#72 – Scott Aaronson: Quantum Computing

Scott Aaronson is a professor at UT Austin, director of its
Quantum Information Center, and previously a professor at MIT.
His research interests center around the capabilities and limits
of quantum computers and computational complexity theory more
generally.


This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence
podcast. If you would like to get more information
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Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you
should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.


00:00 – Introduction
05:07 – Role of philosophy in science
29:27 – What is a quantum computer?
41:12 – Quantum decoherence (noise in quantum information)
49:22 – Quantum computer engineering challenges
51:00 – Moore’s Law
56:33 – Quantum supremacy
1:12:18 – Using quantum computers to break cryptography
1:17:11 – Practical application of quantum computers
1:22:18 – Quantum machine learning, questionable claims, and
cautious optimism
1:30:53 – Meaning of life