Things usually improve incrementally. This is a million-fold improvement! That’s why people talk of “quantum leaps”.
China calls this quantum computer the “Zu Chongzhi” (祖沖之), after a 5th century mathematician and astronomer. [Ref]. Zu is best known for having calculated pi π to 7 decimals, a feat not bettered for 800 years. I like it, good name. Much better than the name for the new Hubble-beating telescope, the James Webb, a NASA bureacrat.
ADDED: While China goes hard on STEM, the US obsesses over Social Justice, Cultural Marxism, Critical Race Theory, Textbooks, Pronouns, Transphobia, Woke Maths. [TL;DR: China STEM; US floppy flower?]
Can I still have faith that the US will prevail? That it will do well? That it will be that “shining light on the hill”? I hope so, but begin, for the first time, to doubt.
Comments at the article on the Chinese quantum computer are cutting about the US. Example:
''China’s quantum computers outstrip Google’s and are fastest in the world.'' Yes, and so are China's hypersonics, space station, 5G, and a long list of biomedical equipment. China used to look ahead and see the US; now, it sees the US in the rearview mirror.
These may be China’s “50-cent army” commenting. Or maybe not. And in any case, true. No?
