Lifeboat Foundation

Satya Nadella, the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., calls quantum computing one of three emerging technologies that will radically reshape the world, along with artificial intelligence and augmented reality. But it’s easier to describe quantum computing’s importance — that is, its potential importance, because it barely exists now — than to say what it is. Understanding quantum mechanics, whose principles underpin quantum computing, involves a lot of mental mountain climbing. Someth.