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Quantum Computing: A view from the enemy camp
SIGFPE writes "There seems to be an unthinking acceptance by many people that quantum computers are now on their unstoppable way up and before too long we'll be cracking RSA and simulating protein folding on complex quantum computers. However there is another point of view that considers quantum computers to be as difficult to make as perpetual motion machines - and for much the same reason: entropy. As an antidote to all the successes that have been reported on /. here is a just published and highly readable preprint by a sceptical mathematical physicist."
While everything stated in this paper is all well and good and valid, he's missing the fundamental point of innovation.
You make no progress with pessimism.
CyberBlood
> any lifeform that does not take full advantage of its enviroment will not survive
Whoah. So any phenomenon seen or imagined in science that is not manifested in humans is bullshit? And furthermore, all lifeforms can in fact swim, fly, breathe and photosynthesize and do all other things that are possible for a life form to do; either that or the very theoretical possibility of a doing these things is bullshit?
sudo ergo sum
And because no organisms use lasers as a defensive weapon, they cannot exist?
evolution dictates that any lifeform that does not take full advantage of its enviroment will not survive to procreate
Evolution dictates nothing of the sort. All that happens is the fittest of any set of organisms is more likely to survive. There is no guarantee of optimality (otherwise I would currently be making a fortune with my perfect genetic algorithm-evolved stock market model).