Benchmarking for Quantum Tech Viability and Growth
What the Quantum Optimizing field has taught us
Today I give congratulations to the filmmakers of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story for their Satellite Awards Nominations: Best Motion Picture Made for Television, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Evan Rachel Wood).
But what does Weird Al Yankovic have to do with quantum technology?
In 2015, the Weird Al benchmark metric (Fig. 1) earned a distinctive place in Scott Aaronson’s quantum blog community as the first (un)official, community-derived, benchmark of D-Wave’s speed-up. The quantum deep-tech community at that time were engaged in a large and complex research effort to determine the advantages of D-Wave’s new technology.