious and unknown quantum world, which repeated the departure of the physicist Richard Feynman: if you think you understand the quantum world, you don’t understand it. Most of the possible applications of quantum physics were still pure speculation. Today, however, many of them are in operation: positron emission tomography, superconductors or a quantum computer.

The design and construction of the latter has been an impressive technical advance, and having one of these in the Basque Country is not a slow political-scientific achievement. It remains to be seen what doors this will open for us, and there will also be those here who try to use the wonderful tool for the wrong purposes, but well. There will also be a lot of new opportunities that we can’t imagine.

I have followed a lot of conversations and conversations that have been going on around the subject these days. And I've been surprised to mention the cost of that computer over and over again. if I'm not mistaken, EUR 153 million by 2028. It is not the midnight cough of the goat and, since we are talking about public money, a careful consideration of the appropriateness of this expenditure is not only legitimate but also indispensable.