benbenbrubaker - Network

Can neural networks learn languages that are impossible for humans? My latest story for QuantaMagazine@mstdn.social explores how making...

Can neural networks learn languages that are impossible for humans? My latest story for QuantaMagazine@mstdn.social explores how making language models worse at learning might make them better tools for linguists: https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-ai-models-show-us-how-people-learn-impossible-languages-point-a-way-20250113/

My latest in @QuantaMagazine: why theoretical computer scientists like to pose questions to imaginary black boxes:...

My latest in @QuantaMagazine: why theoretical computer scientists like to pose questions to imaginary black boxes: https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-computer-scientists-consult-oracles-20250103/

Today in Nature, the first experimental demonstration that scaling up a quantum error-correcting code makes it better. It's a critical...

Today in Nature, the first experimental demonstration that scaling up a quantum error-correcting code makes it better. It's a critical step on the path to useful quantum computers. Read more in @QuantaMagazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-computers-cross-critical-error-threshold-20241209/

My latest in @QuantaMagazine: the best known method for finding shortest paths through a network is even better than researchers thought....

My latest in @QuantaMagazine: the best known method for finding shortest paths through a network is even better than researchers thought. It’s a surprising new discovery about an algorithm that's nearly 70 years old: https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-establish-the-best-way-to-traverse-a-graph-20241025/

For @QuantaMagazine, I wrote about a new synthesis of the two most remarkable proof methods in computer science. The new technique keeps the...

For @QuantaMagazine, I wrote about a new synthesis of the two most remarkable proof methods in computer science. The new technique keeps the details of a correct proof absolutely secret, yet instantly broadcasts any error in a flawed one: https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-combine-two-beautiful-proof-methods-20241004/

In February, four computer scientists set out to develop an algorithm for simulating quantum systems. Along the way, they accidentally...

In February, four computer scientists set out to develop an algorithm for simulating quantum systems. Along the way, they accidentally proved that entanglement in those systems vanishes completely above a certain temperature. My latest for @QuantaMagazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-prove-that-heat-destroys-quantum-entanglement-20240828/

Here's the story — I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing...

Here's the story — I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!

5/5

https://www.quantamagazine.org/amateur-mathematicians-find-fifth-busy-beaver-turing-machine-20240702/

Putting aside the science entirely, the history of the search and the new discovery is just an extraordinary story, full of details that...

Putting aside the science entirely, the history of the search and the new discovery is just an extraordinary story, full of details that would frankly seem too on-the-nose if this were fiction.

4/5

How complicated, you ask? Well, for starters, as they run they make patterns that look like this. Can you predict whether these patterns are...

How complicated, you ask? Well, for starters, as they run they make patterns that look like this. Can you predict whether these patterns are continue forever or eventually stop? That's what the busy beaver search is about.

3/5

The search for the 5th busy beaver — and its smaller cousins, identified in the 1960s and 1970s — is essentially a way of exploring the...

The search for the 5th busy beaver — and its smaller cousins, identified in the 1960s and 1970s — is essentially a way of exploring the most ridiculously complicated things that simple programs can do. It has roots in a famously unsolvable problem in the foundations of CS.

2/5

My latest story in @QuantaMagazine was the most pure unadulterated fun I've had reporting in my time as a journalist to date.After...

My latest story in @QuantaMagazine was the most pure unadulterated fun I've had reporting in my time as a journalist to date.

After decades, an open online collaboration has definitively identified an unusually active computer program called the fifth busy beaver.

1/5

How hard is it to distinguish two quantum states that look superficially similar? That seemingly innocuous question has led researchers to...

How hard is it to distinguish two quantum states that look superficially similar? That seemingly innocuous question has led researchers to rethink the foundations of quantum cryptography. My latest in @QuantaMagazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/cryptographers-discover-a-new-foundation-for-quantum-secrecy-20240603/

70 years ago, Soviet mathematicians asked whether there’s any way to solve certain problems faster than just checking all possible...

70 years ago, Soviet mathematicians asked whether there’s any way to solve certain problems faster than just checking all possible solutions. Now researchers have answered that question for a special class of algorithms. My latest in @QuantaMagazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/cryptography-tricks-make-a-hard-problem-a-little-easier-20240418

Russell Impagliazzo’s playful framing of the biggest problems in computational complexity theory has inspired a generation of researchers....

Russell Impagliazzo’s playful framing of the biggest problems in computational complexity theory has inspired a generation of researchers. For
@QuantaMagazine, I spoke to him about hypothetical worlds, randomness, improv comedy, and more: https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-researcher-who-explores-computation-by-conjuring-new-worlds-20240327/

How can we understand the intrinsic capabilities and limitations of the neural networks that power large language models? I wrote about...

How can we understand the intrinsic capabilities and limitations of the neural networks that power large language models? I wrote about efforts to answer these questions using the tools of computational complexity theory: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-chain-of-thought-reasoning-helps-neural-networks-compute-20240321/

My latest in @QuantaMagazine: two physicists have proved that a famous class of infinite non-repeating tiling patterns is mathematically...

My latest in @QuantaMagazine: two physicists have proved that a famous class of infinite non-repeating tiling patterns is mathematically equivalent to a form of quantum error correction. https://www.quantamagazine.org/never-repeating-tiles-can-safeguard-quantum-information-20240223

There’s been a recent breakthrough in the study of locally correctable codes — error correction schemes that can fix any corrupted...

There’s been a recent breakthrough in the study of locally correctable codes — error correction schemes that can fix any corrupted fragment of a message using barely any information. Read more in my latest story for @QuantaMagazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/magical-error-correction-scheme-proved-inherently-inefficient-20240109

As a companion piece, I recommend this profile of Blum’s husband Manuel, himself a pioneering computer scientist:...

As a companion piece, I recommend this profile of Blum’s husband Manuel, himself a pioneering computer scientist: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/24/1081478/manuel-blum-theoretical-computer-science-turing-award-academic-advisor/

For @QuantaMagazine I interviewed Lenore Blum about her long and distinguished career in math and computer science, what she did to help...

For @QuantaMagazine I interviewed Lenore Blum about her long and distinguished career in math and computer science, what she did to help women succeed in both fields, and how computer science can inform our understanding of consciousness.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-accidental-activist-who-changed-the-face-of-mathematics-20240103

Last summer, I wrote a massive story about famously hard computational problems. But some problems are far, far harder. Read more in my...

Last summer, I wrote a massive story about famously hard computational problems. But some problems are far, far harder. Read more in my latest story for @QuantaMagazine

https://www.quantamagazine.org/an-easy-sounding-problem-yields-numbers-too-big-for-our-universe-20231204