Recent outages have revealed how vulnerable the internet is, but there seems to be no official plan in the event of a catastrophic failure. Vladimir Lenin is said to have warned that all societies are three square meals from chaos. But in the modern world, it is only a Wi-Fi signal that separates us from anarchy. Every aspect of our lives is reliant on computers and the internet, and when they fail, they do so with disorientating speed. This became abundantly clear during power cuts across Spain and Portugal earlier this year.

One of the most complex quantum networks built to date would allow 18 people to communicate securely thanks to the power of quantum physics. The researchers behind the work say it offers a practical path to building a global quantum internet, but others are sceptical. The long-promised quantum internet would allow quantum computers to communicate at distance by exchanging particles of light called photons that have been linked together by quantum entanglement . It would also allow networks of quantum sensors to be linked, or classical computers to send and receive unhackable communications. But wiring together a quantum world isn't as simple as laying down cables, because ensuring that one node of the network can be entangled with another is a challenge.