Just upgraded to Vista. Woot, no problems so far. Yeah, living in Seattle you just fall deeper and deeper into the “evil empire.” But it’s still fun to wave to Bill Gates when you go over the 520 bridge. And the real question is, how will Bill commute to the new Bill and Melinda Gates building which is closer to where I live? Maybe he will buy us a new bridge?
Penrose in Seattle
For locals, Roger Penrose will be talking this friday. Information here.
Friday, January 26 at 7:30 pm.
Science Lecture: Roger Penrose
Award-winning Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose returns to Town Hall on the occasion of the paperback release of his encyclopedic book on modern physics, The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, called “an essential field guide to the universe.” Penrose explores the beautiful and elegant connection between mathematics and the physical world and narrates a sophisticated tour of modern physics. Presented with University Book Store.
Tickets are $5 at the door only. Town Hall members receive priority seating.
Faster than a Speeding Light Ray
For any local readers, today there is a seminar by John Cramer on “An experimental test of nonlocal quantum communication.” Should be interesting!
Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
Sweet, Crystal is open!
Washington Education Roundup
And now for something a little different 🙂 Yeah I’m growing tired of complaining about fault-tolerant haters too 😉
This article in the New York Times highlights concerns about math education here in the great state of Washington. Money quote:
In part, the math wars have grown out of a struggle between professional mathematicians, who say too many American students never master basic math skills, and math educators, who say children who construct their own problem-solving strategies retain their math skills better than those who just memorize the algorithm that produces the correct answer.
Which of course is silly. Mastery of basic math skills AND construction of their own problem-solving strategies is important for math education. It’s not an OR sort of game. Sadly I think “construction of their own problem-solving strategies” is a proxy for “water down the curriculum” while at the same time “mastery of basic math skills” is proxy for “only accepting answers done by the accepted algorithm.” Both are anoying as heck.
In related news, extremely long time readers of this blog are familiar with the WIT: the Washington Institute of Technology. WIT is my dream university which I’m planning on founding once I find the necessary billions of dollars to get it started. Well I’d better hurry up because the beginnings of a movement to build a polytechnic here in Washington: Seattle Times article here.
The Real Starbucks Story
Forget the war over customers finding creative ways to use milk at Starbucks. The real story here in Washington and Oregon coffeeland is that the mermaid’s hair has been moved back in Starbuck’s logo. And I can report that, indeed, children all over Seattle are now running around crazied. The logo appears to have fried their Puritanical neurons.
Vente Nonfat Sugarfree Vanilla Latte
What war looks like in Seattle.
Postdoc Position
Anyone crazy enough to be interested in a postdoctoral position doing quantum computing theory here at UW should email me (dabacon[[[at]]]gmail.com subject: postdoc) for more details. Sure you could do a postdoc at the blackberry hole of quantum computing 😉 or at one of the insane asylums..errr I mean Institutes 😉 , but then you’d be a fish in a crowded pond. Here at UW you cold be a fish in a lovely Koi pond nearly all your own 🙂 And Seattle is indeed a lovely Koi pond.
Note: UW is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer.
A Visitor
For those of you local to Seattle, Scott Aaronson, keeper of the complexity zoo, will be giving a talk this Thursday:
Event: Colloquium, 05/25/2006 11:30 am, Gates Commons, CSE 691
Speaker: Scott Aaronson (University of Waterloo)
Talk: The Learnability of Quantum States
Abstract: Using ideas from computational learning theory, I’ll show
that “for most practical purposes,” one can learn a quantum state
using a number of measurements that grows only linearly with the
number of qubits n. By contrast, traditional quantum state tomography
requires a number of measurements that grows exponentially with n.
I’ll then give two applications of this learning theorem to quantum
computing: first, the use of trusted classical advice to verify
untrusted quantum advice, and second, a new simulation of quantum
one-way protocols.
Even though there exists an algorithm to “learn” a quantum state after
a small number of measurements, that algorithm might not be efficient
computationally. As time permits, I’ll discuss ongoing work on how to
exploit that fact to copy-protect and obfuscate quantum software
The Universe's Machine Language
For those local to Seattle, Seth Lloyd is in town tonight giving a Seattle Science Lecture:
Monday, May 8 at 7:30 pm.
Seth Lloyd: ‘Programming the Universe’
Seth Lloyd is a professor at MIT who works in the vanguard of research in quantum computing – using the quantum mechanical properties of atoms as a computer. He believes once humans have a complete understand the laws of physics, quantum computing will allow a complete understanding of the universe as well. His new book Programming the Universe explains how the creation of the universe involves information processing. His hypotheses bear implications for the evolution vs. intelligent design debate since he argues divine intervention isn’t necessary to produce complexity and life. Downstairs at Town Hall, enter on Seneca Street.