Dr. Scott A. Aaronson

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  www.worldhealth.net/p/d-wave-demonstrates-28-qubit-quan - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/7/2007    Last Visited: 12/7/2007  

  "Over the last year, rather than answering scientists' questions about what, if anything, they've actually done that's novel, they seem to have descended ever further into the lowest kind of hucksterism," said Scott Aaronson, a theoretical computer scientist at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Aaronson said that Orion is probably a classical computer, built with 16 "very noisy superconducting" bits.His opinion is supported by Umesh Vazirani, Professor of Computer Science at Berkeley, who says that the "decohering" qubits would act like classical random bits, and the adiabatic computer would act like a classical computer implementing "simulated annealing".

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  www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18495/ - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/1/2007    Last Visited: 4/18/2007  

  Scott Aaronson, a theoretical computer scientist at the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo, Ontario, and the author of a much-read blog called Shtetl-Optimized, began the obloquies when he denounced the Orion for being as useful at solving problems as "a roast-beef sandwich."
  
  Of Geordie Rose's claims to having built the first practical quantum computer, Aaronson wrote in an e-mail, "Whatever else D-Wave might or might not have done, this can be instantly rejected as hype.

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  www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2008&program=quantinf - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/19/2007    Last Visited: 3/2/2008  

  Scott Aaronson (MIT)

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  scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=284 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/11/2008    Last Visited: 11/16/2007  

  The Blog of Scott Aaronson
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  "Finding the smallest universal [Turing machines] is a neat recreational pursuit," quantum computation researcher Scott Aaronson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says, but "it's no longer seen as connected to the central questions of the field."
  
  "The impact of NKS on all the areas of computer science and physics I'm familiar with has been basically zero," he says."As far as I can tell, the main impact is that people now sometimes use the adjective 'Wolframian' to describe breathtaking claims for the trivial or well-known."[Martin] Davis offers a sunnier take: "The book has a lot of beautiful pictures."
  
  And from Nature:
  
  The solution isn't hugely relevant to modern computer science, says Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts."Most theoretical computer scientists don't particularly care about finding the smallest universal Turing machines," he wrote in an e-mail.
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  I will double your offer Scott, and give a prize of $50 to anyone who demonstrates that one of the automata which Wolfram classifies as non-trivial, and hence supposedly universal, is actually non-universal.
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  Scott, I am a computer science major !! But while I was searching google, I found your blog.
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  Perhaps you should give the $250 to Scott to hold as an underwriter for the challenge…I'm sure he'd use safeguard it well.
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  I have a couple of newbie questions about interactive proofs, and in particular the variations discussed by Scott in which the prover has only finite capability.
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  Thanks, Scott!

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  builder-news.com.com/D-Waves-quantum-computer-ready-for - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/9/2007    Last Visited: 11/18/2007  

  "Over the last year, rather than answering scientists' questions about what, if anything, they've actually done that's novel, they seem to have descended ever further into the lowest kind of hucksterism," said Scott Aaronson, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  
  Orion is probably a classical computer, according to Aaronson."They apparently built a device with 16 very noisy superconducting quantum bits," he said in a talk given at Google's offices in the summer.Noisy qubits let information into the system and behave like classical bits, said Aaronson.
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  Correction: This story mischaracterized Scott Aaronson's job and Google's relationship with D-Wave.Aaronson is an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

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  www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/nov/15/news.google - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/15/2007    Last Visited: 11/15/2007  

  However, other scientists are dubious because D-Wave won't publish the results or discuss them in depth, and that's anathema in a world that prefers to progress by peer review and independent replication rather than press conferences: "Rather than answering scientists' questions about what, if anything, they've actually done that's novel, they seem to have descended ever further into the lowest kind of hucksterism," says Scott Aaronson, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

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  arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071024-simple-turing-ma - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/24/2007    Last Visited: 10/28/2007  

  According to MIT computer scientist Scott Aaronson, "Most theoretical computer scientists don't particularly care about finding the smallest universal Turing machines.

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  scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=181 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/11/2008    Last Visited: 11/16/2007  

  The Blog of Scott Aaronson
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  It is absolutely impossible for me to hide how intensely I despise people like Scott Aaronson … He's the ultimate example of a complete moral breakdown of a scientist.
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  Not Even Wrong » Blog Archive » Scott Aaronson For Sale
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  […] Scott Aaronson has adopted a sensible attitude towards the controversy over string theory, announcing in a new posting entitled Mercenary in the String Wars that his allegiances in this "War" are for sale to the highest bidder.
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  I bid 36 beers for your allegiance, Scott.
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  Scott, string theory is your rich (but full of warts) girlfriend that wants to snag you as her trophy husband.
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  Scott Aaronson on the String Wars | Cosmic VarianceSays: Comment #16 December 21st, 2006 at 8:04 pm
  
  […] Scott Aaronson, well-known around these parts for thinking that a priori constraints on conversations with super-intelligent aliens are more important insights into the fundamantal workings of the universe than dark energy and the holographic principle, is suffering from a bit of Stockholm syndrome.He has visited the Stanford high-energy theory group (intellectual hotbed of agressive Landscapism), given an interesting talk on Computational Complexity and the Anthropic Principle, and discovered to his bemusement that string theorists are quite open-minded and reasonable people!
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  Scott, have you ever taken Putnam?
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  Thanks very much Scott (and Urs).
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  Scott, have you ever taken Putnam?
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  Scott, that is an interesting question, and I think there is probably not a unique answer, just different hunches that people may have.
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  Scott: It might be entertaining if you could keep baiting him; we could have a pool on the exact date when his head explodes.
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  Scott - the question is probably not well defined, but if it were, I'd guess that it woud depend on your choice of a time slicing.
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  Scott, the information that comes out of a black hole will be horribly mangled - you have to measure an exponentially large number of Hawking quanta to have any hope of getting information back at all - so I doubt there's any meaningful sense in which you get the result of a computation back.
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  Scott: And you seem to be, not "defeating" my question or showing its meaninglessness, but rather arguing for a particular answer to it
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  Scott, the information that comes out of a black hole will be horribly mangled â€" you have to measure an exponentially large number of Hawking quanta to have any hope of getting information back at all
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  Now, obviously, anything physical can be computed however you want and you should get the right answer, but Scott is talking about things involving information, so these considerations might be relevant.
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  Scott: "I shall answer to no quantum-gravity research program, but rather seek to profit from them all."
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  The first (which Scott can find also be geographically pleasant) is that the Waterloo based eminent graph theorists William Tutte
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  Scott: "I shall answer to no quantum-gravity research program, but rather seek to profit from them all."
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  The first (which Scott can find also be geographically pleasant) is that the Waterloo based eminent graph theorists William Tutte developed in the 60s a remarkable enumeration theory for planar graph.
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  The product is Scott Aaronson, who advertised in his blog Shtetl-Organized that he's a Mercenary in the String Wars.Just think about how much fun it would be to hire Scott to make some pompous physics geek's head explode at the next water cooler lecture!
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  Scott Aaronson is my kind of physicist.In all the debates about string theory, he finally decided,

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  scottaaronson.com/blog/?cat=19 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/11/2008    Last Visited: 11/16/2007  

  The Blog of Scott Aaronson
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  Scott, did you hear the news yet??
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  Dr. Aaronson, while your writings are of some interest, you have nevertheless a great deal to learn from my more refined insight and sagacity.
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  Scott Aaronson
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  Scott AaronsonInstitute for Quantum ComputingUniversity of Waterloo

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  www.vpmthane.org/news/news067.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/12/2007    Last Visited: 9/12/2007  

  But some critics say it has been oversold in the press: "Almost every popular article written on this has grotesquely over-hyped it," says Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist specializing in quantum computing at Waterloo University in Ontario, Canada.He says the machine in its current form is "completely useless from an industrial perspective".

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