futurecs.ppt 7225KB Jun 23 2011 12:11:30 PM

And Why Every Other Major Sucks By Comparison

Scott Aaronson
Associate Professor, EECS

Stereotypes of CS Majors

Moore’s Law

So what’s next?

Robot Uprising

Uploading our brains to computers;
replacement of “real life” by the Matrix

=
So what else is there?

What we’ve learned from
quantum computers so far:

15 = 3 × 5
(with high probability)

Relativity Computer

DONE

Zeno’s Computer

Time (seconds)

STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5

Time Travel Computer

S. Aaronson and J. Watrous. Closed Timelike
Curves Make Quantum and Classical
Computing Equivalent, Proceedings of the Royal
Society A 465:631-647, 2009. arXiv:0808.2669.
Answer

Polynomial
Size Circuit

C
“Closed
Timelike
Curve
Register”

R CTC

R CR
0 0 0

“CausalityRespecting
Register”

Computer Science Is Interdisciplinary

Physics

Math

Biology

Brain/Cognitive

Economics

Conclusions
- Great choice to get admitted here
- Come to MIT
- You could do a course other than 6-3, but
why?