What Is Efficiently Computable In Nature?

Miller Family Endowed Mathematics Lecture

What are the most powerful kinds of computers allowed by the laws of physics?

In this talk, he'll touch on:
Quantum computers — why we're finally on the verge of scaling them up, and what we currently think they can and can't do (beware of misleading popular articles)
Analog computers — and why the known laws of physics seem to put severe constraints on them
Time travel computers — and why they probably can't exist
Quantum gravity / black hole / holographic computers — and the unresolved questions about whether they can outperform quantum computers

Scott Aaronson is Schlumberger Chair of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin, and founding director of its Quantum Information Center. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his PhD from UC Berkeley. Aaronson’s research 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 received the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, the United States PECASE Award, the Tomassoni-Chisesi Prize in Physics, the ACM Prize in Computing, and the inaugural Trevisan Prize for Expository Work in Theory of Computing, and is a Fellow of the ACM and the AAAS and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He blogs at “Shtetl-Optimized,”
https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog

This lecture recording can be found on the Available Recordings page approximately two business days after the event and will remain accessible for three weeks.