Ask HN: Are quantum-ready co’s peddling snake oil?

8 points

4 years ago

The premise of quantum-ready companies is to prepare their customers for the moment quantum computing breaks current cryptography. For example, RSA is dependent on factorization being computationally hard, but Shor’s Algorithm would provide fast factorization on sufficiently powerful quantum computers.

OK. But consider that some theorists make a direct link between quantum computing and non-locality ([1], [2]) while others ([3], [4]) question whether non-locality exists, despite years of confirmation of violations of Bell’s Inequality.

If - and it is a big IF - non-locality isn’t a thing, then quantum computing may be an illusion.

If quantum computing is illusory, then companies offering the “quantum-ready” are peddling FUD, snake-oil, no?

Thoughts?

[1] https://phys.org/news/2016-04-quantum-involves-nonlocality.html [2] https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/research-centres-and-groups/controlled-quantum-dynamics/public/people/Matt_Pusey_MRes_new.pdf [3] http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/12/does-superdeterminism-save-quantum.html (recently discussed on HN, [5]) [4] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325922318_The_notion_of_locality_in_relational_quantum_mechanics [5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29610441#29618846

6 comments