Grading Trudeau on quantum computing • Hacker News Board

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#51

Post by godzillabrennus » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 4:43 PM UTC

stevehiehn wrote: post #20

I 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.

Imagine for a second that your roles were reversed and you were the politician who knew a lot about science, engineering and technology. Now it's your job to lead a nation, one of the worlds leading armed forces (yes Canada knows how to fight) and are responsible for trade policies that Impact all your constituents. Suddenly a terror group in > bombs a mall. How much do you know about the ethnic groups in > and what would your response be? Should you invade? What would happen if that government failed? Can you do startegic strikes? Hell, what do you do to prevent another bombing?

I mean, it'd be great if our leaders all had a better understanding of STEM but Herbert Hoover was an engineer and it's wife's accepted that his economic policies deepened the Great Depression.

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#52

Post by oliwary » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 4:44 PM UTC

sn41 wrote: post #18

wrong_variable wrote: post #10

Damn, the Canadians must be so proud to have such an awesome leader. video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZBLSjF56S8

Yes, this is a great achievement. But there are precedents - the Singapore PM is a Senior Wrangler [1], a former Indian president was a rocket scientist [2] - oh, and some nasty fellow in the middle east was an ophthalmologist in London [3], lest we forget. I believe technical competence is uncorrelated to adminisitrative effectiveness. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hsien_Loong [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…

And, as someone mentioned above, Angela Merkel is a physical chemist and has earned a doctorate in Quantum Chemistry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel#Early_life_and_e...

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#53

Post by danbruc » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 4:45 PM UTC

khnd wrote: post #40

danbruc wrote: post #35

I 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.

This is probably pretty country specific, I just looked up which proportion of people in Germany reaches the qualification to enter university, about 50%, and calculus is mandatory on that way, differential and integral. But I ignored that this proportion increased over time, it was only 22% in 1980. So let's call it a quarter of the population or make the differentiate or explain something about plate tectonics.

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#54

Post by k-mcgrady » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 4:50 PM UTC

Walkman wrote: post #2

Someone on FB speculated that it was a trick just for this video: > the person asking the question probably works for Trudeau and Trudeau had previously memorized the whole quantum explanation just for this video. and after reading an article about this claimed that: > Trudeau had actually learned the definition of quantum computing that very morning before this conference and admitted to the fact. Source: https://ww…

Your source seems to be a random Facebook comment who quotes a source but does not link to it. Any actual evidence?

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#55

Post by jszymborski » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 4:51 PM UTC

bsbechtel wrote: post #50

jszymborski wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is true, it's better to pretend to know about Quantum Computing than to pretend evolution isn't a thing...

To play devil's advocate, pretending to know about Quantum Computing, or any highly technical subject, when applying for a job is extremely misleading. This isn't too different.

This is politics. The point here is that Trudeau can't pretend to know about QC and then make huge cuts to science without it being terrible optics. It's easier to go with a Palin/Trump stance of "science is sometimes right, but often wrong, especially when it's inconveniently opposed to my policy" when you plan to defund science.

After the last Canadian PM took a hatchet to non-energy sector science funding, this and other recent trips to science centres like the McGill Neurological Institute, is about bridge building with the Canadian public.

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#56

Post by James001 » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 4:53 PM UTC

Jesus... I was hoping atleast HN wouldn't give Trudeau a press blowjob. I'm from Canada and he is the most incompetent PM we've ever had. If you want to know what the future has for Canada with him as PM, look no further than the most indebted sub-sovereign in the world: Ontario. These guys are corrupt as fuck

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#57

Post by James001 » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 4:53 PM UTC

rectang wrote: post #6

Even if Trudeau learned the definition the morning of, it speaks well of his background in engineering and math that he was able to assimilate such information and reformulate it coherently. Presenting a technical subject at just the right level of sophistication for a given audience is an invigorating intellectual exercise.

Jesus... I was hoping atleast HN wouldn't give Trudeau a press blowjob. I'm from Canada and he is the most incompetent PM we've ever had. If you want to know what the future has for Canada with him as PM, look no further than the most indebted sub-sovereign in the world: Ontario. These guys are corrupt as fuck

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#58

Post by goblinking » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 5:00 PM UTC

trudeau just smoke weed all day and surf reddit... probably /r/atheist. of course he has some half arsed explanation about everything.

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#59

Post by dnautics » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 5:03 PM UTC

bcook wrote: post #45

dnautics wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American I would be far more concerned about a leader who knows little and makes airs of knowing more than an intelligent leader who dumbs themself down... The latter has an outside shot at being wise; the former has an outside shot at being dangerous .

Thank you for eloquently expressing what I was trying to say. I am unsure why fakery, even if said fakery is "good", is encouraged. "Fake it 'til you make it" is an individual endeavor, not a mantra that the leaders of a populace should embrace, I assume.

the leaders of a populace have arguably already "made it"

Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing

#60

Post by justin66 » Sun, Apr 17, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

dnautics wrote: post #38

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

Strictly speaking, I think he was reviled because the rescue attempt came late and didn't work. He made a joke within the last year - when announcing his cancer diagnosis, I think - about how he'd have been reelected if he had sent a few more helicopters on that mission, and that that would have been a mixed blessing for him personally. Both points were true, I think.

(no idea why you were downvoted)