O brave new quantum world!
In my last post I described a list created by the late physicist John Archibald Wheeler describing ways in which the universe could be like a computer. This came from a note in the collection of papers from the American Philosophical Society. In the second part of this note, Wheeler moved on to describing what …
Continue reading “THE UNIVERSE AS A COMPUTER, John Archibald Wheeler, Part 2”
John Archibald Wheeler is a bit of a hero for me (and also, like all good heroes a bit of a villain). Discovering his paper “It from Bit” was definitely a huge inspiration for me to get into the field. When I found Wheeler’s paper it led me to Bill Wootters work, and I immediately …
Continue reading “THE UNIVERSE AS A COMPUTER, John Archibald Wheeler”
NISQ is a term coined by John Preskill circa 2018 and stands for “Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum”. The term is aimed to describe quantum computers that were not just toy few qubit systems, but systems of a slightly larger scale. This “slightly larger” is a bit hard to define, but roughly most people take it as …
“I am a Quantum Engineer, but on Sundays I have principles” — John Bell, as related Nicholas Gisin in quant-ph/0104140 Ahead of his time not just on the implications of quantum theory, but also on the moral of life in the quantum industry.
“We are in a box,” says me. “Do you see some radium hooked up to a crazy steampunk device with skulls and crossbones and yellow, definitely yellow, but maybe also neon green or wavey blue?” says Qubitslets. “No I think we put ourselves in the box,” says me. “I don’t see any radium.” “Maybe we’re …
Is this thing on?
Vox has just published an excellent article on open access scientific publishing, “The open access wars“. While that is too provocative of a title, the article still manages to give an accurate assessment of the current state of play. Although I like the article, I can’t help but nitpick a few points. From the article, …
This is an open thread in case anyone wants to discuss the merits and demerits of using the term “quantum supremacy”.
Sometimes quantum appears out of nowhere when you least expect it. From the September 2, 2018 edition of the New York Times Magazine.
Quantum computers are Blue versions of classical computers [1] [2] [3][4] Blue or grey abstract patterns [1] [2][3][4][5][6] A bunch of connectors [1][2] Blurred out chips [1] What goes inside the dilution fridge [1][2][3] Closed dilution fridges [1] Part of a flag [1] A button near the enter key [1] Icy cold really big atoms …