Im fully willing to believe I just don’t “get it” but I took a pretty deep dive into quantum computing and the underlying mechanics and I kind of got the sense (with QC) that nobody really knows what they are talking about. I got this feeling so strongly that stopped studying the topic all together.
I’m probably way off base and I’m probably missing some insights that I could get by going to school or something but that’s was just my experience with the subject.
> I’m probably way off base and I’m probably missing some insights that I could get by going to school
A school would usually teach the "shut up (about philosophy) and calculate" approach. These philosophical problems about the meaning of quantum mechanics have been with us for 100 years, and mainstream physics sees them as too hard or even intractable, and thus as waste of time.
"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics."
--Richard Feynman
You're far from alone. Quantum physics is tricky because it frequently doesn't agree with our physical intuition. Humans are used to dealing with macroscopic objects. They surround us for our whole lives. Matter behaves in surprisingly different ways at the level of single quanta. Seemingly impossible things flop out of the math and then clever experiments show that reality is consistent with the math, but we struggle to reach the point where that reality feels correct. When we try to translate the math into human language, we often wind up overloading words and concepts in a way that can be misleading or even false.
Perhaps we just haven't reached the point where things are sufficiently well explained and simplified, but it may be be that quantum physics will always seem strange and counter-intuitive.
> Quantum physics is tricky because it frequently doesn't agree with our physical intuition.
Quantum physics tricky for two separate reasons.
(i) The mathematical theory (Schrödinger equation, wave function, operators, probabilities) is solid and well-defined, but may feel unintuitive, as you say.
(ii) But quantum mechanics is also an incomplete theory. Even if you learn to be at peace with the unintuitive aspects of the mathematical theory, the measurement problem remains an unsolved problem.
"The Schrödinger equation describes quantum systems but does not describe their measurement."
"Quantum theory offers no dynamical description of the "collapse" of the wave function"
Feynman, a famous man from an older era who tried to inspire, remind, and spur people...
> macroscopic objects
It's not about scale at all though. It's just that small systems tend to be observed with this other, specific property that we associate with causing "quantum" like effects. Not only do those effects happen at mesoscopic scale but aside from gravity, quantum theory already can be and is used to describe things on large scales too. Classical computers and desks are still "quantum" systems. Recently theory and experiments have developed to connect with gravity in many ways. I'm more confused when people say something is mysterious. They're usually referring to apparent randomness but I think even that is explained already with partitions or even just wave math (complementarity).
These debates over the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (i.e. what ultimately happens when a “measurement” takes place) are important but don’t bear on the effectiveness of quantum computing. Regardless of your favorite interpretation (almost) everyone agrees that quantum computers should work and be able to do things classical computers cannot.
> [...] and the underlying mechanics and I kind of got the sense (with QC) that nobody really knows what they are talking about.
The math is fairly well known, and people can successfully apply it. As evidence in eg modern CPUs and GPUs and RAM actually working. And lots of other marvels of modern engineering that requiring an understanding of quantum mechanics to design and engineer.
However, it still doesn't really address the core question of when the collapse actually occurs. All it really seems to add is that the environment is an "observer" and that decoherence actually causes the collapse.
The interpretations of what the math is saying happens a varied and sometimes contradictory.
We can predict what's going to happen extremely well, we just can't tell the story of what's happening. And there's been a century of trying to avoid the weirdness and failing. The problem might just be our brains evolved in a world that behaves so much differently that we can't understand.
Yes but also absolutely not. The evolution of the wavefunction when nobody is looking is unitary, which among other things means it is time-reversible. That math works extremely well and predicts the correct outcome.
When we are measuring a quantum system, the probability distribution of the measurement outcome is described by the Born rule, the amplitude of the wavefunction squared, and the collapse postulate tells us that after the measurement the wave function will be in the measured state, which is a non-unitary and non-time-reversible process. That math works extremely well and predicts the correct outcome.
But - really big but - what is a measurement device but a huge quantum system, what is a measurement but a quantum system and a measurement device and an environment undergoing time evolution? So both descriptions should apply, unitary time evolution and wave function collapse, but that can not be the case because they are incompatible, one is unitary, the other is not. The mathematical description is inconsistent.
I often observe that humans are wired to create causal stories, whether we intend to or not, even in circumstances, we know are false.
A great example involves flipping a coin. Even people who know it's basically an independent 50/50 chance every time get drawn into thinking about "hot streaks" and "overdue for the opposite."
It's arguably a superpower that has given us lots of agriculture and tools and technology and culture, but like hunger and obesity we can't just turn it off when it gets maladaptive.
Humans are very good at pattern matching and explanation and that's what's given us success, but false-positive matches sometimes are the result and need to be corrected down a bit
Funny, I looked into quantum computing and came away knowing pretty well how to use a future quantum computer. The math is pretty straightforward and useful. Now, getting an actual quantum computer with error correction that is scalable... that is still elusive.
Nevertheless, commercial quantum computers exist and do exactly what scientists predicted they would do.
I think the difference is in why you want a forth compiler on the nes. Is it because you want to dig in and learn how a compiler on the nes would work? Or do you want a compiler so you can use it for something else you’re interested in doing? If your goal is the first one, then vibe coding is not going to be a good fit.
In my case it’s because forth is one of the only high-level languages that has a chance of running at a playable speed on the NES, and I just like the language in general.
If you look at old school development manuals for stuff like the C64 your options, to get decent performance for something you are writing it seems like the options were “forth” or “assembly”, and I find forth easier to reason about.
To answer the true essence of your question though, I wanted a forth compiler as a means to making an NES game, but after I got Codex to generate the compiler I kind of realize that what I actually wanted was the entire experience of making an NES game, including building the compiler.
Doesn’t matter what they Believe. Not like we are going to do anything about it. Next couple weeks most of HN will be lining up to use the new OpenAI model that’s .01% better.
“I think there's no decision ever that everyone at OpenAI agrees with,” Brockman says when I ask what his team thinks about the donations. “Even when we were 10 people. We’ve always been a truth-seeking culture. We have this scientific mission of discovery, and reality kind of doesn't care for your own opinion. It cares about what's true.”
After our interview, Brockman declined WIRED’s request for comment on the ICE shootings. Separately, he offered a more general statement clarifying his thoughts on the conversation with WIRED. "AI is a uniting technology, and can be so much bigger than what divides us today,” he said.
His justifications are just an ever changing rambling mess of word salad that never even come close to addressing the MAGA Inc donation specifically, who is this even for?
We're talking about a pretty straightforward donation to the incumbent President's Super PAC, not ASI solving world hunger or whatever.
During the election MAGA was yelling that Kamala Harris was going to bring us into war with Iran. They are real quiet now, as usual. Republicans are always the same, cut benefits to the poor, cut taxes on the rich, war with the Middle East. Every, single, time.
Each state can decide to not list him in the election process. Some red states for sure would but plenty would not including a few red and purple states.
I’m probably way off base and I’m probably missing some insights that I could get by going to school or something but that’s was just my experience with the subject.
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