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String theory, when confirmed (and even before being confirmed) would change our perception of reality. Associated to the (possible) appearance of extra dimensions, we could imagine a whole new world opening up -- every point in the room we are in, we would then think of as a little ball, so small that we cannot see it -- but we would know it is there if string theory is confirmed. That is only one example of how knowledge can change our daily perception of our environment.

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Today's computers, like a Turing machine, work by manipulating bits that exist in one of two states: a 0 or a 1. Quantum computers aren't limited to two states; they encode information as quantum bits, or qubits. A qubit can be a 1 or a 0, or it can exist in a superposition that is simultaneously both 1 and 0 or somewhere in between. Qubits represent atoms that are working together to act as computer memory and a processor. Because a quantum computer can contain these multiple states simultaneously, it has the potential to be millions of times more powerful than today's most powerful supercomputers.

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