#13 — Wed 20 August 2025 by Evan Chen

We need more papers like this in the world:

Replication of Quantum Factorisation Records with an 8-bit Home Computer, an Abacus, and a Dog

From the paper:

2.1. Terminology New technologies, when introduced, are typically given names that overstate their capabilities, usually by equating them with existing familiar systems or technological artefacts. For example the first computers in the 1940s and 1950s, often little more than glorified electric adding machines, were nevertheless described as “electronic brains”. More recently, large language models (LLMs) have been touted as “artificial intelligence”, and complex physics experiments have been touted as “quantum computers”. In order to avoid any confusion with actual computers like the VIC-20 with which they have nothing in common, we refer to them here as “physics experiments”. Similarly, we refer to an abacus as “an abacus” rather than a digital computer, despite the fact that it relies on digital manipulation to effect its computations. Finally, we refer to a dog as “a dog” because even the most strenuous mental gymnastics can’t really make it sound like it’s a computer.