Category Archives: Entropy/Information

Q: Is it possible to create an “almanac” of human behavior that predicts everything a person will do?

Posted on February 28, 2021 by The Physicist

The original question was: “Furthermore, you say, science will teach men (although in my opinion a superfluity) that they have not, in fact, and never have had, either will or fancy, and are no more than a sort of piano … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Biology, Entropy/Information, Machine Learning & A.I., Paranoia, Philosophical | 10 Comments

A Quantum Computation Course

Posted on January 31, 2020 by The Physicist

Physicist: I’ve been a little busy to post much here for a while, but you may be interested in what I’m working on, so here it is.  I’m teaching an introductory course on quantum information and computation, and the primary … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Computer Science, Entropy/Information, Experiments, Math, Philosophical, Physics, Probability, Quantum Theory | 9 Comments

Q: With entangled particles, can you tell when/how the other particle is measured?

Posted on March 27, 2018 by The Physicist

Physicist: Nope!  You definitely can’t. Almost without exception, when you hear about quantum entanglement it’s described as some kind of communication or connection.  Generally along the lines of “when you affect one entangled particle it instantly affects the other” or … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Entropy/Information, Quantum Theory | 20 Comments

Q: Is it possible to write a big number using a small number? Is there a limit to how much information can be compressed?

Posted on December 13, 2017 by The Physicist

Physicist: Although there are tricks that work in very specific circumstances, in general when you “encode” any string of digits using fewer digits, you lose some information.  That means that when you want to reverse the operation and “decode” what … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Combinatorics, Computer Science, Entropy/Information, Math | 11 Comments

Teleportation! In space!

Posted on July 12, 2017 by The Physicist

Physicist: This isn’t a question anybody asked, just an interesting goings-on. A few weeks ago QUESS (QUantum Experiments at Space Scale) began teleporting quantum information to and from the Micius satellite and between ground stations 1200 km apart.  This is … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Entropy/Information, Physics, Quantum Theory | 18 Comments

Q: After the heat death of the universe will anything ever happen again?

Posted on March 23, 2015 by The Physicist

Physicist: If you wait forever, then you might see something happen.  But the more practical answer is: no. The universe does a lot of stuff (for example, whatever you did today), but literally everything that ever happens increases entropy.  In … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Entropy/Information, Physics | 36 Comments