December 25, 2025
FOOM or flop? The comments erupt
Quantum Error Correction Goes FOOM
Hours-long qubits?! Commenters argue FOOM vs flop
TLDR: Google boosted a repetition code’s lifetime from milliseconds to two hours by mitigating cosmic-ray strikes. The crowd is split between calling it hype (“a classical bit with extra steps”) and applauding the engineering, with others asking what FOOM means and whether speed, not storage, is the real story.
A graph goes flat for a decade and then FOOM — lifetimes leap from milliseconds to two hours on a 59‑qubit repetition code, thanks to Google’s fix for cosmic-ray hits. The crowd? Instantly split. One camp is hyped: “Stack two exponentials, clear some hurdles, and boom, quantum durability!” The other camp brings the snark: “Cool trick, but you’re just protecting a classical bit with extra steps.” The top vibe check comes from a confused onlooker asking, “What the hell is FOOM?” — which veterans translate as “sudden explosive growth.”
The funniest roast lands with a straight face: a commenter claims they can keep a 59‑bit repetition code alive for hours on a normal laptop, poking at the idea that this demo corrects one type of error (bit flips) but not the other (phase flips). Meanwhile, a big-picture hot take drops: “Does quantum speed even matter? If you had enough qubits, can’t you do everything in one shot?” Defenders clap back that error correction is the plumbing we need before the quantum mansion even stands — fixing “leakage” and dodging “cosmic rays” isn’t flashy, but it unlocks the real show.
Between memes about backup generators vs asteroid strikes and earnest explanations of how error correction stacks gains, the thread turns into a popcorn-worthy debate: FOOM or flop, miracle or marketing?
Key Points
- •A 2014 UCSB experiment stored a classical bit with a 9-qubit repetition code, achieving a ~100 µs half-life and showing lifetime improvement with more qubits.
- •Google-led follow-ups reached 3 ms (21 qubits, 2021), 300 ms (51 qubits, 2023), and two hours (59 qubits, 2024).
- •A model based on L = C·λ^q explains superexponential lifetime growth when qubit quality is fixed and qubits double annually, yielding a lull then rapid improvement (FOOM).
- •Practical QEC hurdles—leakage in transmons and high-energy events like cosmic rays—cap lifetimes; 2023 results deviated from ideal due to such events.
- •In 2024, gap engineering mitigated high-energy event impacts, producing a ~10,000× lifetime increase; repetition-code tests help clear hurdles toward full QEC, which also requires phase-flip correction.