I agree that this is the problem that we are effectively trying to solve. The problem with the feather analogy is that there's an initial condition problem that

I agree that this is the problem that we are effectively trying to solve. The problem with the feather analogy is that there's an initial condition problem that is basically unresolvable. Replicating them in such a way that the result of physically dropping the feather is identical between runs of this computer is far beyond intractable, much less representing them in such a way that you can compare the output of a classical computer in this regard. The NMR results from factoring 15 [1] are incredibly fascinating. Here the quantum computer is just a molecule, and using NMR we can get a precise view of the initial conditions and the time evolution. We're just asking the molecule to molecule itself and measuring the outcome. This unfortunately does not appear to scale, so it's impossible to say if we are demonstrating quantum supremacy, but the experimental design blows my mind. [1] https://cryptome.org/shor-nature.pdf https://cryptome.org/shor-nature.pdf