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0 pointsseiji11y ago0 comments

Game of Life is completely deterministic and is the opposite of real life in pretty much every way

My computer also can compute 5 + 5 and that is the opposite of real life in pretty much every way too. Not every algorithm results in life [and it requires algorithm + data + continual input, which the GoL doesn't integrate].

is a rejection of the idea that quantum computing allows any new problems to be solved

Because the idea quantum computing solves new problems has no basis in research or reality?

"Quantum" != magic

A tiny, currently impractical, factorization algorithm isn't a new problem current computers can't solve. They just take the long way 'round.

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sillysaurus311y ago· 2 in thread

The fact that a previously-intractable problem can be solved in a tractable amount of time on a quantum computer is important. It doesn't mean the problem didn't exist before, but rather that the problem can now be solved.

For all we know, making an intractable problem tractable is the necessary step to make AI a reality. In fact, it's hard to argue that it isn't, so quantum computing becomes very interesting.

seijiOP11y ago

For all we know, making an intractable problem tractable is the necessary step to make AI a reality.

But, we know that's not a necessary step. We have computer vision systems working essentially the same way our brains perceive images (and since the new systems are on computers, we can speed them up millions of times to recognize millions of images quickly instead of relying on our dumb 10Hz to 100Hz brain clock).

so quantum computing becomes very interesting.

But quantum computing doesn't magically reduce difficult things to non-difficult things: http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=206

Also, required reading on why no quantum juju is required: http://www.scottaaronson.com/papers/giqtm3.pdf

sillysaurus311y ago

I didn't say quantum computing magically reduced anything. You've set up a strawman and proceeded to beat it with a hammer. I said that quantum computers can solve previously-intractable problems.

We don't know what steps are necessary to reach AI, so we don't know what is or isn't a necessary step. Vision is a tiny part of cognition, as evidenced by the fact that there are fish which have no vision (or at least no human-like vision) since they live in absence of light. Yet they are alive: they reproduce, they seek food, they think, they do all of the things a living creature does, except see light.

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