I see no evidence that his knowledge is any better than a layman's, and this really feels like a promotional piece.
It's pretty sad that people are surprised or impressed when a politician has a layman's understanding of something in science.
It's pretty sad that people are surprised or impressed when a politician has a layman's understanding of something in science.
No, and what I said came across wrong. I was surprised, and I think that is sad, because things would be a lot better if most of our politicians understood science and technology.
The surprise should only be when they really, deeply understand something like this.
he didn't mention anything that you can't find on the first page of a cliffs notes on quantum physics
ummm, i think the idea was to give a "cliff's notes/ELI5" explanation of the subject
If you watched the video[0], a reporter asked a question about a political issue but prefaced his question with a sarcastic question along the lines of "I was going to ask you to explain quantum computing < chuckle, chuckle > When do think Canada's ISIS mission will ...."
When Trudeau answered the question, I think many were somewhat surprised.
"A quantum state can be much more complex than that, because as we know, things can be both particle and wave at the same time and the uncertainty around quantum states allows us to encode more information into a much smaller computer."
Really? I got the impression that he didn't really get the significance of Q-bits and just thought of it as 'stores more stuff than a digital-bit; MORE GB!!!'.
At the same time, I'd be surprised if a man-on-the-street interview would give anywhere near as good of an answer.
> It's pretty sad that people are surprised or impressed when a politician has a layman's understanding of something in science.
Sad yes, but probably a mentality brought on by the number of U.S. politicians who activity don't believe and don't understand many things in science (great answer from Carl Sagen on Charlie Rose on this: https://youtu.be/U8HEwO-2L4w?t=56).
I am reminded of the choice of selecting Rev. Palmer Joss instead of Dr. Arroway for the mission in 'Contact' because he represents the 99% of the world who have some sort of religious faith vs one holding a scientific or skeptical view of it.
Interesting note about 'Contact'; the film came out the summer before I was in 7th grade so that and the book are far away in my memory.
http://www.falstad.com/gravity.html
> Physics 324 - Modern Physics for Engineers
> "A body is at rest tends to stay at rest, plus there's no gravity"
> "The gravity of the moon can be said to be negligible, and also the moon's a vacuum, there is no external force on the pen. Therefore it will float where it is."
> "The pen will float away because the gravitational pull of the moon, being approximately 1/6 that of the earth, will not be enough to cause the pen to fall nor remain stationary where it is. The gravatational pull of other objects would influence the pen"
Whether or not Trudeau's knowledge of the topic goes any deeper than what he's said here, he's demonstrated that he either cares enough about the subject to have consulted with people who understand it and learned how to repeat their explanations without falling off the rails, unlike good ol' Senator Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens for example, or that he cares about the subject enough to have learned enough about it that he can articulate an opinion in a clear and accessible way. Either way, what's impressive is not that he is repeating information which is true, but that he cares enough about quantum computing to get it right.
That said, Trudeau has shown a significant capacity to leverage those around him to display competencies he wouldn't have on his own.
[0] http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/andrew-coyne-resigns-editor-...
Also, you're way overestimating how much a layman knows about computing, quantum or otherwise.
I believe power does not go through the wire, it is current or charges, and usually voltage is used to signal states. We can have wires depending how you define a computer, but in most cases it just feels wrong.