Quantum Supremacy: How Quantum Computers will Unlock the Mysteries of Science – and Address Humanity’s Biggest Challenges

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Estimates that I have seen say it’ll require about a million physical qubits for 110 to 150 or so logical qubits, though that depends on error rate and algorithm. I strongly doubt that you can do 7000 logical with only 1 million physical ones, it’s almost certainly considerably more. At the very least I’d like to see a source for the NS estimate. Fundamentally, you might think Quantum could improve every scientific and technological endeavour, but that would be fallacious. We only know of specific algorithms that are theoretically amenable to being sped up or enhanced by quantum algorithms. There is even a quantum zoo of algorithms highlighting quantum algorithms and their potential speed-ups. Maybe I'm pessimistic but I think that if we rely on "mays" and "mights" rather than changing our behavior, we're going to be in an even bigger mess. Hopefully we can somehow manage to turn things around but we have no idea if we can.

Kaku’s] lucid prose and thought process make abundant sense of this technological turning point.”— The New York Times Book Review stars -- 3 stars is "liked it", and in this case I can't force myself to say I did. On the other hand, it had plenty of interesting information, some of which was new to me. Of course, this did not happen in a vacuum: Google’s 2019 claim of achieving “quantum supremacy” with its Sycamore processor—which Kaku opens the book with, ignoring multiple sources comprehensively debunking the claim—remains one of the most visible instances of bad science communication. Google has clearly not learned from this experience, claiming in 2022 to have created a wormhole using a quantum computer, leading to another flashpoint of misunderstanding: the Nature paper was relatively restrained, Google’s blog post overextended the findings, and the media confabulated that post into something it is not.

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Conceptually, quantum supremacy involves both the engineering task of building a powerful quantum computer and the computational-complexity-theoretic task of finding a problem that can be solved by that quantum computer and has a superpolynomial speedup over the best known or possible classical algorithm for that task. [7] [8] Shor, Peter (1996). Polynomial-Time Algorithms for Prime Factorization and Discrete Logarithms on a Quantum Computer.

Sanders, Barry C. (2021-10-25). "Quantum Leap for Quantum Primacy". Physics. 14: 147. Bibcode: 2021PhyOJ..14..147S. doi: 10.1103/Physics.14.147. S2CID 244826882. Garisto, Daniel (December 3, 2020). "Light-based Quantum Computer Exceeds Fastest Classical Supercomputers". Scientific American . Retrieved 2020-12-07. Feynman, Richard P. (1982-06-01). "Simulating Physics with Computers". International Journal of Theoretical Physics. 21 (6–7): 467–488. Bibcode: 1982IJTP...21..467F. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.45.9310. doi: 10.1007/BF02650179. ISSN 0020-7748. S2CID 124545445.But just two years later, the Quantum Innovation Institute in China claimed that their quantum computer was 100 trillion times faster than supercomputers. It ran on 113 qubits. Um.... what about the rest of the world? They don't have access to this technology? The rest of the world has plummeted into the Dark Ages?

This book has a whole lot of speculation, a lot of 'mays' and 'mights'. 'Might' is used 178 times and 'may' a whopping 304. It’s practically impossible to overstate the absence of quality found in “Quantum Supremacy.” Readers with no preexisting knowledge of quantum computing will find themselves less informed about the topic by the end of the book. Scott Aaronson observed, in his review of Quantum Supremacy, the book “[perpetuates] two of the most basic, forehead-banging errors about what quantum computers can do,” by claiming that quantum computers change what can be computed, as well as claiming that a quantum computer “analyzes all possible paths at the same time.” a b c d Preskill, John (2018-08-06). "Quantum Computing in the NISQ era and beyond". Quantum. 2: 79. arXiv: 1801.00862. Bibcode: 2018Quant...2...79P. doi: 10.22331/q-2018-08-06-79. a b Zhong, Han-Sen; Wang, Hui; Deng, Yu-Hao; Chen, Ming-Cheng; Peng, Li-Chao; Luo, Yi-Han; Qin, Jian; Wu, Dian; Ding, Xing; Hu, Yi; Hu, Peng (2020-12-03). "Quantum computational advantage using photons". Science. 370 (6523): 1460–1463. arXiv: 2012.01625. Bibcode: 2020Sci...370.1460Z. doi: 10.1126/science.abe8770. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 33273064. S2CID 227254333.

What is quantum computing?

Lofty predictions are practically unavoidable in popular science books, and Kaku’s attempt isn’t the first, nor will it be the last, to mischaracterize what quantum computers will be useful for. Martín-López, Enrique; Laing, Anthony; Lawson, Thomas; Alvarez, Roberto; Zhou, Xiao-Qi; O'Brien, Jeremy L. (November 2012). "Experimental realization of Shor's quantum factoring algorithm using qubit recycling". Nature Photonics. 6 (11): 773–776. arXiv: 1111.4147. Bibcode: 2012NaPho...6..773M. doi: 10.1038/nphoton.2012.259. ISSN 1749-4893. S2CID 46546101. Even better, because ultimately, all things tiny are quantum. Kaku dives into our future with genetic medicine which will revolutionize our healthcare. Manin, Yu. I. (1980). Vychislimoe i nevychislimoe[ Computable and Noncomputable] (in Russian). Sov.Radio. pp.13–15. Archived from the original on 2013-05-10 . Retrieved 2013-03-04.