#184 overall
Quantum Computing Since Democritus
Scott Aaronson (MIT)
3 recommenders · 3 threads · recommended in 3 years, 2009–2015 · score 2.4
A lecture series and book by Scott Aaronson covering quantum computing alongside its connections to philosophy, computability, and physics, from ancient ideas to modern questions. Lecture notes are hosted on his personal site.
Commenters call Aaronson's lectures excellent and always worth reading, and point to specific lectures for clear intuition on topics like time travel paradoxes and probability puzzles.
Science & Engineeringintermediatefreevideo lectures#quantum computing#complexity theory#philosophy of physics#aaronson
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20062026
A similar problem is God's Coin Toss as described in Scott Aaronson's excellent lecture series (and book) "Quantum Computing Since Democritus":
http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec17.html
David Deutsch also proposed a similar resolution for closed timelike curves, which say that if you have a probability distribution of the present, all that's necessary is that when you travel back in time, you get the same probability distribution. In short, if you flip a (true!) random coin to before shooting your grandfather, no paradox exists:
http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.44.319...
This is described with more intuition and background in one of (always excellent) Scott Aaronson's lectures: http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec19.html
I have been following Scott's site for several years. He is at the top of his field, one of the most qualified quantum computing theorists. Sometimes his sarcasm is juvenile and falls flat, but this post is classic. Yes you would have had to been following along to appreciate it. And it would help to know D-wave at one point actively recruited Scott.If you want to know whether or not quantum computation is taking place, this is your man.
I highly recommend reading further on his site, including his papers and lecture notes. I especially recommend his lecture notes "Great Ideas in Theoretical Computer Science" http://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/6/sp08/6.080/materials.html and "Quantum Computing Since Democritus" http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/
Enjoy.