I 've read this story in so many places. It's "good comedy", and I like the guy, but he used it to gain some popularity points (he seems to be good at that in general). I bet Angela Merkel could easily beat him in anything quantum, but what is the point? We should expect world leaders to have these abilities.
Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
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Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#32It seems like we know the Prime Minister's position on this but we just can't tell how he's moving on it.
Well the Trudeau government just earmarked 50 million for five years to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#33I think the take-away here is not what so much what PM Trudeau knows or doesn't know about quantum computing. It reveals how low our expectations are of our leaders.
I don't know for sure, but I think it is reasonable to assume Jimmy Carter knows a fair bit about quantum mechanics.
And is thus reviled in retrospect by the US public for being too smart.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#34I think the take-away here is not what so much what PM Trudeau knows or doesn't know about quantum computing. It reveals how low our expectations are of our leaders.
Agreed. But... Honestly I love Justin but I couldn't care less if he understood quantum computing. As long as he has the sense to surround himself with the right people . JFK probably didn't know a single thing about the science of getting to the moon, if you catch my drift. i.e., I don't think our expectations ought to be much different, and not expecting a politician to understand quantum computing isn't a 'low expectation' to me.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#35I think that story gets blown way out of proportion. If you picked random people on a street and asked them to integrate 4x³ from 0 to 2, you would maybe get somewhere between 1% and 10% correct answers, probably way closer to 1%. Still this is something that maybe half of the people once learned how to do in school, they just forget it because they don't need it in everyday life. But spend an hour or two and you can certainly teach them once again how to do it. And most of them will of course also forget it again pretty soon. Along the same line it shouldn't be to hard to give someone a rough idea of the difference between classical and quantum mechanics, notwithstanding that most people will pretty soon only have faint memories.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#36I'm wondering if massive bacterial computation will beat quantum computing on tasks like factorizing large integers.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/jul/24/bacteri...
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#37It seems like we know the Prime Minister's position on this but we just can't tell how he's moving on it.
This was at a press conference at the Perimiter Institute to announce $50 million in funding for Quantum Information projects
Edit: in defence of completely missing the joke, I can only offer that I haven't had coffee yet today
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know for sure, but I think it is reasonable to assume Jimmy Carter knows a fair bit about quantum mechanics.
And is thus reviled in retrospect by the US public for being too smart.
Carter isn't generally reviled for being too smart. The number one thing that he's reviled for (maybe unfairly) is planning and botching a hostage rescue attempt that turned out to be pointless later when the hostages were freed by their captors.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#39To me, he's sending a huge message that science is valued, not denied. And it's inspiring, which I think is one of the PM's jobs.
So what's the reporter's next question? "When will Canada start dropping quantum bombs on ISIL?" =(
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#40I think that story gets blown way out of proportion. If you picked random people on a street and asked them to integrate 4x³ from 0 to 2, you would maybe get somewhere between 1% and 10% correct answers, probably way closer to 1%. Still this is something that maybe half of the people once learned how to do in school, they just forget it because they don't need it in everyday life. But spend an hour or two and you can…
i think "half the people" is an overestimate. i don't think most people learn integration in school. i'd be surprised if half learn differential calculus.