Martyn Rhisiart Jones and The Political Contrarians

A Coruña, 17th November 2025

Both AI and quantum computing face distorted incentives from venture capital, conferences, and media that prioritise revolutionary hype over realistic timelines and incremental progress. Yet, sober expectations, acknowledging that true breakthroughs may take decades and enormous resources, are essential to responsibly realising their genuine, upward trajectories.

In the annals of tech-wreck evangelism and boom-and-bust bullshit, few phrases are as reliably lucrative as “paradigm shift”, “exponential progress”, and “the next electricity”. Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing have both been honoured with these accolades in recent years, complete with nine-figure funding rounds, breathless TED talks, and the occasional greed-driven billionaire divination. Both fields are genuinely necessary. Both are also surrounded by a fog of exaggeration so thick that even seasoned observers struggle to see the road ahead.