Copy-pasting most of Vivek's response (from the above article's comments):
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Scott, I just watched your fascinating and excellent TedX talk and really appreciate your perspectives. I’ll start by admitting that I struggle with the concepts of quantum computing and found it very hard to simplify these. I have read your criticisms of journalists who have had the same issue and your frustrations with the deficiency.
As far as the traveling salesman problem goes, the person I learned of this from, a few years ago is Michelle Simmons, director of the Centre for Quantum Computation & Communication Technology, University of NSW. This TedX talk that she gave was brilliant and I wrote to her to thank her for opening my eyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cugu4iW4W54. She repeated this example in a recent piece in ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/article/australias-ambitious-plan-to-wi... I also consulted a couple of other gurus and no one raised issue with this example.
If you give me a better way of explaining how quantum computers work I will surely use that. But I find your comparison of this to my criticism of Bitcoin’s demise as a digital currency to be unprofessional and petty. Surely you don’t have to resort to such nastiness.
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That was a pretty great response, and he's right. Scott does come across as petty, and as someone you would never want to work with. Vivek might have been wrong, but he had done a reasonable amount of homework on this - far more than Scott had mistakenly assumed. This discussion would have been far more productive if Scott had dedicated a thousand words towards educating people about QC, rather than belittling someone personally.
Scott does come across as petty, and as someone you would never want to work with.
Please don't let his (admittedly sometimes aggressive, unabashed) writing style detract from the man himself. From personal experience, he's unfailingly generous, kind, and amazing to work with.
Scott has poured many more than one thousand words into the cause of educating people about quantum computing. The point here is that this journalist didn't do his due diligence. Reading the tag line on Scotts blog would have made him question one of the core assumptions he made in his piece.
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Scott, I just watched your fascinating and excellent TedX talk and really appreciate your perspectives. I’ll start by admitting that I struggle with the concepts of quantum computing and found it very hard to simplify these. I have read your criticisms of journalists who have had the same issue and your frustrations with the deficiency.
As far as the traveling salesman problem goes, the person I learned of this from, a few years ago is Michelle Simmons, director of the Centre for Quantum Computation & Communication Technology, University of NSW. This TedX talk that she gave was brilliant and I wrote to her to thank her for opening my eyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cugu4iW4W54. She repeated this example in a recent piece in ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/article/australias-ambitious-plan-to-wi... I also consulted a couple of other gurus and no one raised issue with this example.
If you give me a better way of explaining how quantum computers work I will surely use that. But I find your comparison of this to my criticism of Bitcoin’s demise as a digital currency to be unprofessional and petty. Surely you don’t have to resort to such nastiness.
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That was a pretty great response, and he's right. Scott does come across as petty, and as someone you would never want to work with. Vivek might have been wrong, but he had done a reasonable amount of homework on this - far more than Scott had mistakenly assumed. This discussion would have been far more productive if Scott had dedicated a thousand words towards educating people about QC, rather than belittling someone personally.