This reminds me of quantum computers or fusion reactors — we can build them, but the economics are far from working.
A quantum research scientist here: actually I would argue that is a misleading model for quantum computing. The main issue right now is technical, not economical. We still have to figure out error correction, without which you are bound to roughly 1000 logical gates. Far too little to do anything interesting.
Yeah, I got some pushback on Twitter on this point. I now agree that it’s not a great analogy. My thinking was that we technically know how to build a quantum computer, but not one that is economically viable (which requires technical problems to be solved and for the thing to be scalable/not too expensive). Feels like a not all squares are rectangles, but all rectangles are squares thing. Like quantum computing ISN’T economically viable but that’s not the main problem with it right now.
A quantum research scientist here: actually I would argue that is a misleading model for quantum computing. The main issue right now is technical, not economical. We still have to figure out error correction, without which you are bound to roughly 1000 logical gates. Far too little to do anything interesting.
Yeah, I got some pushback on Twitter on this point. I now agree that it’s not a great analogy. My thinking was that we technically know how to build a quantum computer, but not one that is economically viable (which requires technical problems to be solved and for the thing to be scalable/not too expensive). Feels like a not all squares are rectangles, but all rectangles are squares thing. Like quantum computing ISN’T economically viable but that’s not the main problem with it right now.