Talking Truth to Parallelism at Cornell

This week I was at my place of graduation, Cornell, to give a discussion at the 50th celebration festival of its software engineering division. You can watch the streaming feature here; my discussion runs from around 1:17:30 to 1:56 (however in the event that you've seen other unpredictability/material science/cleverness indicates by me, this one is really comparable, with the exception of the riff about Cornell at the starting). 

The other two things in that feature a discussion by Tom Henzinger about IST Austria, a strong new fundamental exploration organize that he heads, nearly displayed after the Weizmann Institute in Israel; and a talk board about the fate of programming dialects are additionally truly intriguing and worth viewing. There was loads of other great stuff at this workshop, including a discussion about Google Glass and its applications to photography (by, as anyone might expect, a gentleman wearing a Google Glass—Marc Levoy); a board exchange with three Turing Award champs, Juris Hartmanis, John Hopcroft, and Ed Clarke, about the beginning of Cornell's CS division; a discussion by Amit Singhal, Google's chief of pursuit; a discussion about differential security by Cynthia Dwork, one of the main specialists at the as of late shut Microsoft SVC lab (with a strong and enthusiastic completion); and a discussion by my lab executive at MIT, Daniela Rus, about her examination in apply autonomy. 

Alongside the 50th commemoration festival, Bill Gates was additionally on yard to commit Bill and Melinda Gates Hall, the new home of Cornell's CS division. Click here for streaming feature of a Q&a that Gates did with Cornell understudies, where I thought he cleared himself well, saying numerous sensible things in regards to training, the creating scene, and so on that other keen individuals could likewise say, yet that have additional gravitas originating from him. Doors has additionally gotten to be greatly successful at wrapping points of truth inside a delicate cross section of politically-pleasant maxims yet listen precisely and you'll hear the spikes. The measure of ceremony and arrangement around Gates' visit helped me to remember when President Obama went by MIT, befitting the two men's pretty nearly equivalent force. (Obama has atomic weapons, however of course, he additionally has Congress.) 

Also no, I didn't get to meet Gates or shake his hand, however I did get to remained around ten feet from him at the Gates Hall commitment. (He clearly invested a large portion of his time at Cornell meeting with plant raisers, and other individuals doing things applicable to the Gates Foundation's premiums.) 

Much obliged such a great amount to Bobby and Jon Kleinberg, and others who welcomed me to this phenomenal occasion and helped get it going. May Cornell's CS division have an extraordinary next 50 years. 

One final comment before I close this post. A few perusers have communicated objection and befuddlement over the proposed title of my next book, "Talking Truth to Parallelism."  In the expressions of commentator Tonyk: 

That has became the most noticeably bad title ever! "Talking Truth to Parallelism"? It doesn't even bode well! I consider myself one of your fans, Scott, yet you're going to need to show improvement over that on the off chance that you need any other individual to purchase your book. I know you can improve — witness "Quantum Computing Since Democritus". 

In any case, my encounters at Cornell this week served to persuade me that, not just does "Talking Truth to Parallelism" bode well, its an action that is required now like never before. What it means, obviously, is battling a certain credulous, long-prior exposed perspective of quantum machines in particular, that they would attain exponential speedups by essentially "attempting each conceivable reply in parallel"—that is ended up so settled in the personalities of numerous writers, laypeople, and even researchers from different fields that it has a craving for nothing you say can conceivably oust it. The words out of your mouth will truly be disregarded, misheard, or even distorted to the inverse of what they mean, if that is the thing that it takes to protect the audience's misguided judgment about quantum machines having the capacity to comprehend NP-hard streamlining issues by sheer enchantment. (Much like in the Simpsons-visit-Australia scene, where Marge's appeal for "espresso" is misheard again and again as "brew.")  You likely think I'm misrepresenting, and I'd concur with you—on the off chance that I hadn't accomplished this marvel many times in the course of the most recent

Thanks a lot to http://www.scottaaronson.com for having this excerpt

Quantum mechanics QM

Quantum mechanics QM is a branch of physics which deals with physical phenomena at microscopic scales, where the action is on the order of the Planck Constant. Quantum mechanics deviates from classical mechanics mainly at the quantum realm of atomic and subatomic length scales. Quantum mechanics offers a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. Quantum mechanics is the non-relativistic limit of Quantum Field Theory (QFT), a theory that was built up later that united Quantum Mechanics with Relativity Theory.

Quantum mechanics is the body of scientific values that elucidates the behavior of matter and its interactions with energy on the scale of atoms and subatomic particles and how these happenings could be linked to daily life.

Quantum

In physics, a quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. Behind this, one finds the fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized," referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude can take on only certain discrete values. There is a related term of quantum number. An example of an entity that is quantized is the energy transfer of elementary particles of matter through bosons and of photons.

A photon is a single quantum of light, and is referred to as a "light quantum". The energy of an electron bound to an atom is said to be quantized, which results in the stability of atoms, and of matter in general. As incorporated into the theory of quantum mechanics, this is regarded by physicists as part of the fundamental framework for understanding and describing nature at the infinitesimal level.

Normally quanta are considered to be discrete packets with energy stored in them. Max Planck considered these quanta to be particles that can change their form. This phenomenon can be observed in the case of black body radiation, when it is being heated and cooled.

Moxie

Moxie is a carbonated beverage that was one of the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It continues to be regionally popular today.
Moxie has a unique flavor that is not as sweet as that of most modern soft drinks and that is described by some as "bitter."
Moxie is closely associated with the state of Maine and was designated the official soft drink of Maine on May 10, 2005. Its creator, Dr. Augustin Thompson, was born in Union, Maine.

Doctors without physics…

In what is an absurd suggestion, Ezekial Emanuel has suggested that medical schools cease requiring physics, organic chemistry, and calculus for incoming students, arguing that doctors never use those subjects in the daily practice of medicine. It is hard to overstate the absurdity of this suggestion. On the one hand, even if his claim was true (which it is not), the critical thinking skills one learns in those three classes, especially physics, are invaluable. As a colleague of mine argued yesterday, if you can make it through those courses, statistics and ethics ought to be a breeze (not to imply those courses are cakewalks, but that physics, organic chemistry, and calculus are excellent preparation).

Aside from that, his claim is just patently false. With advances in medical technology increasingly more complex it seems ridiculous for future doctors not to have a basic understanding of the principles behind this technology. Well-established equipment such as NMR and MRI require a knowledge of basic physics if one is to understand them properly. This is aside from the very basic knowledge of mechanics that just might be useful for kinesiology, orthopedics, etc. And how are doctors going to properly communicate with the physicists and engineers who are attempting to develop new technologies? Take, for example, the cover story for this month’s Physics Today discussing advances in prosthetics. At the very least, having had a course in physics, doctors working with physicists and engineers should be able to speak their language. And if there was any doubt about the importance of this, most hospitals now employ physicists in radiology departments and it is possible to obtain a degree in Medical Physics.

Besides, whatever happened to learning for its own sake?

Autumnal Greetings, The Quantum Times, and a Random Thought

Welcome to autumn here in the northern hemisphere of the home planet! OK, that sounds like it’s out of a bad sci-fi flick or something. Nonetheless, for yours truly who lives in Maine, Autumn brings one of the most awesome times of the year – colorful leaves, brisk temperatures with mostly sunny skies, apple picking, the Fryeburg Fair, and my favorite holiday, Halloween!

Since September is coming to a close, I am about to put together the next issue of The Quantum Times and would welcome any suggestions for potential articles or notices for inclusion. You can post them here or send me an e-mail at idurham(at)anselm(dot)edu.

And finally a random thought I’m working on: time is nothing more than a statistical phenomenon related to the second law of thermodynamics which is really just a physical manifestation of the law of large numbers and any violation of Bell’s inequalities violates the second law. Comment away…

Welcome!

Well, for those of you (all two of you) who read The New American Whig, my former blog, I have decided to reduce the politics and ramp up the quantum mechanics and physics in general (which is my everyday passion). Politics just gets depressing after awhile whereas physics is almost always exciting! Though my students would perhaps disagree…

So, without further ado, here is Quantum Moxie: quantum mechanics with an attitude.