What I meant was the debate which has been taking place in the main stream of physics for many years now is whether or not its possible to build a quantum computer on the scale where it can do anything useful. In the article we read:
>> When Dr Shor made his discovery such computers were the stuff of science fiction. But in 2001 researchers at ibm announced that they had built one, programmed it with Shor’s algorithm, and used it to work out that the prime factors of 15 are three and five. This machine was about the most primitive quantum computer imaginable.
The context which was lacking is that I meant on a large scale and not simply the most primitive thing. And no I am not fabricating anything, see here [1] for some of the main stream discussion by someone who is more articulate and knows more about it than me.
Let's keep in mind that just this week it was announced that a grad student figured out an algorithm to verify that the computations done by hypothetical quantum computers actually are giving a correct answer [2].
I seriously don't think you know what you are talking about when it comes to the idea that its "already been done", D-Wave is not a "quantum computer" in the sense of this article or shors algorithm.
However, you are correct that my comment was overly hyperbolic and lacking context. Next time this comes up on here I will try to do a better job and not use phrases like "its a hoax" because to be honest, its not a hoax, it might be possible one day they will exist. I personally believe at that point there will be so many other advances that non quantum computers will simply outperform everything else.
Thanks for the additional response. I agree that there are fundamental technical questions that are very difficult.
As an aside, I'm actually well versed in the difference between quantum annealing and Turing like computation as I got my PhD in an ultra cold atomic physics lab.
>> When Dr Shor made his discovery such computers were the stuff of science fiction. But in 2001 researchers at ibm announced that they had built one, programmed it with Shor’s algorithm, and used it to work out that the prime factors of 15 are three and five. This machine was about the most primitive quantum computer imaginable.
The context which was lacking is that I meant on a large scale and not simply the most primitive thing. And no I am not fabricating anything, see here [1] for some of the main stream discussion by someone who is more articulate and knows more about it than me.
Let's keep in mind that just this week it was announced that a grad student figured out an algorithm to verify that the computations done by hypothetical quantum computers actually are giving a correct answer [2].
I seriously don't think you know what you are talking about when it comes to the idea that its "already been done", D-Wave is not a "quantum computer" in the sense of this article or shors algorithm.
However, you are correct that my comment was overly hyperbolic and lacking context. Next time this comes up on here I will try to do a better job and not use phrases like "its a hoax" because to be honest, its not a hoax, it might be possible one day they will exist. I personally believe at that point there will be so many other advances that non quantum computers will simply outperform everything else.
[1] https://www.quantamagazine.org/gil-kalais-argument-against-q...
[2] https://www.quantamagazine.org/graduate-student-solves-quant...