Some news for the remaining five readers of this blog (hi mom!) After over a decade of time practicing the fine art of quantum computing theorizing, I will be leaving my position in the ivory (okay, you caught me, really it’s brick!) tower of the University of Washington, to take a position as a software engineer at Google starting in the middle of June. That’s right…the Quantum Pontiff has decohered! **groan** Worst quantum to classical joke ever!
Of course this is a major change, and not one that I have made lightly. There are many things I will miss about quantum computing, and among them are all of the people in the extended quantum computing community who I consider not just colleagues, but also my good friends. I’ve certainly had a blast, and the only things I regret in this first career are things like, oh, not finding an efficient quantum algorithm for graph isomorphism. But hey, who doesn’t wake up every morning regretting not making progress on graph isomorphism? Who!?!? More seriously, for anyone who is considering joining quantum computing, please know that quantum computing is an extremely positive field with funny, amazingly brilliant, and just plain fun people everywhere you look. It is only a matter of time before a large quantum computer is built, and who knows, maybe I’ll see all of you quantum computing people again in a decade when you need to hire a classical to quantum software engineer!
Of course, I’m also completely and totally stoked for the new opportunity that working at Google will provide (and no, I won’t be doing quantum computing work in my new job.) There will definitely be much learning and hard work ahead for me, but it is exactly those things that I’m looking forward to. Google has had a tremendous impact on the world, and I am very much looking forward to being involved in Google’s great forward march of technology.
So, onwards and upwards my friends! And thanks for all of the fish!
O brave new quantum world!
I will remain wet: Seattle.
Congrats, Dave!
Your departure will be a great loss to our field, Dave, but I’m sure your new career will be exciting and productive. Have fun!
So, this is the end of The Quantum Pontiff? That will also be a great loss.
In Seattle? MTV? NYC?
Congratulations Dave.
Congratulations. While I’m sorry to hear that you are leaving the field, Google definitely seems to be a great place. I’ve quite a few friends working as there, and they all seem to love it. I wish you every success there. I can only imagine what will come of your 20% time.
But can I ask a favour? Try to get some more QC techtalks!
Quantum computing will miss you too, Dave. I’m glad for you — but bummed for our field. I hope you’ll keep the Pontiff space going, and keep us informed on what it’s like on the other side! (I have friends at Google — but none who know what it’s like on this side of the ivory wall).
Incidentally, I think this comment disproves your upper bound of 5 readers for the blog. 🙂 And I don’t even see your mom commenting yet (unless she’s “AHH”. Which (ouch) sounds like a Your Mom joke. Not my intent!)
Congrats Dave. Huge win for google!
You will be missed, but I’m sure you will thrive at google. Have fun!
OMG!
Can you reveal what area you will be working on?
classic Google or some new stealth project ?
Best to you!
Thanks all for the well wishes. This feels a lot like my first days at Caltech: going to a place with a bunch of smart people and having no idea whether I’ll sink of swim.
Not sure what is going to happen to the Pontiff. I’ve been thinking for a while of shutting it down. What is more important is why aren’t all of you blogging 🙂 !
@Frank: I have been starting a rewrite of scirate and hopefully will find a few spare clock cycles to push that through the door.
Congratulations Dave with your courageous move; I’m sure you will be able to make a large impact in our everyday world now.
I just want to say that your blog has provided me with lots of inspiration and laughs over the years; thanks!
Also, I sincerely hope that you will keep the scirate website alive: this is extremely useful to the whole community.
Good luck!
I am sure the Vatican pontiff will be happy because at least now when anyone searches for the pontiff on Google, links related to the pope will float to the top of the search results. 🙂
I am happy for you, and I know that this is a professional marriage made in code heaven (just continuing with the bad joke that you started in this post). I know you are going to kick ass there. Ha ha, you are going to be a Noogler for a few months at least.
We’ll all miss you Dave! You’ve contributed a lot of excellent research and a great sense of humor to the field of quantum computing.
Congratulations and good luck!
Wow! That is a shock, although I am sure it will be the right move for you and it is a great gain for google. All the best in the new career.
Google’s gain will be a great loss to our field. I wish you every success in your new venture.
What news! Congratulations! Good luck in becoming the master hacker at Google!
Please kill facebook for me.
hat is a shock, although I am sure it will be the right move for you and it is a great gain for google. All the best in the new career…
TREADY OVER-HYPED “QUANTUM-COMPUTING” IS ALIVE AND WELL AND HAS BEEN FOR SOME THREE-DECADES NOW SINCE SIEGEL(1980)-ROSEN-FEYNMAN-MARINOV-WUNDERMAN-SMITH[IBM CONFERENCE ON COMPUTERS AND MATHEMATICS, STANFORD(1986)] DISCOVERED THAT IN ARTIFICIAL NEURAL-NETWORKS THE BY-ROTE (BY COMPUTER-SEANCEISTS) ON-NODE THRESHOLD SWITCHING SIGMOID-FUNCTION 1/[1 + e^(E/T)] IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN A FERMI-DIRAC QUANTUM-STATISTICS(FDQS) HENCE POSSIBILITY OF QUANTUM-TUNNELING BETWEEN LOCAL-MINIMA TO GLOBAL-MINIMUM(IF ONE EXISTS)
1/[1 + e^(E/T)] = 1/[+ 1 + e^(E/T)] = 1/[e^(E/T) + 1]
BUT INHERENT IS PAULI EXCLUSION-PRINCIPLE WITH HUND’S-RULE SPON-COUPLING FORCING AND TRAPPING ANN SYSTEM INTO NON-OPTIMAL LOCAL-MINIMA NECESSITATING SPACE+TIME COMPUTATIONALLY-COSTLY BOLTZMANN-MACHINE PLUS SIMULATED-ANNEALING.
SIEGEL QUANTUM-STATISTICS TRANSMUTATION/MORPHISM FROM FDQS TO BOSE-EINSTEIN QUANTUM-STATISTICS(BEQS) WITH POSSIBILITY OF BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION(BEC) & NO NON-OPTIMAL LOCAL-MINIMA
1/[1 + e^(E/T)] = 1/[+ 1 + e^(E/T)] = 1/[e^(E/T) + 1] —> 1/[e^(E/T) – 1]
A “BOSE-EINSTEIN-CONDENSATION(BEC)-MACHINE”,
THUS EFFECTING “OPTIMIZING OPTIMIZATION-PROBLEMS OPTIMALLY”(OOPO)