Jealous much?
Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
91–100 of 128 posts
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#92Jealous much?
:)
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, the amazing thing in the article you linked is that bacteria colonies can solve complex mathematical problems at all . No one said they will be faster than other classical computers. If you like to read about this kind of problems: Many of Scott Aaronson's other post are about the limits of efficient computation. If you are interested especially in the limits of alternative approaches like protein folding, analog…
Well, thanks for the link, but I meant "faster" in the sense of being the first to provide a practical solution. By the way, I'm assuming that with bacterial computing, it (somehow) becomes simple to exponentially duplicate your computation building blocks.
Once the bacteria reach some limit of saturation, they can only multiply as fast as they can geographically spread to new area. If they have some maximum speed of physical spread, then that limits them to a maximum speed of n^2 in two dimensions, or n^3 in three dimensions. If you think they're going to keep up exponential growth long enough to make a difference, that implies that you think they'll spread faster and faster across the lab, like a bad movie.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#94In Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy the job of the galactic president, Zaphod Beeblebrox, is described as being "not to wield power but to draw attention away from it". Trudeau really reminds me of this quote quite a bit.
In terms of traditional metrics of performance, Trudeau was heavily outclassed in leader debates during the last election. He demonstrated almost no ability to address questions directly and instead resorted to pre-rehearsed sound-bytes for nearly everything, often on topics not even tangentially related to what was being discussed. His inability to stay on topic actually let the encumbent PM off of particularly vicious hooks on more than one occasion. However, those sound-bytes sounded great when taken out of context and chopped up into bits for news broadcasts, even if they were somewhat baffling to the very few people who apparently tuned into the full debates and paid attention to how well answers addressed questions. That election probably lowered the bar for quality discourse in Canadian politics by quite a bit. Next election, everyone is going to be talking in sound-bytes. We might as well just have debates on twitter, you know, "because it's 2019" or whatever the year will be.
Ever since the election, Trudeau hasn't stopped campaigning. Vogue photo spreads. Dining at the white-house. Touring the country. While the previous PM was almost a shut-in, Trudeau is tireless in his press appearances. It's almost as if somebody else is actually running the country and he's, well, distracting the public's eye.
When pressed, Trudeau does have a tendency to promise the moon to just about anyone though. He's been racking up unfulfillable promises left, right, and center. No doubt he left Obama with some pretty wild promises too. This could eventually come crashing down on him but, for now, the honeymoon is still going pretty strong. Most Canadians love having a glamorous PM and the international attention that brings. Would HN be upvoting this story if it was Stephan Dion or Stephen Harper trying to teach QM?
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think any meaningful correlation can be drawn from what a head-of-state or high ranking politician studied in college or where they went to college to their aptitude/competence for governance. Our last two presidents have professional degrees from the same institution (Harvard) and they do not govern in the same fashion in most areas other than counter-terrorism. China also doesn't choose it's politicians via…
First of all, in the world scheme President Obama and President Bush are quite close together in their governing strategies and policies. That's the nature of the kind of politician we elect in the United States. However, it extends far beyond the head of state. All levels of government in Chinese government are dominated by engineers instead of lawyers or career politicians. > However, this doesn't really reflect on…
I don't agree that Bush and Obama share governing strategies. For example GWB was very comfortable out-sourcing large problems to his lieutenants, whereas Obama seems to do it only if he feels it'd result in a better outcome if he wasn't personally involved. Items such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the VP/Rumsfeld, Mortgage crisis to Paulson/Bernanke, etc... Contrast this to Obama where he held multiple cabinet meetings with regard troop levels in Afghanistan early in his presidency. On foreign policy they also differ where GWB seemed to be very decisive (or overly depending on who you ask). Whereas Obama to this day exercises extreme caution, at least publicly. I could cite a lot of examples, but of course this is more the realm of opinion.
On my somewhat poorly worded point about engineers on average being less interpersonal than a typical lawyer/mba. I don't view such attributes negatively; my intention was to point out that engineers' day-to-day jobs don't normally involve work oriented social interaction with people they don't know(i.e. someone other than their team). Putting it another way a lawyer/manager without strong interpersonal skills has a lower career ceiling than an engineer with personality trait. Thus it isn't unreasonable to assume said fields attract different types of people. Thus governance being a partial function of what subject someone opted for in school would in my opinion act as a very small variable in contrast to why X person choose said subject.
> Of course it does. We even have a word for it: technocracy.
It's an apples to oranges comparison if it's China(or Singapore) vs. the U.S. The governments of the former don't have anything close to real representation for it's people(More China than Singapore), thus the policy makers don't have to seriously consider popular opinion outside of keeping the populace from revolting, which is a far cry from the American system where an individual politician can be unseated within a short time frame.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#96Trudeau did complete two years of engineering at a decent school and worked as a math teacher. While we don't know if he was prepped or regurgitated a paragraph, he probably has the faculties and interest to have a general understanding of what he was talking about. Oftentimes it's easier to actually learn something than to cheat convincingly.
I can't seem to find much information with regards to his time studying engineering at Montreal. One article (albeit, the Toronto Sun so take it with a grain of salt) claims he dropped out. And I can't find anything that mentions what type of engineering he studied. It does seem a bit strange to go from studying English Literature, to becoming a teacher, to suddenly studying engineering before switching to environmen…
He studied mechanical engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, which is on the same campus as Université de Montréal. He did not complete his degree and left to pursue a master in geography at McGill. [1]
[1] Article is in french, sorry. http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/politique/2012/10/01/00...
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, here's the original Steven's quote. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE He was mocked more at the time for the email bit, namely the idea that the reason why he didn't get his email for 4 days was because of people streaming videos on the internet. However, it's not clear that he had a good understanding of the analogy himself (I'm sure that revisionists like Mr. Blow, who do understand how the internet…
>Given this, it's really not clear at all what "it's not a truck, it's a series of tubes" is supposed to clarify. I always assumed that was distinguishing between "quantized" and continuous network systems. That is, adding one more load to a truck ("just dump"ing something on it), one more person to a bus, doesn't make the roads any more congested, but trying to send one more gallon of water through a pipe system wil…
> but trying to send one more gallon of water through a pipe system.
If you actually forced an additional gallon of water into a pipe, you make everything flow out faster.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Given this, it's really not clear at all what "it's not a truck, it's a series of tubes" is supposed to clarify. I always assumed that was distinguishing between "quantized" and continuous network systems. That is, adding one more load to a truck ("just dump"ing something on it), one more person to a bus, doesn't make the roads any more congested, but trying to send one more gallon of water through a pipe system wil…
> but trying to send one more gallon of water through a pipe system. If you actually forced an additional gallon of water into a pipe, you make everything flow out faster.
Right but the relevant user action here would be turning on a faucet, which slows things down for everyone else.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Sounds like a non-issue. How many of today's "policy heads" would know anything about the situation on the ground of that hypothetical nation? I personally think anybody with sufficient STEM background has a higher chance of assimilating and interpreting policy knowledge than pure policy-heads. You'll find plenty of Physics students with whom you can have an advanced policy or philosophy discussion, but I've never me…
Well sure, plenty of physics students are willing to engage in an advanced policy discussion, but once you tell them that you will not assume the country is a sphere they have a lot less to offer.
Re: Grading Trudeau on quantum computing
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
I think I'm politically on pretty much the opposite side of Carter's "official position", but I would squarely put Carter in the top quarter of American Presidents (for reference, he beats out Polk, whom I appreciate quite a bit, I put Obama hovering about 50% and FDR and Wilson competing for the very bottom). Obviously, the whole affair was botched on many levels, but in the grand scheme of the Carter presidency it…
Wow! FDR at the bottom, below Buchanan, Harding, Fillmore, Pierce, and GW Bush. I shudder to think what your political views are.