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Cargo Cult Quantum Factoring

scottaaronson.blog

11–20 of 67 posts

Re: Cargo Cult Quantum Factoring

#11
post #4

Contrast with HN discussion of the purported breakthrough: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34235350

I’m not seeing the contrast. Aaronson speaks more definitively. But the top comments on HN [1][2] were well-reasoned scepticism.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34237886

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34237218

Re: Cargo Cult Quantum Factoring

#12
post #4

Contrast with HN discussion of the purported breakthrough: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34235350

I’m not seeing the contrast. Aaronson speaks more definitively. But the top comments on HN [1][2] were well-reasoned scepticism. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34237886 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34237218

And Schneier's own post expressed skepticism while noting that this is something that should be check-able now.

Re: Cargo Cult Quantum Factoring

#14
One of the most fun (?) parts of academia is the unique blend of frustration and satisfaction that results when a shoddy paper somehow clears peer review only to get eviscerated when it lands on the desk of an actual expert.

"the detailed exploration of irrelevancies" LOL, if that isn't a "time-tested" method for making a paper sound academic, I don't know what is.

Re: Cargo Cult Quantum Factoring

#16
post #14

One of the most fun (?) parts of academia is the unique blend of frustration and satisfaction that results when a shoddy paper somehow clears peer review only to get eviscerated when it lands on the desk of an actual expert. "the detailed exploration of irrelevancies" LOL, if that isn't a "time-tested" method for making a paper sound academic, I don't know what is.

It hasn't cleared peer review, it's a preprint (which is pretty common in cryptography, peer review usually happens when results are already old news).

Re: Cargo Cult Quantum Factoring

#17
post #4

Contrast with HN discussion of the purported breakthrough: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34235350

I’m not seeing the contrast. Aaronson speaks more definitively. But the top comments on HN [1][2] were well-reasoned scepticism. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34237886 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34237218

While it's indeed true that the top two threads' root comments are sceptical, replies to them, and further threads, present counter-arguments — one could easily come away from reading the HN discussion thinking that there's something to this paper. (And indeed, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34261645)
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