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Category Archives: Controversies and debates
Dream a Little Dream: Quantum Computer Poetry for the Skeptics (Part II, The Classics)
Quantum poetry for the skeptics had long roots, and, also here, Peter Shor along with Jennifer Shor had a pioneering role. Volker Strassen’s response is the earliest poem known to me on the skeptics’ side. We will start with Jennifer … Continue reading
Amy Triumphs* at the Shtetl
It was not until the 144th comment by a participants named Amy on Scott’s Aaronson recent Shtetl-optimized** post devoted to a certain case of sexual harassment at M. I. T. that the discussion turned into something quite special. Amy’s great … Continue reading
Posted in Controversies and debates, Women in science
Tagged Amy, feminism, Shtetl-optimized
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Test your Intuition/Knowledge: What was Lord Kelvin’s Main Mistake?
The age of the earth (Thanks to Yeshu Kolodny) We now know that the age of the earth is 4.54±1% Billion years. From Wikipedea: In 1862, the physicist William Thomson (who later became Lord Kelvin) of Glasgow published calculations that … Continue reading
Posted in Controversies and debates, Geology, Physics, Test your intuition
Tagged Earth, Geology, Lord Kelvin, Test your intuition
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My Quantum Debate with Aram III
This is the third and last post giving a timeline and some non technical highlights from my debate with Aram Harrow. Where were we After Aram Harrow and I got in touch in June 2011, and decided to have … Continue reading
My Quantum Debate with Aram II
This is the second of three posts giving few of the non-technical highlights of my debate with Aram Harrow. (part I) After Aram Harrow and I got in touch in June 2011, and decided to have a blog debate about … Continue reading
My Quantum Debate with Aram Harrow: Timeline, Non-technical Highlights, and Flashbacks I
How the debate came about (Email from Aram Harrow, June 4, 2011) Dear Gil Kalai, I am a quantum computing researcher, and was wondering about a few points in your paper… (Aram’s email was detailed and thoughtful and at the … Continue reading
Meeting with Aram Harrow, and my Lecture on Why Quantum Computers Cannot Work.
Last Friday, I gave a lecture at the quantum information seminar at MIT entitled “Why quantum computers cannot work and how.” It was a nice event with lovely participation during the talk, and a continued discussion after it. Many very … Continue reading
The Quantum Debate is Over! (and other Updates)
Quid est noster computationis mundus? Nine months after is started, (much longer than expected,) and after eight posts on GLL, (much more than planned,) and almost a thousand comments of overall good quality, from quite a few participants, my … Continue reading
Combinatorics and more 