8 ms·

Interview with Scott Aaronson about philosophy and quantum computing [video]

134 points by furcyd 7y ago

rassibassi 7y ago
Nice video lecture series by scot https://video.ethz.ch/speakers/bernays/2019/7b11b50e-f813-4d26-95e0-616cc350708c.html https://video.ethz.ch/speakers/bernays/2019/7b11b50e-f813-4d...
dang 7y ago
We changed the URL from https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4616 https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4616, which points to this.
retsibsi 7y ago
RSS link for the audio version: https://lexfridman.com/category/ai/feed/ https://lexfridman.com/category/ai/feed/
_Microft 7y ago
In case you did not know yet: there are transcripts for some of videos on Youtube. The transcript is time-stamped, the video will jump to the correct position when clicking a sentence and it loads completely at once, so you can use the in-browser search on it. Open the three-dot-menu below the video content and open the transcript from there.
plesiv 7y ago
Lex Fridman's "AI Podcast" has quickly grown to have one of the best list of guests on any show ever [1] - extremely impressive! [1]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuK...
- grindgrind 7y ago
  I've been bouncing around the smartie-pants podcasts over the last couple years, started with 'After On', moved to Sean Carroll's Mindscape in the last six months, I will have to add this one to the list.
- nabla9 7y ago
  His quest list is awesome. Stephen Kotkin interview was really good. His problem is the clear lack of preparation in several interviews. He gets thrown off and loses track just when the interview gets interesting. The momentum dies because he has no good followup questions and no idea where to go form there. Instead of playing ignorant for the sake of the conversation like good host does, it seems that he tries genuinely to learn stuff during the interview. His backup strategy is to direct interview into the same set of overly generic questions where the quest has nothing interesting to say. It's kind of irritating. If you compare Lex Friedman to Sean Carrol (they have had same quests in their program) its' clear that Carrol is better prepared and better host. https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/ https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/
  - simplyinfinity 7y ago
    This describes my feeling about Lex's podcast as well. I was watching the interview with Jim Keller and was left dissapointed for the most part of the interview because of - as you said - lack of good follow up questions to presented statements and ideas. It's a shame really. However if you skip trough the first about 30-40 minutes of that same interview, it get's a bit better. Also, thanks for mentioning Sean Carroll's Mindscape Podcast, will check it out for sure.
    - nabla9 7y ago
      I just thought about Jim Keller interview as an example of one of his failed interviews, at least partially failed. Keller had interesting stuff to say but Lex was constantly pushing him into too general or too philosophical direction he was not interested in and had noting to say about. If you get one of the best microprocessor architects into your show, why not focus on that and dig deep.
      - davidivadavid 7y ago
        I don't think many people have the capabilities to "dig deep" on microprocessor architecture with a sparring partner like Jim Keller. And the bulk of the audience probably doesn't have the capabilities to understand such a discussion anyway. Don't get me wrong, I wish they'd talked about deeper details, but that's more like wishing for a Jim Keller book than a realistic interview for a fairly broad audience.
frequentnapper 7y ago
slightly related to this, I read somewhere recently that deep reinforcement learning doesn't really work. Has there been any progress on that front since?
- FartyMcFarter 7y ago
  AlphaGo seemed to work.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    So a digital perfect information game. It's pretty well-accepted that this is a great use case for RL. The question is how much broader the scope is.
- dqpb 7y ago
  It worked for Dota.
- gautamcgoel 7y ago
  I recently attended a panel discussion on machine learning at the ITA workshop. I asked the panel (several distinguished ML profs among them), which idea was most overrated in ML? The answer: deep RL.
- MasterScrat 7y ago
  There's been great success to play video games, initially Atari games and more recently Dota and Starcraft II. Real world achievements are still lacking. Do check the recent advances from Covariant in factories though: https://www.wired.com/story/ai-helps-warehouse-bots-pick-new-skills/ https://www.wired.com/story/ai-helps-warehouse-bots-pick-new...
- sgt101 7y ago
  Well - all I can say is that it works for me! More seriously, I think that it can be challenging to define the "game" or simulation that a DRL system (or any RL) system depends on. Clearly for things like go the game is preset, for the real world, perhaps less so. People have used it vs physical systems like robot hands though. Also, one of the charms of DRL is the cheating that the agents discover, for example catapulting each other over barriers or blocking doors. But in real world scenarios scams that break the rules of the game (imposed by law or physics) are useless, so you have to rewrite your simulators to remove them, and start again.
stevespang 7y ago
My take is that Scott is sort of like the former sports newscaster Howard Cosell. He reports stuff, gives his opinion, but does no original research with Quantum machinery himself. When is UT Austin going to get serious and start performing real research in QC instead of just having guys that "chime in" with their opinions ?

134 points by furcyd 7y ago

Nice video lecture series by scot https://video.ethz.ch/speakers/bernays/2019/7b11b50e-f813-4d26-95e0-616cc350708c.html https://video.ethz.ch/speakers/bernays/2019/7b11b50e-f813-4d...

dang 7y ago

We changed the URL from https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4616 https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4616, which points to this.

retsibsi 7y ago

RSS link for the audio version: https://lexfridman.com/category/ai/feed/ https://lexfridman.com/category/ai/feed/

_Microft 7y ago

In case you did not know yet: there are transcripts for some of videos on Youtube. The transcript is time-stamped, the video will jump to the correct position when clicking a sentence and it loads completely at once, so you can use the in-browser search on it. Open the three-dot-menu below the video content and open the transcript from there.

plesiv 7y ago

Lex Fridman's "AI Podcast" has quickly grown to have one of the best list of guests on any show ever [1] - extremely impressive! [1]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuK...

grindgrind 7y ago
I've been bouncing around the smartie-pants podcasts over the last couple years, started with 'After On', moved to Sean Carroll's Mindscape in the last six months, I will have to add this one to the list.
nabla9 7y ago
His quest list is awesome. Stephen Kotkin interview was really good. His problem is the clear lack of preparation in several interviews. He gets thrown off and loses track just when the interview gets interesting. The momentum dies because he has no good followup questions and no idea where to go form there. Instead of playing ignorant for the sake of the conversation like good host does, it seems that he tries genuinely to learn stuff during the interview. His backup strategy is to direct interview into the same set of overly generic questions where the quest has nothing interesting to say. It's kind of irritating. If you compare Lex Friedman to Sean Carrol (they have had same quests in their program) its' clear that Carrol is better prepared and better host. https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/ https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/
- simplyinfinity 7y ago
  This describes my feeling about Lex's podcast as well. I was watching the interview with Jim Keller and was left dissapointed for the most part of the interview because of - as you said - lack of good follow up questions to presented statements and ideas. It's a shame really. However if you skip trough the first about 30-40 minutes of that same interview, it get's a bit better. Also, thanks for mentioning Sean Carroll's Mindscape Podcast, will check it out for sure.
  - nabla9 7y ago
    I just thought about Jim Keller interview as an example of one of his failed interviews, at least partially failed. Keller had interesting stuff to say but Lex was constantly pushing him into too general or too philosophical direction he was not interested in and had noting to say about. If you get one of the best microprocessor architects into your show, why not focus on that and dig deep.
    - davidivadavid 7y ago
      I don't think many people have the capabilities to "dig deep" on microprocessor architecture with a sparring partner like Jim Keller. And the bulk of the audience probably doesn't have the capabilities to understand such a discussion anyway. Don't get me wrong, I wish they'd talked about deeper details, but that's more like wishing for a Jim Keller book than a realistic interview for a fairly broad audience.

frequentnapper 7y ago

slightly related to this, I read somewhere recently that deep reinforcement learning doesn't really work. Has there been any progress on that front since?

FartyMcFarter 7y ago
AlphaGo seemed to work.
- ghaff 7y ago
  So a digital perfect information game. It's pretty well-accepted that this is a great use case for RL. The question is how much broader the scope is.
dqpb 7y ago
It worked for Dota.
gautamcgoel 7y ago
I recently attended a panel discussion on machine learning at the ITA workshop. I asked the panel (several distinguished ML profs among them), which idea was most overrated in ML? The answer: deep RL.
MasterScrat 7y ago
There's been great success to play video games, initially Atari games and more recently Dota and Starcraft II. Real world achievements are still lacking. Do check the recent advances from Covariant in factories though: https://www.wired.com/story/ai-helps-warehouse-bots-pick-new-skills/ https://www.wired.com/story/ai-helps-warehouse-bots-pick-new...
sgt101 7y ago
Well - all I can say is that it works for me! More seriously, I think that it can be challenging to define the "game" or simulation that a DRL system (or any RL) system depends on. Clearly for things like go the game is preset, for the real world, perhaps less so. People have used it vs physical systems like robot hands though. Also, one of the charms of DRL is the cheating that the agents discover, for example catapulting each other over barriers or blocking doors. But in real world scenarios scams that break the rules of the game (imposed by law or physics) are useless, so you have to rewrite your simulators to remove them, and start again.

stevespang 7y ago

My take is that Scott is sort of like the former sports newscaster Howard Cosell. He reports stuff, gives his opinion, but does no original research with Quantum machinery himself. When is UT Austin going to get serious and start performing real research in QC instead of just having guys that "chime in" with their opinions ?