I'll offer a crash course on quantum computing, which seeks to exploit
the strange rules of quantum physics to solve certain problems
dramatically faster than we know how to solve them with any existing
computer. I promise no hype: just a a sober summary of how a quantum
computer would actually work (hint: it's not just by "trying every
possible answer in parallel"), for which problems quantum computers
are and aren't expected to provide an advantage, and the current
status of the worldwide effort to make quantum computing
practical---and even more immediately, to achieve the first
demonstration of "quantum supremacy," or a clear quantumspeedup for
some task (which might be a contrived one). I'll also say something
about the ultimate physical limits of computation, and about
speculative proposals for going beyond even quantum computers.
Biography: Scott Aaronson is the David J. Bruton Centennial Professor
of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. He received
his bachelor's from Cornell University and his PhD from UC Berkeley,
and did postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study
as well as the University of Waterloo. Before coming to UT Austin, he
spent nine years as a professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science at MIT. Aaronson's research in theoretical computer science
has focused mainly on the capabilities and limits of quantum
computers. His first book, Quantum Computing Since Democritus, was
published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press. He's received the
National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award, the United
States PECASE Award, the Vannevar Bush Fellowship, and MIT's Junior
Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching.
