We consider the hypothesis that quantum mechanics is not fundamental, but instead emerges from a theory with less computational power, such as classical mechanics. This hypothesis makes the prediction that quantum computers will not be capable of sufficiently complex quantum computations. Utilizing this prediction, we outline a proposal to test for such a breakdown of quantum mechanics using near-term noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers. Our procedure involves simulating a non-Clifford random circuit, followed by its inverse, and then checking that the resulting state is the same as the initial state. We show that quantum mechanics predicts that the fidelity of this procedure decays exponentially with circuit depth (due to noise in NISQ computers). However, if quantum mechanics emerges from a theory with significantly less computational power, then we expect the fidelity to decay significantly more rapidly than the quantum mechanics prediction for sufficiently deep circuits, which is the experimental signature that we propose to search for. Useful experiments can be performed with 80 qubits and gate infidelity $10^{-3}$, while highly informative experiments should require only 1000 qubits and gate infidelity $10^{-5}$.
Download