Comment by jgrahamc 3 days ago
Quantum was one of those words that sounded really cool (back then). Just look at TV shows like Quantum Leap (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Leap_(2022_TV_series)) or Sinclair's QL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QL)
Great analogy. They'd be using "Quantum" the same way one might've also used, say, "Turing Computer Services". THey want the legitimacy of sounding elite and beyond-the-cutting-edge while presumably being expert at merely replacing bad RAM and defragging harddisks.
Early 2000's version was simply putting ".com" or ".net" in your company name so you sounded enticing to investors, or when everyone added "crypto" and to their company names.
Of similar vein I expect current generation "Artificial Intelligence" will likely be renamed and thought of as quaint or audacious, like the renaming of "Modern" furniture aesthetic to "Mid-Century Modern".
Quantum was cool until Deepak Chopra ruined it for everybody.
Quantum Mysticism is Stupid (Deepak Chopra, Spirit Science, Actualized.org):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQTWor_2nu4
Deepak Chopra Faces a Real Theoretical Physicist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qFGs-SIWB4
>How does Deepak Chopra respond when confronted with an actual Theoretical Physicist? Why, he maxes out the nonsense generator and gibbers whatever random jargon pops into his head.
Professor Brian Cox Enraged Deepak Chopra | CONAN on TBS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajO5MvL9pVE
>"I'm going to shove my cosmic consciousness up your ass!" -Enraged Deepak Chopra
By "the same way one might've also used" I meant those Quantum guys would've been just as likely to have used Turing, but yes, "Turing" is close to hitting the "jumped the shark" / "hackneyed" level of usage.
Amusingly this is true of an older discovery that now seems very commonplace: vibration, around the time that scientists understood the simple harmonic oscillator, and the fact that the same mathematics applies to lots of things from sounds to pendulums. So to make their nonsense sound sciencey, spiritualists started talking about vibrations as well.
Not sure if there are any older examples.