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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."

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  1. Re:looking sideways by Pentagram · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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).