i think it's weird how the newscientist for some reason decided to present the two efforts as being in competition or something. well it's not really weird, it's just clickbait, but you get my point
Wouldn't it be interesting if the effort to simulate a quantum computer led to some fantastically novel mathematical insights about quantum mechanics...
That actually sounds almost inevitable at some point, given how little we know about QM.
Why do you say that we know very little about QM?
Good point, simulation is one of the best ways to understand something. Having to go through and design something which exhibits the same behaviors you've observed is basically the exact process of developing a deeper understanding of that thing.
Dang give some more detail. This makes it sound like they gzipped the quantum states or something.
Are there any resources for learning and experimenting with quantum computers?