
Google's Head of Quantum Computing Hardware Resigns - mmhsieh
https://www.wired.com/story/googles-head-quantum-computing-hardware-resigns/
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wronglebowski
Given the direct quote

“Since my professional goal is for someone to build a quantum computer, I
think my resignation is the best course of action for everyone,”

The way I interpret this is that Quantum computing is just some pipe dream
that Google isn’t taking seriously. This man intends to build a real device
and either he doesn’t have faith Google will allow him to make one or has any
intentions of making one.

+1 for the Google Graveyard

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noad
That was my interpretation as well. The bizarre bit in the opening paragraph
about Sundar saying that quantum computing will magically solve climate change
is so baffling and stupid I'd probably want to quit after realizing that was
my boss too.

I once worked as a developer for a massive trillion dollar tech company, but
the company was terribly dysfunctional and never did any real work, so when I
quit I joked about how I was quitting to get into software development. Sounds
like the same situation here.

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ballenf
> Pichai said the milestone affirmed his belief that quantum computers might
> one day tackle problems like climate change

Not sure why the quote is problematic. Is modeling complex systems not a good
application of quantum compute? Or is the view that climate modeling is an
already solved problem?

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WalterSear
Better models won't solve anything. It's the streetlight effect - easier to
build quantum computers than change the collective behaviour.

~~~
adwi
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetlight_effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetlight_effect)

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reikonomusha
Martinis is a serious loss to them. He is a top-tier scientist that gets stuff
done. He is responsible for the most successful demonstration of the power of
quantum computers to date.

I suspect he wanted to continue to do the requisite science needed to build
_useful_ quantum computers, and Google began to gesture Martinis into turning
it into a cloud business, following Rigetti, IBM, and Amazon. Despite the
continued rapid progress, quantum computers are still too small and too noisy
to solve non-toy problems, and there’s plenty of science & research to do to
break that barrier of obvious utility.

If my suspicion is correct, you’ll see Google’s quantum effort turn into a
marketing campaign with fancy cloud APIs that don’t serve anybody good, except
bored executives who are desperate to make a mark for themselves.

~~~
gaze
I wonder how much of his team will follow him. You need someone like John when
building a quantum computer and there’s not many like him.

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SuoDuanDao
This reminds me a bit of how disconnected IBM's marketing for Watson was from
the reality the engineers saw on the ground. I wonder whether it's some sort
of consequence of scale and maturity that companies fall into that pattern.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Leadership gets comfortable. Comfortable leadership has no incentive to rock
the boat or strive when failure is possible, and the cushness is put at risk.
Good people leave, mediocre people stay but it takes time for Rome to crumble.
The cycle repeats.

Think Innovator's Dilemma [1], but at smaller scale.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma)

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fsh
Martinis has always been quite honest about what their technology can and
cannot do. Probably too honest for the Google managers.

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rory_h_r
John Martinis taught me physics and analog electronics! He was a great
teacher: friendly, smart, and a top notch scientist to boot. All the better
for UCSB that he'll have more time to be on campus.

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vermooten
And simultaneously doesn’t.

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skapadia
Why can't we use quantum computing itself to determine the best way to build a
quantum computer?

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photon-torpedo
We can, just need to invent time travel first.

~~~
gowld
No we don't. We can invent time travel later.

"What do we want? Time travel! When do we want it? It doesn't matter!"

