John Preskill
Professor of Theoretical Physics, Caltech. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
academicscientist@preskill ↗LinkedIn ↗preskill.caltech.edu ↗Wikipedia ↗
John Preskill is a theoretical physicist and the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech. He pioneered work in quantum computing and error correction, and famously won a scientific bet against Stephen Hawking regarding the black hole information paradox.
1shows
1appearances
35statements
13resolved
12supported
1contradicted
92%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything John Preskill said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Preskill: Validated topological qubit may appear as soon as 2019
“And it's very ambitious, because at this point, it's not even clear they have a single qubit, but if that approach is successful, and we're, it's making progress, so I think we will see a validated Qubit of this type soon, maybe next year.”
Preskill: Superconducting circuits and trapped ions will lead for 5-10 years
“The most advanced are superconducting circuits and trapped ions, which is why I mentioned those first, and I think that will remain true, you know, over the next five to 10 years.”
Preskill: Quantum entanglement is what holds space-time geometry together
“So it's really the entanglement which holds space together, which keeps it from falling apart into little pieces.”
Preskill: Quantum computers will impact chemistry, carbon capture, and materials
“The Ones which will affect everyday life, I think, are better methods for understanding and inventing new materials, new chemical compounds. Things like that can be really important. You know, if you find a better way of capturing carbon by designing a better …”
Preskill: 50-to-100 qubit quantum computers will arrive in a couple years
“We think in a couple of years we'll have devices with about 50 qubits to a hundred, and we'll be able to control them pretty well, and that's an interesting range, because even though it's only 50 to a hundred qubits, doesn't sound like that big a deal, but th…”
Preskill: Quantum computers breaking public key crypto unlikely in 10 years, likely in 50
“I don't think, though I could be wrong, that we're likely to have quantum computers that can break those public key cryptosystems in 10 years. But in 50 years? Seems not unlikely.”
Preskill: Quantum computers will enable tabletop toy spacetime in decades
“And in particular, what we're going to be doing with quantum computers and, you know, the other quantum technologies that are Becoming increasingly sophisticated in the next couple of decades is we'll be able to control very well, highly entangled, complex qua…”
Preskill: Richard Feynman's refusal to read 1980s literature hurt his research
“The big difference between Feynman and me in the mid-nineteen-eighties is, I was reading literature, and he wasn't. And probably if he had been, it would have, he would have been well-served.”
Preskill: Most Important Quantum Applications Have Not Yet Been Conceived
“Probably the most important ones are things we haven't thought of when it comes to applications of quantum computing.”
Preskill: Efficient classical algorithms for quantum chemistry are unlikely
“Maybe some brilliant graduate student is going to drop a paper on the archive tomorrow which will say, here I solve quantum chemistry and I can do it on a digital computer. But we don't think that's very likely because we've been working pretty hard on these p…”
Preskill: Quantum hardware is far from converging on a single winning approach
“There are a number of different approaches to Building hardware, and nobody really knows which is going to be the best. We haven't, I think we're far from collapsing to one approach, which everybody agrees has the best long-term prospects for scalability.”
Preskill: Near-term quantum computing has best hopes in hybrid classical-quantum methods
“Well, I think in the near term, we're going to be trying out, and probably we have the best hopes for kind of hybrid classical quantum methods with some kind of classical feedback.”
Preskill: Silicon electron spin qubits could surpass other modalities long-term
“In the long term those electron spins could catapult ahead of these other things. That's something that you can naturally do in silicon, and you know, it's potentially easy to integrate, integrate with silicon technology.”
Preskill: Nuclear-spin quantum sensors can exceed existing spatial resolution limits
“And again, using this technology of Nuclear spins, which I mentioned you can do it at room temperature, potentially. You can make a pretty good sensor, and it can potentially achieve higher sensitivity and spatial resolution. You look, look at things on shorte…”
Preskill: Quantum speedup requires engineering interference to cancel incorrect answers
“The art of a quantum algorithm is to make sure that the wrong answers interfere and cancel one another out, so the right answer is enhanced. And that's not automatic. It requires that the quantum algorithm be designed in just the right way.”
Preskill: Feynman Insisted on First Principles Over Expert Literature
“Feynman he always wants to think things through for himself. From first principles rather than rely on the guidance from experts who have thought about these things before.”
Preskill: 10-year-old kids will play quantum games in a few decades
“What I wouldn't be surprised by is that if you go out a few decades, kids who are 10 years old are gonna be playing quantum games.”
Preskill: STEM education should prioritize critical reasoning over workforce training
“That STEM education, we shouldn't think of it as, we're going to need this technical workforce, and so we better train them. I think the key thing is, we want the general population to be able to reason effectively. You know, and to recognize when an argument …”
Preskill: Silicon Valley is likely to become Quantum Valley
“That's the place with the Silicon Valley is likely to be Quantum Valley the way things are right now.”
Preskill: Quantum startups should prioritize cross-disciplinary hires
“Being able to communicate across those boundaries is very valuable, and you can see it in quantum computing now, that if the man or woman who's involved in the software has that background, but there's not a big communication barrier talking to the people who …”
Preskill: Leonard Susskind is the active physicist most similar to Richard Feynman
“In terms of style and personality of physicists who are currently active I think Lenny Susskind is the most similar to Feynman of anyone I can think of.”
Preskill: Quantum error correction is now achievable in the laboratory
“But at first that was just kind of a theorist fantasy. It was a little too far ahead of The technology, but, you know, 20 years later, the technology is catching up, so now this idea of quantum error correction has become something you can do in the lab.”
Preskill: Entanglement is the primary distinction between quantum and classical physics
“It's really the characteristic way, maybe the most important way that we know, in which quantum is different from ordinary stuff. Ok. From classical.”
Preskill: Quantum error correction hides data from noise via entanglement
“So we have to encode the information so the environment, so to speak, can't find out anything about what the information is. And that's the idea of quantum error correction. If we encoded an entanglement, The environment is looking at the parts one at a time, …”
The other half of the tape: John Preskill's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
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| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Y COMBINATORLEDGER | Professor of Theoretical Physics, Caltech | 1 | 35 | 92% 12/13 | full record on the Y Combinator Startup Podcast → |