Scott Aaronson Explores Quantum Computing & Complexity Theory | Philosophical Trials #6 🔍

Scott Aaronson is a world-renowned expert in the fields of Quantum Computing and Computational Complexity Theory. He is a David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin. Prof. Aaronson is known by most computing enthusiasts for his extremely clear and engaging way of communicating difficult theoretical ideas. His book 'Quantum Computing since Democritus' is a wonderful resource of dipping into the topics that we are discussing in this episode.

Conversation outline:

00:00 Introduction
01:04 What draws you to Philosophy?
04:36 The importance of focusing of subproblems of the big questions: insights into space, time and thinking machines
09:19 The Turing Test and the chinese room argument
15:37 What other philosophical areas would benefit from looking at Complexity Theory?
21:35 What is Computational Complexity after all?
30:03 NP, complexity classes and the P=NP problem
45:27 Complexity Theory in light of time and memory limitations
52:24 Why do we believe in Quantum Theory?
55:36 What is Quantum Computing?
01:05:45 How are qubits physically implemented?
01:11:14 Quantum Supremacy
01:13:26 Would the construction of a quantum computer which could run Shor’s algorithm confirm the many-worlds interpretation? Remarks on David Deutsch’s quantum views.

Enjoy!

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