Comments by "Lepi Doptera" (@lepidoptera9337) on "How to Detect Quantum Bullshit" video.

  1. You are kind of close there. A "hard" search problem has exactly one global optimum (or, at most, a finite number of equivalent optima) but an exponentially increasing search space. So basically guessing the solution is unlikely to deliver a result for large problems. One can show that the hardest of these problems are equally hard for classical computers and for quantum computers. They are generally unsolvable even with the resources of the entire universe for suitably large problem size. If, however, we reduce the requirement from "perfect solution at any size" to "good enough for some size", then classical algorithms and quantum algorithms have different performance. It's that difference that QC might be able to exploit.
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  2. Yes, in theory. In practice one can only simulate very small ones. Having said that, the most useful results in quantum computing, so far, seem to have been major advances in classical algorithms, which indicates that there is a lot of life left in conventional computing.
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  3. Dude, Einstein had good taste in women. ;-)
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  4. So how comes that doesn't work for you? Too much mushrooms lately? ;-)
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  5. We had nuclear fusion energy from the sun for over four billion years and we can make plenty of nuclear fusion in thermonuclear weapons at the push of a button. Fusion is, both fortunately and unfortunately, very viable. When you say fusion isn't viable, what you really mean is the question "Is magnetically or inertially confined plasma fusion commercially competitive with solar energy (which is gravitationally confined fusion)?". The answer is no. It is not commercially competitive now and it's hard to see how it will be competitive anytime soon. Having said that, if you are looking at other applications, like spaceflight, then it will probably be competitive with chemical and fission based propulsion by end of the century. The physical requirements are different in that application.
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  6. That's a very easy to solve problem if you can live with a solution that is e.g. within 1% of the optimal one. There is no need for quantum computing there.
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