A new speculative short essay from me: "In what sense is quantum computing a science?" http://cognitivemedium.com/qc-a-science
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Love this thought provoking assay. Q: isn't 'design science' a refined version of engineering... ? Weren't the sages at Bell Labs, working on the transistors doing design physics? Weren't the physicists at the Manhattan project doing design physics while working on the A-boom?
Only very minimally, in the sense I describe in the essay. Transistors are only slightly different a notion to pre-existing amplifiers/switches. Criticality and chain reactions were more or less new design idea, but pre-dated the Manhattan project.
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There's a big difference between "work out the details of how to do this, using standard ideas" and "invent arabic numerals". The latter isn't even a goal that can be conceived, a priori. Topological QC is a lot closer to the latter than the former.
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Ah, to be clearer: having the idea of topological QC at all is a bit like having the idea for arabic numerals. It's an astounding leap of design imagination.
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