rose.blog

I gave a presentation at the DOE lab at Berkeley a few weeks ago. Here is an article in the Berkeley Labs Computational Research Division June report on the meeting.

[via nextquant]

While not yet descended into witch burning, it seems like rejecting the entire institution of science is the “in thing” to do nowadays in the US, much like it was in Europe in the 15th century. During a Republican presidential debate a couple of weeks ago, the moderators asked the candidates whether or not they believed in evolution. Three of nine said no. In a follow-up, Senator Sam Brownback wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times “defending” his position.

Here is an essay from University of Chicago professor of ecology and evolution Jerry Coyne responding to Brownback. From my perspective the key point made is that anti-evolution is really a euphemism for anti-science, and that someone who doesn’t understand or believe in science obviously isn’t qualified to lead the US.

On a related note, there was a brilliant article in the May 18th issue of Science about childhood origins of adult resistance to science; here’s the abstract and here’s the article (you need a subscription to Science to read the article).

D-Wave board member Haig Farris on why physicists are good at business and in particular are well suited to entrepreneurial environments.

Also of interest from this event is a very interesting talk by IBM’s Tom Theis on a subject of great interest to us here, which is the Great Evil of on-chip heat generation.

One word, Tom: Superconductors. Zero dissipation, baby. Except for readout of course… but 4.5 femtoJoules per readout I can handle.

Yeah I know you probably can’t put a dilution fridge in a laptop, but in 10 years all computing power will be in giant googleplexes anyway, and our terminals and handhelds will just be windows into them.

I was meaning to post something like this but nextquant beat me to it! Here is his post with the list reproduced below.

Here is an extensive list of science fiction works featuring quantum computers and quantum computing. All suggestions and corrections are welcome!

• Brasyl by Ian McDonald
  Features illegal quantum computing and parallel universes.
• Dante’s Equation by Jane Jensen
  A quantum computer named Quey is used to solve a previously intractable physics problem. The book also involves parallel universes.
• Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer
  Quantum computers are used for integer factorization and code breaking. Their working principle is based on parallel universes.
• Finity by John Barnes
  Using quantum computers one can jump into an alternate parallel universe.
• Hard Questions by Ian Watson
  A powerful quantum computer operates in parallel universes, becomes self-aware and creates own realities.
• Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax) by Robert J. Sawyer
  A failed quantum computer experiment transfers a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel universe into our world.
• Moving Mars by Greg Bear
  The book features self-aware quantum computers.
• Quarantine by Greg Egan
  One of the first sci-fi books using the concept of quantum computation.
• Schild’s Ladder by Greg Egan
  Future humans abandon physical bodies and trasfer their minds to a quantum computer named Qusps.
• Simple Genius by David Baldacci
  This recent thriller describes quantum computers as being worth countries going to war for.
• The Footprints of God by Greg Iles
  The secret Trinity Project involves some of the best minds in the world in order to create the first practical quantum computer

Cool. As an aside we named our first operational system Trinity after The Footprints of God’s Trinity Project.

Here are a couple more I’ve read:

• The Labyrinth Key by Howard V. Hendrix

Whoever invents the first quantum computer will permanently win the twenty-first-century Cold War between China and the U.S.

• Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

In Digital Fortress, the NSA’s secret weapon is a giant, multibillion-dollar computer called TRANSLTR, which can crack any code in seconds.

I will be hauling my superposition of states over to San Francisco July 12-13th for the Fortune iMeme conference, at which I have been afforded the honour of a short speech (see here for the agenda and here for a kick-off press release).

The idea is that I’m to give a 5 minute pitch (wedged between the CEO of Sun and a roundtable consisting of Bill Joy, Richard Dawkins and Craig Venter) on “my meme”.

I don’t know yet what I’m going to talk about. I’m tending towards a Kurzweilian / Googlerian “how to learn to love your new machine overlords” angle, although I think they are expecting me to talk about The Multiverse and associated consequences.

A 200-0 supernatural kung-fu master vs. some guy off the street.

[via Doctor Recommended]