Unmaking Sense

Episode 13.40: Necessary Conditions for Knowledge

We look again at negative conditional entropy and why it creates and describes necessary and sufficient conditions for us to be able to know anything at all.

Episode 13.39: Inescapable Representation

Whether in language, scientific theory or consciousness there is no escape from the need for representation and so no possibility of satisfying the demand for unmediated objectivity.

Episode 13.38: Information as Creation

We explore words, theories, the classical as our access to the quantum, and information as the key to the structure of space-time and the universe. “We speak not because speech is perfect, but because silence is impossible” (Augustine, paraphrased). Logos philosophy and information as creation.

Episode 13.37: Limits to Quantum Computing

The scale of the challenge of factoring huge composite numbers, Shor’s algorithm, and why we are not going to crack RSA encryption any time soon using quantum computing.

Episode 13.36: Quantum Fourier Transforms 3

How we encode numbers, process the results, and decode the answers using inverse quantum Fourier transforms to obtain a usable answer.

Episode 13.35: Quantum Fourier Transforms 2

Some details about how quantum Fourier transforms work.

Episode 13.34: Quantum Fourier Transforms

Starting to understand quantum Fourier transforms - the basic idea.

Episode 13.33: Why Simulators Usually Work and Real Hardware Often Doesn’t

Some of the practical challenges that make it so difficult to run code on real quantum computers even when the same code runs perfectly well on a simulator.

Episode 13.32: The Grover Comparator and Uncomputing

How does a Grover oracle test whether a solution is a solution without measuring the state vector it is assessing and so destroying it? Invisible operators and hidden manipulation. Uncomputing as a road from the depths of the enigma back to somewhere closer to where we can obtain the answer.

Episode 13.31: Quantum Computing as Metaphor

In what respects the quantum world and our access to it is a fitting metaphor for the human brain and consciousness as what we can directly know about it.