Comment by pclmulqdq
1 day ago
Your idea of "core technology" is about the first time a theory was discovered that had a technology as a consequence. That's the only way nuclear energy's "core technology" is discovered in 1907. By the same token, quantum computing's "core technology" was discovered in 1926 during Erwin Schrodinger's work formalizing wave equations for quantum systems. During those periods when technology takes a long time, both the underlying physics and the engineering makes steady advances. 100 years later, we still have very little idea how or why quantum superposition works.
> 100 years later, we still have very little idea how or why quantum superposition works.
We understand superposition perfectly well. Maybe you are confusing science with philosophy.
Anyway, I'm starting to lose track of your point. There's definitely been steady advances in quantum technology, both in the underlying physics and in engineering. I'm not sure why you think that stopped.
What do you mean when you say "we understand superposition perfectly well"? To be very simplistic about this, are you proposing to know the physics of why entanglement can cause information to seemingly travel instantaneously over a distance when this seems to contradict what we know about the speed of light? Does this trigger no questions in your mind about some physical mechanism we don't understand here?
I understand that we have math that says that superposition does work, but we don't actually understand the physics of it. One of the foibles of modern physics is thinking that knowing the math is enough. Newton knew the math of his 100% internally consistent version of physics, but we know that there were observations that were not explained by his math that we now understand the physical mechanisms for.
I understand that "things that are beyond the math and physics I know" may be philosophy in your mind, but that is not a correct definition of philosophy.