I’ve put a bunch of my talks and my papers on the web. They can be accessed using the cute little tabs above.
Unfortunately I somehow lost a few of my talks. One talk that is missing, for example, is my talk “What Would John Bell Do?” which included sounded as well as astounding movies and animation. I hope I can find where I put a backup, cus this talk is really rather amusing.
Summer Teaching
This summer I’m teaching a course in the professional masters program here at UW:
CSE P 590 TU: Quantum Computing
Dave Bacon – Instructor
Day/Time: Wednesday 6:30-9:20 pm; Place: TBD
(First time offering.) An introduction to and survey of the field of quantum computing. Quantum computation is an emerging field whose goal is to design effectively atomic sized computers which exploit the parallelism of the quantum mechanical laws of the universe. While this sounds futuristic, quantum computers are fast becoming a reality, and have the potential to revolutionize computation over the next twenty years. Topics include quantum algorithms, quantum error correction, and quantum cryptography. This course will cover why quantum computers can break certain public key cryptosystems, the engineering challenges in building a physical quantum computing device, and the level of security assured by quantum crytopgraphic devices. Prior knowledge of quantum theory is not necessary.
I just put up a preliminary version of the course website. The one issue which is bugging me a lot as I try to think about this class is exactly how to deal with the nearly three hour length of these classes. I may be a funny looking guy, but am I really as entertaining as the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings?
The Zen of Working on the Bus
When I was a graduate student in Berkeley, I lived in two locations which had a bit of a walk to get to my office on campus (around twenty minutes.) While this may sound like a horribly unproductive waste of time, I found that almost all of my research got done because of this walk. In my walk to work I would often start thinking about a problem I was working on. Sometimes I would make significant progress on the walk. One reason for this may be that I had to do all the thinking in my head (no pad of paper, no whiteboard.) More importantly, though, I think the walk almost always woke my brain up and got it primed to continue to work thoughout the day.
When I moved to Caltech and then to Santa Fe, I lived in locations where I would drive to work or where the walk was for a very short distance. I definitely noticed that it was more difficult to get my brain working in the morning because of this.
So it’s quite fun, now, taking the bus to work. Beside the pain of riding the bus in one of the sideway seats (so that the hurky-jerky motion of the bus makes your back muscles big and strong), the thirty minute trip to campus has been extremely productive. Just this morning I found a polynomial time reduction for a problem I’ve been working on while the bus rounded a corner. In fact, I may just add this to my list of criteria for discovering if you are a theoretical physicist:
- You might be a theoretical physicist if someone describes prison to you as a very isolating place and you ask “Do they give you a pen and paper?”
- You might be a theoretical physicist if you find that you can work on a problem so hard that the clock on your desk mysteriously skips two or three hours when you thought only ten minutes had passed.
- You might be a theoretical physicist if you discover that in locations where most people are listening to their iPods, you are inverting a three by three matrix in your head.
The Return of Speed
In Santa Fe, there was nothing quite so painful as going to get a croissant and coffee in the morning only to watch as fifteen minutes was forever lost from my life. Even after I learned that giving exact change would shorten my wait by at least two minutes, the sheer slowness was pretty painful. Which is why it is so wonderful to be back in a university town. Especially a university town in a city. Because the beautiful thing about both of these two settings is the absolute speed with which getting my morning breakfast is achieved. Wam! Bam! Here’s your food! I love it! I’ve even noticed that I’m out of shape in getting my money ready so fast. I’d better practice getting my wallet out faster. Ahhhh….life among the young’uns makes me happy.
Adios
Goodbye Santa Fe.
Tomorrow I head for the hills. Well actually I go around the hills at first and then over some hills and then over some more hills, and, well you get the picture.
I will miss green chiles, the “speculation” section at Borders, crystals with magical magical powers, the high mountain air, the aspin groves in fall, the good scientists at the Santa Fe Institute, tea time at the Institute, the convenient and terrific skiing, and the beautiful vistas of New Mexico.
I will not miss the running of red lights, the roads, crystals with magical magical powers, the hour long drive to 7a.m. flights in Albuquerque, and most of all, the fact that every metalic object I touch in this state gives me a nasty shock.
Talks
I’m beginning the process of putting my powerpoint talks online in powerpoint and html format. The first one is up and can be accessed by clicking on the cute little talks tab above. Or by clicking here
Weekend Wedding
Last weekend I went to a wedding in Redondo Beach for my friends Mel and West who I’ve known since my days back at Caltech. As you can guess, the maturity level of a group of Techers is very high:
Here we see my friend Lon and I playing with our food. Note that I grabbed an orange, while Lon grabbed a lemon. Poor Lon.
Here is a picture of my rental car being towed because I lost the key to the car.
Note that during that Bachelor party for this wedding I lost my cell phone and my drivers license.
If you decide to stop reading this blog because of the above damning information, I don’t blame you.
Santa Fe, NM to Seattle, WA
At the end of next week, I’m driving from Santa Fe to Seattle. Today I googled a map of the trip.
Ouch.
Insulting Grandma
Doh! I too have been tying a granny knot instead of a reef knot.
Update: For extra protection, check out Ian’s secure knot
An Invitation to Crazyland
Next week I’m going to give a different kind of a seminar at the Santa Fe Institute. Here is the announcement:
David Krakauer & Dave Bacon are delighted to host the first Speaker in
our: “Possible Paths” seminar Series.
In this series we ask speakers to imagine the state of a scientific
field 1000 years into the future and to trace a possible path towards
that future, enumerating potential prize winning discoveries along the way.
We are positively ecstatic that our first speaker will be none other
than: DR DAVE BACON who will give the Thursday Colloq entitled:
“The Reconciliation of Quantum Theory and General Relativity: No Strings
Attached”
Please view the attached pdf file which gives a graphical insight into
the ambitious nature of Dr Bacon’s program & some of the fine minds he
will need to transcend along his path.
The first to correctly identify all members of the Baconian Solar System
wins Applause & Admiration at the Event.
Here is the attached photo (note: I didn’t make this photo, David Krakauer did and he thinks it’s very funny.)
Basically the talk will be a crazy conglomeration of different observations I’ve made which lead me to believe the path towards reconciling quantum theory with gravity will look nothing like what we currently invission it to be. I’ll post a copy of the powerpoint once I finish the talk so that everyone can get some good hearty chuckles.