  We argue that quantum computing underwent an inflection point circa 2017.
Long promised funding materialised which prompted public and private
investments around the world. Techniques from machine learning suddenly
influenced central aspects of the field. On one hand, machine learning was used
to emulate quantum systems. On the other hand, quantum algorithms became viewed
as a new type of machine learning model (creating the new model of {\it
variational} quantum computation). Here we sketch some milestones which have
lead to this inflection point. We argue that the next inflection point would
occur around when practical problems will be first solved by quantum computers.
We anticipate that by 2050 this would have become commonplace, were the world
would still be adjusting to the possibilities brought by quantum computers.
