Hmm. That's a bit over-literal. They meant, if a group of spies were pointing guns at the physicists and engineers and saying "You will build a functional quan

Hmm. That's a bit over-literal. They meant, if a group of spies were pointing guns at the physicists and engineers and saying "You will build a functional quantum computer within 5 years, or we will pull the trigger," then their life expectancy will be exactly five years. (I assume the "factoring 15 parlor trick" doesn't count as functional, since you have to punt the number of gates just to get the expected answer.)