The rate of technological change is accelerating and becoming less predictable.
“Any time there's that kind of a shift, it's complex,” says Herrera. “Each generation of technology presents its new challenges.”
For example, the directorate has devoted significant resources toward mastering quantum computing, technology that has the potential to break the encryption used to protect sensitive data in the digital world of today and tomorrow. Powerful countries, companies, and universities are pouring money into the task of building a quantum computer powerful enough to perform exponentially faster than the computers of today.
“Great power competition drives the agenda,” says Herrera. “It changes the kind of technology and access we need. Technologies like quantum and 5G are part of that.”
The directorate has been at the forefront of quantum computing research since 1995, immediately following the advent of Shor’s algorithm, which showed how quantum computers can factor numbers exponentially faster than normal computers—exactly the kind of work needed to break encryption.
