Perhaps it suggests that as processors approach quantum levels of computing, that chaos theory starts to come into play.

I don't think you mean what you just said. One outstanding property of quantum level physics is that things are no longer deterministic. In chaos theory, everything is still very deterministic. It's just that very tiny disturbences is the start configuration can lead to very different outcomes. But each input leads to a very determined outcome, and repeatedly so.

I agree with the other respondents - optimize for the programmer, not the compiler. If I can get in, do my thing, and get out in under 8 hours, and be guaranteed there's no action at a distance ... that's optimized.

That depends. If you write a program that calculates how much flap an airplane should have during the landing, and your write the program in 8 hours, but the resulting program takes 15 minutes to calculate the flap output than that's not optimized. Programmer time and run time are trade-offs, and the best trade-off isn't always "minimize programmer time".

Abigail