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I'd love to know how many people in the world actually understand quantum computing with reasonable depth. My bet is less than 500. I will be the first to confe

I'd love to know how many people in the world actually understand quantum computing with reasonable depth. My bet is less than 500. I will be the first to confess that I have no idea what they are talking about most of the time.

bdhe 15y ago
Here are a couple of articles on the announcement by Scott Aaronson and Dave Bacon (professors at MIT and U Washington). http://blogs.forbes.com/alexknapp/2011/05/24/q-and-a-with-prof-scott-aaronson-on-d-waves-quantum-computer/ http://blogs.forbes.com/alexknapp/2011/05/24/q-and-a-with-pr... http://www.quora.com/Is-the-D-Wave-One-a-true-quantum-computer http://www.quora.com/Is-the-D-Wave-One-a-true-quantum-comput...
- bmohlenhoff 15y ago
  Scott Aaronson is basically THE go-to guy for anything involving complexity theory or quantum computing. His explanations are phenomenal and his blog is usually full of easily understood information. He posted something a few weeks ago about the D-wave situation and pointed to that article he did for Forbes. http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=639 http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=639
  - Locke1689 15y ago
    I wouldn't say Aaronson is the premier expert on computational complexity. That would probably be Lance Fortnow who literally writes the blog on computational complexity (http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/ http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/). RJ Lipton is pretty notable, as well http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/ http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/.
    - count 15y ago
      He didn't suggest Aaronson was the premier expert, he suggested he was the best person to go to for clear, easy to understand explanations (such as in the Forbes piece linked). These are completely different things.
  - bdhe 15y ago
    In that vein, I highly recommend his lectures titled "Quantum Computing Since Democritus". His notes are amazingly written: http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/ http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/ and largely cover complexity theory from the ground up (not just quantum computing as the title suggests). His lecture on the Anthropic Principle also makes interesting reading.
Dabacon 15y ago
The worldwide community of quantum computing researchers is probably around a couple thousand. p.s. your namesake is one of them http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Cross_A/0/1/0/all/0/1 http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Cross_A/0/1/0/all/0/1

bdhe 15y ago

Here are a couple of articles on the announcement by Scott Aaronson and Dave Bacon (professors at MIT and U Washington). http://blogs.forbes.com/alexknapp/2011/05/24/q-and-a-with-prof-scott-aaronson-on-d-waves-quantum-computer/ http://blogs.forbes.com/alexknapp/2011/05/24/q-and-a-with-pr... http://www.quora.com/Is-the-D-Wave-One-a-true-quantum-computer http://www.quora.com/Is-the-D-Wave-One-a-true-quantum-comput...

bmohlenhoff 15y ago
Scott Aaronson is basically THE go-to guy for anything involving complexity theory or quantum computing. His explanations are phenomenal and his blog is usually full of easily understood information. He posted something a few weeks ago about the D-wave situation and pointed to that article he did for Forbes. http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=639 http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=639
- Locke1689 15y ago
  I wouldn't say Aaronson is the premier expert on computational complexity. That would probably be Lance Fortnow who literally writes the blog on computational complexity (http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/ http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/). RJ Lipton is pretty notable, as well http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/ http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/.
  - count 15y ago
    He didn't suggest Aaronson was the premier expert, he suggested he was the best person to go to for clear, easy to understand explanations (such as in the Forbes piece linked). These are completely different things.
- bdhe 15y ago
  In that vein, I highly recommend his lectures titled "Quantum Computing Since Democritus". His notes are amazingly written: http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/ http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/ and largely cover complexity theory from the ground up (not just quantum computing as the title suggests). His lecture on the Anthropic Principle also makes interesting reading.

Dabacon 15y ago

The worldwide community of quantum computing researchers is probably around a couple thousand. p.s. your namesake is one of them http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Cross_A/0/1/0/all/0/1 http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Cross_A/0/1/0/all/0/1