Scott Aaronson: Quantum Computing and Theories of Everything

I recently recorded a nearly 4 hour long conversation with theoretical computer scientist Scott Aaronson, a leading figure in quantum computing and also a famed blogger. We spent most (a lot!) of the time talking about quantum computing, complexity theory, and quantum supremacy, but during the biographical introduction we had a long digression about what Scott and I have in common: refuting “theories of everything”. In Scott’s case, it was Wolfram’s proposal and in my case, Eric Weinstein’s. So I ended up chopping our conversation into two parts: the main body which became my most recent podcast episode for the Cartesian Cafe

and a 24 minute digression of our catching up over the details and controversies involved with our refutations.