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The Blog of Scott Aaronson
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Toward a non-constant cancellation function
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8654
Published: February 11, 2025 20:13
It now seems the switch of Cancel Culture has only two settings: How could we possibly draw any line between these two extremes? Wouldn’t that require … judgment? Common sense? Consideration of the facts of individual cases? I, of course, survived…
“If you’re not a woke communist, you have nothing to fear,” they claimed
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8638
Published: February 8, 2025 19:58
Part of me feels bad not to have written for weeks about quantum error-correction or BQP or QMA or even the new Austin-based startup that launched a “quantum computing dating app” (which, before anyone asks, is 100% as gimmicky and pointless as it sounds).…
The duty of stating the obvious
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8636
Published: February 5, 2025 14:49
1. Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” Gaza and expel its inhabitants is, like nearly everything else Trump has said and done over the past two weeks and indeed the past decade, completely batshit insane. 2. As with countless other Trump proposals,…
Hymn to be recited for the next thousand mornings
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8624
Published: February 2, 2025 21:12
A few years ago, scientists feared they’d lose their jobs if they said anything against diversity programs. I was against that. Now scientists fear they’ll lose their jobs if they say anything for diversity programs. I’m against that too. A few years ago,…
The American science funding catastrophe
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8609
Published: January 31, 2025 02:43
It’s been almost impossible to get reliable information this week, but here’s what my sources are telling me: There is still a complete freeze on money being disbursed from the US National Science Foundation. Well, there’s total chaos in the federal…
Good news for once! A faster Quantum Fourier Transform
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8593
Published: January 23, 2025 18:58
In my last post, I tried to nudge the arc of history back onto the narrow path of reasoned dialogue, walking the mile-high tightrope between shrill, unsupported accusation and naïve moral blindness. For my trouble, I was condemned about equally by leftists…
Open letter to any Shtetl-Optimized readers who know Elon
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8591
Published: January 21, 2025 20:30
Did Elon Musk make a Nazi salute? Well, not exactly. As far as I can tell, the truth is that he recklessly and repeatedly made a hand gesture that the world’s millions of Nazi sympathizers eagerly misinterpreted as a Nazi salute. He then (the worse part)…
The mini-singularity
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8583
Published: January 20, 2025 23:46
Err, happy MLK Day! This week represents the convergence of so many plotlines that, if it were the season finale of some streaming show, I’d feel like the writers had too many balls in the air. For the benefit of the tiny part of the world that cares what…
Above my pay grade: Jensen Huang and the quantum computing stock market crash
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8567
Published: January 9, 2025 21:58
Apparently Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, opined on an analyst call this week that quantum computing was plausibly still twenty years away from being practical. As a direct result, a bunch of publicly-traded quantum computing companies (including IonQ,…
The Google Willow thing
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8525
Published: December 10, 2024 16:10
Yesterday I arrived in Santa Clara for the Q2B (Quantum 2 Business) conference, which starts this morning, and where I’ll be speaking Thursday on “Quantum Algorithms in 2024: How Should We Feel?” and also closing the conference via an Ask-Us-Anything…
Podcasts!
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8520
Published: December 4, 2024 21:31
Do you like watching me spout about AI alignment, watermarking, my time at OpenAI, the P versus NP problem, quantum computing, consciousness, Penrose’s views on physics and uncomputability, university culture, wokeness, free speech, my academic trajectory,…
Thanksgiving
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8506
Published: November 28, 2024 18:29
I’m thankful to the thousands of readers of this blog. Well, not the few submit troll comments from multiple pseudonymous handles, but the 99.9% who don’t. I’m thankful that they’ve stayed here even when events (as they do more and more often) send me…
Letter to a Jewish voter in Pennsylvania
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8458
Published: November 4, 2024 04:43
Important Announcement: I don’t in any way endorse voting for Jill Stein, or any other third-party candidate. But if you are a Green Party supporter who lives in a swing state, then please at least vote for Harris, and use SwapYourVote.org to arrange for…