The universe doesn’t always operate the way we want it to. No, I’m not talking about the stock market (unless you’ve been short lately), I’m talking about the role of error in logical deterministic systems! When you zoom down far enough into any computing device you’ll see that its constituent components don’t behave in a completely digital manner and all sorts of crazy random crap (technical term) is going on. Yet, on a larger scale, digital logical can and does emerge.
Today heading to work in the early dawn I was pondering what all of this meant for our notion of reality.
Continue reading “Majority Gate Reality”
Krugman on Krugman
A very good essay Paul Krugman wrote on his method of doing research. Some good gems in there for researchers of all fields.
The injunction to dare to be silly is not a license to be undisciplined. In fact, doing really innovative theory requires much more intellectual discipline than working in a well-established literature. What is really hard is to stay on course: since the terrain is unfamilar, it is all too easy to find yourself going around in circles.
Ski Season Begins
It’s official: Loveland and Arapahoe Basin are open for the 2008-2009 ski season. Eighteen inches of man made snow may or may not, however, be considered good news.
Bacon Robots
Okay, I think it is time I give in and create a category on the blog called “Bacon.” Two new entries for the category:
- Bacon Robots. Think, people, before you start sizzling up the Bacon that falls from the sky.
- Bacon and Donuts: Taste We Can Believe In.
War I Tell You
Self promotion for those around the University of Washington campus: I’m giving a talk in the physics department at UW. Mondays, October 20 at 4:00 P.M. Ronald Geballe Auditorium, Rm. A102 (cookies at 3:45):
Title: “Who Will Build a Quantum Computer: the Physicists or the Computer
Engineers?”
Abstract: Building a quantum computer large enough to perform a task beyond the capability of today’s classical computers (breaking a cryptographic code or simulating a complex quantum system) is a daunting task. On the fundamental side, this difficulty arises from the fact that quantum systems like to decohere, and that we cannot control a quantum system with perfect accuracy. On the technical side, the obstacles toward build a quantum computer arise from the severe engineering constraints imposed by manipulating individual quantum systems. The theoretical solution to the problems of decoherence and lack of control was worked out in the nineties and is known as the threshold theorem for fault-tolerant quantum computing. The great debate in quantum computing today is how the technical difficulties of building a quantum computer will be overcome. In this talk I will outline two very distinct camps on how this will be achieved: one centered very squarely on engineering and the other with roots in condensed matter physics. This is a battle for the soul of future quantum computers and will determine whether quantum computers are years, decades, or centuries away from being built.
Dude! Look At Those Equations!
Garrett Lisi, surfer and creator of possible theories of everything, has given a TED talk:
I had never thought to put Schrodinger into the box.
“I try to balance my life between physics, love, and surfing. That way even if the physics I work on comes to nothing, I’ve lived a good life.” Word.
(1+p)(1-p)
I wonder how many people this week realized that “ten percent down” followed by “ten percent up” does not equal “no change.” Probably a few. And how many realized that “ten percent down” followed by “ten percent up” is the same as “ten percent up” followed by “ten percent down”? Or that up 5 percent, down 3 percent, up 2 percent, down 8 percent, and down 8 percent in that order is the same as down 8 percent, up 2 percent, down 3 percent, up 5 percent, down 8 percent in that order? Commutativity is cool. Yes, I am easily amused.
SOHCAHTOA
A new entry in the best title every competition:
arXiv:0810.0827: Sine function with a cosine attitude
Authors: A. D. Alhaidari
Someday I promise that I will use the phrase “an exponential function with a logarithmic attitude.”
Mortgage Backed Quantum Computers
From the annals of strangely mixed news stories. Canada: $25 billion government bailout and….$50 million for the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing:
BRANTFORD, Ont. — The $25-billion government deal to buy mortgages from Canada’s banks isn’t a lifeline for lenders stuck with bum loans, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday…
He said the government will likely make money on the deal, because its borrowing costs are lower than those available to banks.
Harper also produced an election goodie, promising a $50-million grant to a high-tech research lab at the University of Waterloo.
The money goes to the university’s Institute of [sic] Quantum Computing.
The prime minister says it’s in line with the government’s efforts to spur research and development.
A new way to get out of the financial crisis: invest in the quantum computing! (joke about a superposition of rich and poor deleted for sanity’s sake.)
Signs of the Apocalypse: Google Finance Edition
You know it’s a heavy volume day when even Google can’t handle it:
Your message could not be posted to the DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE INDEX group because there have been too many messages posted to the group recently.