July 19, 2026 — The NISQ Trap: Was Quantum Advantage Doomed From the Start?
This week a philosopher of physics and one of quantum computing's most influential complexity theorists went head-to-head over whether eight years of 'quantum advantage' claims were ever destined to succeed — and it's landing right as the DOE commits to a 2028 fault-tolerant deadline. Today's episode walks Amit Hagar's 'NISQ Trap' argument, Scott Aaronson's public rebuttal, Gil Kalai's older and more radical skepticism, and the split between DOE roadmap optimists and inside skeptics like Jay Sau.
The NISQ Trap: Eight Years of Demonstrations the Hardware Was Built to Lose — arXiv / Amit Hagar…
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