
Microsoft, Brilliant team up to offer quantum curriculum - jonbaer
https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/quantum/2019/05/23/microsoft-brilliant-team-up-to-offer-quantum-curriculum/
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revel
How close are we to quantum computing being a thing that I have to actively
think about? My understanding is that it's on the horizon but not all that
close.

I'm impressed at the heavy investment in tooling and education by microsoft --
they've often laid the groundwork for market segments that they've gone on to
dominate by making development really easy.

~~~
plainOldText
Indeed, it's not on the near horizon. I found this article illuminating:

 _The Case Against Quantum Computing_ \-
[https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/the-case-
agains...](https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/the-case-against-
quantum-computing)

~~~
murat124
> I argue that they can’t. In the physical world, continuous quantities (be
> they voltages or the parameters defining quantum-mechanical wave functions)
> can be neither measured nor manipulated exactly. That is, no continuously
> variable quantity can be made to have an exact value, including zero. To a
> mathematician, this might sound absurd, but this is the unquestionable
> reality of the world we live in, as any engineer knows.

Wasn't this problem addressed just recently? [https://www.unibas.ch/en/News-
Events/News/Uni-Research/The-g...](https://www.unibas.ch/en/News-
Events/News/Uni-Research/The-geometry-of-an-electron-determined-for-the-first-
time.html)

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obenn
From a pricing perspective it looks like the first two chapters out of seven
are free, and then it would cost 30$ a month to continue (or 12$/month
yearly).

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dmix
I'm guessing that includes all of their courses, not just Quantum?

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caudex
That's correct. Their course offerings are all you can eat with that
subscription.

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whatshisface
I predict that all of the money that these big companies are pouring in to
quantum computing (which is motivated by a fear of missing out on the next big
thing) will turn out to be a mistake from their perspective, not because
quantum computing never works out, but because the next big thing turns out to
be something else and blindsides them.

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samthecoy
Does anyone know of a relatively accessible book that introduces quantum
mechanics well?

~~~
scranglis
We (Brilliant) do have an introductory course on quantum mechanics as well. It
goes into more of the phenomena (like spin, photons, etc.) than this computing
course that mostly focuses on information. Let us know what you think:
[https://brilliant.org/courses/quantum-
objects/](https://brilliant.org/courses/quantum-objects/)

If Brilliant isn't your cup of tea – check out mcintyre's spin-first
treatment. Generally speaking avoid any textbooks with cats on the cover (ie.
Griffith's is popular but only so-so IMO). That being said, we went with a cat
on our course ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯.

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sytelus
> For a limited time following the release of this blog post, the first two
> chapters of Quantum Computing, including an interactive introduction to
> coding in Q# will be available to all registered Brilliant users for free.

I wish these strings were not attached and the course was published on free
platform. More people learning QC is itself a benefit then minor revenue
generated by few.

