[fragsworth]

I see no evidence that his knowledge is any better than a layman's, and this really feels like a promotional piece.

It's pretty sad that people are surprised or impressed when a politician has a layman's understanding of something in science.

[daeken]

Do you honestly believe that the majority of people (hell, even 10% of people) could explain it to even the level he did? It's still a layman's level -- his response is clearly over-simplified and I doubt he could show the math behind any of it -- but it's far and above what the average person could tell you about the subject.

[fragsworth]

> Do you honestly believe that the majority of people (hell, even 10% of people) could explain it to even the level he did?

No, and what I said came across wrong. I was surprised, and I think that is sad, because things would be a lot better if most of our politicians understood science and technology.

The surprise should only be when they really, deeply understand something like this.

[TheOsiris]

yes, in fact I believe that everyone who is giving a speech at an institution like that to know everything he talked about if not not more.

he didn't mention anything that you can't find on the first page of a cliffs notes on quantum physics

[sospep]

> he didn't mention anything that you can't find on the first page of a cliffs notes on quantum physics

ummm, i think the idea was to give a "cliff's notes/ELI5" explanation of the subject

If you watched the video[0], a reporter asked a question about a political issue but prefaced his question with a sarcastic question along the lines of "I was going to ask you to explain quantum computing < chuckle, chuckle > When do think Canada's ISIS mission will ...."

When Trudeau answered the question, I think many were somewhat surprised.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRmv4uD2RQ4

[Reedx]

Right. In fact I'd bet that 10% is a very generous estimate. I'd be surprised if it's even 1%.

[mchahn]

Yes, but almost half of americans understand completely how we were created intelligently.

[Fogest]

He went around the perimeter institute building in Waterloo Ontario in Canada and spent some time learning the basics and trying to understand the work that they do there. He did understand the basic ideas that he was saying, it wasn't just a script and he was active and engaged learning throughout the day. Obviously he won't understand very much detail about it, but he doesn't need to. He is a prime minister, not working in this complex field of study. His goal has been trying to understand these more modern technologies so that he can better make decisions for the future. It is important for policy makers to understand the things they are making decisions about.

[dnautics]

Can you point out to me in his quote what exactly you claim he understood?

"A quantum state can be much more complex than that, because as we know, things can be both particle and wave at the same time and the uncertainty around quantum states allows us to encode more information into a much smaller computer."

[Fogest]

Not sure what you mean here? He spent some time learning and asking questions to some very knowledgeable people in the quantum computing field. Are you trying to imply that he somehow despite all the time he spent that day did not learn anything at all about the quantum computing field? PR stunt or not he spent a good amount of time with these people and I don't see how he would not have learned anything there.

[thevibesman]

> I see no evidence that his knowledge is any better than a layman's

Really? I got the impression that he didn't really get the significance of Q-bits and just thought of it as 'stores more stuff than a digital-bit; MORE GB!!!'.

At the same time, I'd be surprised if a man-on-the-street interview would give anywhere near as good of an answer.

> It's pretty sad that people are surprised or impressed when a politician has a layman's understanding of something in science.

Sad yes, but probably a mentality brought on by the number of U.S. politicians who activity don't believe and don't understand many things in science (great answer from Carl Sagen on Charlie Rose on this: https://youtu.be/U8HEwO-2L4w?t=56).

[gjkood]

Thank you for the link to the video. Its probably the most intellectually stimulating 20 minutes I have spent in a long time. I loved the conversation around politicians, religion, ufos, aliens and their particular proclivities.

I am reminded of the choice of selecting Rev. Palmer Joss instead of Dr. Arroway for the mission in 'Contact' because he represents the 99% of the world who have some sort of religious faith vs one holding a scientific or skeptical view of it.

[thevibesman]

The anti-procrastination feature kicked me off after my last post, but I was planning on submitting the video link to HN after my comment; here it is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11511570

Interesting note about 'Contact'; the film came out the summer before I was in 7th grade so that and the book are far away in my memory.

[jszymborski]

When you have half of the American candidates denying climate-change or evolution, you get excited when you see a political leader who evidently has taken the time to have a basic understanding of new and upcoming fields of study.

[vixen99]

Please check your categories. One could hardly be sentient if one denies climate change per se and no one does. If rather than these weasel words - not yours of course but introduced when 'global warming' fell out of fashion as a catch phrase - you mean CAGW (catastrophic anthropogenic global warming) then there are plenty of distinguished scientists who don't go along with that argument. Emphasis is on the C word and fundamentally the argument is a quantitative one bearing on the magnitude of the so-called climate sensitivity parameter i.e., roughly - expected global temperature versus parts per million carbon dioxide.

[maverick_iceman]

And Bernie Sanders being in favor of labeling GMOs.

[Lanari]

What's wrong with that. I have the right to know the source of the food I eat and decide for myself do I wanna eat it or no...

[mgiannopoulos]

Watching dozens of videos of Americans answering geography questions would lead me to disagree with you on what the average person knows about quantum physics.

[DanBC]

Look at how engineering students answer a question about gravity.

http://www.falstad.com/gravity.html

> Physics 324 - Modern Physics for Engineers

> "A body is at rest tends to stay at rest, plus there's no gravity"

> "The gravity of the moon can be said to be negligible, and also the moon's a vacuum, there is no external force on the pen. Therefore it will float where it is."

> "The pen will float away because the gravitational pull of the moon, being approximately 1/6 that of the earth, will not be enough to cause the pen to fall nor remain stationary where it is. The gravatational pull of other objects would influence the pen"

[mgiannopoulos]

The answers are kind of scary about the state of science education...

[marssaxman]

It was a coherent summary of a complex subject, delivered clearly, with just enough information to support the point of his message without getting bogged down in details. This takes skill; popular science writers make their livings and sometimes even become famous based on their ability to create this kind of summary.

Whether or not Trudeau's knowledge of the topic goes any deeper than what he's said here, he's demonstrated that he either cares enough about the subject to have consulted with people who understand it and learned how to repeat their explanations without falling off the rails, unlike good ol' Senator Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens for example, or that he cares about the subject enough to have learned enough about it that he can articulate an opinion in a clear and accessible way. Either way, what's impressive is not that he is repeating information which is true, but that he cares enough about quantum computing to get it right.

[JamilD]

It might just be a reflection on North American politics, but I think it is impressive when a politician is willing to educate themselves about the basics of any technical subject.

[jlos]

The Canadian media is highly supportive of Trudeau at the moment and, with the exception of more reputable periodicals like the Globe and Mail and the National Post, are taking every opportunity to gush.

That said, Trudeau has shown a significant capacity to leverage those around him to display competencies he wouldn't have on his own.

[jszymborski]

I think the National Post is doing more than "not gushing" about Trudeau, they take every opportunity to gut him, and I think it's a very clear indication of our "more reputable periodical's" very clear conservative bias which, as illustrated by the Andrew Coyne incident [0], is transparently driven by owner pressure.

[0] http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/andrew-coyne-resigns-editor-...

[martythemaniak]

Well, he did spend two years studying engineering at a decent school, so it's reasonable to expect him to have a higher aptitude for these things.

Also, you're way overestimating how much a layman knows about computing, quantum or otherwise.

[zkirill]

There's just no impressing you, eh?

[a_imho]

Agree 'Normal computers work, either there’s power going through a wire or not. It’s 1 or a 0.'

I believe power does not go through the wire, it is current or charges, and usually voltage is used to signal states. We can have wires depending how you define a computer, but in most cases it just feels wrong.

[bitwarrior]

/r/iamverysmart