
Why Google’s Quantum Supremacy Milestone Matters - furcyd
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/opinion/google-quantum-computer-sycamore.html
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wmhorne
> The computer revolution was enabled, in large part, by a single invention:
> the transistor. Before transistors, we were stuck with failure-prone vacuum
> tubes. Yet vacuum tubes kind of, sort of worked: they translated abstract
> Boolean logic into electrical signals reliably enough to be useful. We don’t
> yet have the quantum computing version of the transistor — that would be
> quantum error correction. Getting there will surely require immense
> engineering, and probably further insights as well. In the meantime, though,
> the significance of Google’s quantum supremacy demonstration is this: after
> a quarter century of effort, we are now, finally, in the early vacuum tube
> era of quantum computing.

Seems a very humble but notable (if not necessary) development in the field of
quantum computing. It shouldn't be praised as a transcendent gain, but neither
should it be ignored or written off.

If quantum does develop into a viable technology, won't this have been a
milestone? Scott Aaronson seems to think so.

