List of Appendices

Appendix A: Overly Optimistic Claims

A chronological table of public quantum computing claims from 2007–2023 — including promises from D-Wave, Google, IBM, IonQ, and McKinsey — compared against what actually happened. The pattern of missed timelines and undelivered breakthroughs speaks for itself.

Appendix B: Breakthroughs Required

The ten simultaneous physics and engineering breakthroughs that must all occur on the same platform for quantum computing to become economically viable. Error rates, qubit counts, coherence times, connectivity, cryogenics, control electronics, error correction overhead, practical algorithms, cost competitiveness — and all of them at once.

Google Quantum Echoes Paper Analysis

A detailed review of Google Quantum AI's 2025 Nature paper on quantum echoes using the Willow processor. The paper demonstrates a legitimate 13,000x speedup on a specific physics measurement task (OTOCs), but the computation has no commercial relevance. Rated 7/10 for solid incremental science with inflated framing.

Palmer's Rational Quantum Mechanics

An analysis of Tim Palmer's 2026 PNAS paper proposing that quantum computers face a fundamental ceiling of 200–1,000 qubits due to the discretization of Hilbert space. If correct, Shor's algorithm can never break RSA encryption — not for engineering reasons, but because of physics. Rated 6/10 for an intellectually serious, falsifiable theory that remains speculative and unproven.