Hans Bachor recently gave a talk at UQ, Hype and Trust in Quantum Technologies
Trust is a core value in science, trust in data, analysis, concepts, models. This is achieved in physics by open publishing, scientific discourse, testing, repeating experiments, asking critical questions and designing new tests. Fortunately, science is self-correcting in the long term. Hype includes predictions which sensationalise scientific discoveries and exaggerate the future impact. Increasing competition for funding, visibility or job security can make this more attractive. But it also erodes trust in science by the public and investors and has negative social effects on us the researchers. How can we balance them?
I think this problem more broadly reflects the way universities have become to imitate the social context they are imbedded in, rather than being a critique of those societies.
The sociologist Christian Smith eloquently described the emergence of BS in universities, several years ago.
I agree with almost all that Sabine says there.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I find her case against general purpose quantum computing poorly grounded in understanding, arguments, or reasoning. Indeed the latter is childishly simple.
And I think she's wrong. A transistor also only can do one data point. Yet here we are in massive parallel computation.