The worst part about being a physicist right now is all the hype around quantum tech, because the suits have seen it fit to just call it "quantum"—and somehow it applies equally between quantum optics, quantum sensors, and quantum computers.
"Yeah, I think 'quantum' will win the Nobel prize this year"—what the fuck does that mean? What, are condensed matter, atomic, nuclear, and particle physics suddenly not "quantum" enough?
I can't stress this enough, quantum technology is not a field of study all on its own, but instead the application of many disparate fields all at once—superconducting qubits are a product of condensed matter physics, and rubidium magnetometers are a product of quantum optics and atomic physics. I think boiling down all these bits of physics into just "quantum" is absurd.
And no, I'm not missing the forest for the trees—I'm just saying that the forest has more than one type of tree, and there are things in the forest that aren't trees.
Moreover, if the quantum tech hype train keeps moving along like it is, I think quantum computer funding will dry up in the next 5–10 years, but quantum sensors might be on the chopping block too. I think the short-term gain of hyping up quantum computers will ultimately backfire if we don't emphasize how much most technologies aren't ready for the public; contemporary quantum computers don't have qubits reliable or robust enough to do any really meaningful work, and most quantum sensors, aside from SQUIDs—which have been around since the 1960s—aren't ready to be put in a little package to do any real sensing work. We have 10 billion quantum computing startups that are somehow all the first to make a "scalable" quantum computer—about half of those startups call themselves the first to do quantum computing as a service.
Sooner or later, if the current situation continues, I have a feeling we're going to see something like the Schön scandal all over again—there's too much hype in the field to not let some really bad science fly through the door. Chances are it'll come from a smaller, less well funded startup that's looking to get more funding.
