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Quantum Mechanics Symposium
Alien54 writes "As reported in Wired Magazine, the first Quantum Mechanics Symposium is being held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Topics to be discussed include Quantum Computing. Also to be discussed will be Atomic Lasers, a technology involving a coherent and tightly focused beam of atoms that was first developed by MIT researchers in 1997. One of the things that they could lead to is making a 3-D matter hologram using atom lasers. [not just make a 3-D image, but an actual replicate object]. Missing will be a talk by Stuart Hameroff, associate director of the University of Arizona's Center for Consciousness Studies, who recently had to cancel his appearance at the conference for personal reasons."
It might be self promotion. But it could easily be a case of narcissim with a little naivete thrown in. Sometimes people see their research as of the upmost importance and opening up a whole new age of enlightement. They just assume that with the potential applications dependent on this infant technology, why wouldn't the world throw all the money and intellectual might it could at it? In some sence they don't really appreciate the difference between best and good enough, and often don't factor in cost. I think maybe the reason I've see it in the proportions I have is the self-love, and blinders feed the dedication. They push themselves, and those around them as hard as possible in a very narrow single minded pursuit, often for years. Getting atoms to fuse is relatively simple. Getting cheap power out of if is quite another problem. Same thing applies.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
i attended the symposium, and here is what i learned:
;-)
quantum computers are powered by cold fusion reactors.
heh.
seriously, though, i came away believing that practical quantum computers of any appreciable scale will never be a reality, not in any lifetime. too many exponential terms to bury -- like the error terms, the multi-body interferences in large scale (n > 10) systems, the basic cost of building a quantum computer, etc.
this is good news for fans of church's thesis (which says that all models of computation are polynomially equivalent).
josephson (yes, that josephson) was there, but he didn't talk about his crackpot theories on the quantum mechanics of paranormal events. i was disappointed, but it seemed like a lot of people were relieved.
the coolest talk characterized consciousness in terms of the wave function of the universe projected in a funny way onto the wave function for a brain.
or was it the other way around?
nobody
parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus
I look at the web site and see "Will quantum effects dominate...in the 21st century?" As if modern computing technology wasn't already built on solid state physics and quantum mechanics.
Then I notice two of the speakers: Stapp who's into clairvoyance experiments and Josephson who after his Nobel Prize seems to be an mystical guru who talks complete crap on quantum mechanics and consciousness. Hameroff, another bogus physicist has cancelled. I was surprised not to see Dana Zohar talking about Quantum Healing or even Deepak Chopra. Even David Deutsch, whose formalisation of quantum computing is pretty damn cool, is a complete crackpot when he starts his sophomoric philosophical ramblings (as evinced by his recent book) - and I wonder what he'll be talking about.
And now it all comes together. This isn't a real symposium on QM, which is as old as the hills. This is a symposium on how much bogosity you can extract from QM.
There are two types of people in the world: those who've studied physics and know that QM is basic ordinary freshman material and the rest of the world who get their knowledge of QM from Slashdot and the popular press and think it's some bizarre mystico-mumbo-jumbo-weirdness from Planet X. I hope that over the cousre of the 21st century this situation can be rectified somewhat.
---- SIGFPE
"The first Quantum Mechanics Symposium is being held in Ann Arbor, Michigan"
Sadly, because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, we can't both know *where* and *when* the symposium is being held...;)
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
The computers in Star Trek could be programmed simply by telling them what you wanted. They always seemed to do the right thing instantly, except of course when the plot called for a two-hour delay or for some malfunction. ;-)
Anyway, I say we software developers should always keep the "Where is Captain Picard?" test in the backs of our minds, and try to make our software make sense.
"Rub her feet." -- L.L.
Roger Penrose is quoted in the article back yapping about his "Quantum Theory of Mind." Basically he says that because dreaming seems "weird" and if you talk about things generally then deciding on something seems like a collapse of a superposition in quantum states. Not very convincincing.
Another example of scientific celebrity status influencing people.
. . . that there are only 58 posts so far, even though this story has been up for a while, and that of those 58 posts, well over half are trolls and/or pure idiocy; and yet, people have the balls to bitch when a wildly popular (judging from the number of responses) story about Star Wars or somesuch is posted, that people have the balls to bitch that said story about Star Wars or whatever is not "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."
Here's a newsflash: Quantam Mechanics is news for nerds. It is stuff that matters. And, clearly, nobody is reading it. If Slashdot strays from strictly hard science and tech news, it's only because the powers that be know which side their bread is buttered on.
Am I venting? Sorry, I'm venting. Goodnight, kids.
Not Quantum mechanincs. It's definitly not the first quantum mechanics symposia, given that happen in the 1930's, with less formal meetings before hand.
Oh, and given I was at a quantum mechanics comference last month, I realy hope this isn't the first.
To explain the nomenclature:
Quantum mechanics is the mathematical framework used for dealing with fermions - i.e. the Schodinger equation and all it's baggage. This includes all the calculateion schemes, such as Hartree-Fock and the Density function theories that allow you to actually solve the Schodinger equation, (Or, rather, give approximate solutions). These are useful, old, and not cool.
Quantum applications, is ment to reffer to any system where the quantum properties of a system are exploited for some macroscopic function. The ubercool quantum computing is one example. These are not yet usable, very new, and considerably cooler than the quantum mechanics required to describe them.
Maybe I'm being a little pedantic here, but if your really interested in this, look at the correct areas would be a useful move.
Remeber that Quantum mechanics is pretty much twice the age of computing, give or take.
--
This is both first post and not first post until I hit the 'Submit' button.
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
Which is a pretty remarkable prediction, considering that at present, atom holography is one of the projects at the Gedanken Laboratory, which means that it is currently only a theoretical speculation. In fact, most of the way-out stuff being discussed here is in the Gedanken Lab at present.
From pure theory to experimental demonstration in two or three years is a little hard to believe. I think I spy with my little eye a bit of self-promotion here, but it may just be unbounded scientific optimism.
Tim