Simon Burton
@fridaysimon.bsky.social
Quantum computing -- Lead R&D scientist at Quantinuum.
It must be so frustrating to have billions of dollars and still be a miserable a**hole.
October 20, 2025 at 1:49 PM
It must be so frustrating to have billions of dollars and still be a miserable a**hole.
The principle of "two big ideas": one contains the other, or else they are not big ideas.
September 27, 2025 at 10:57 AM
The principle of "two big ideas": one contains the other, or else they are not big ideas.
If people are going to continue to put the introduction to their paper in the abstract, then i'm going to put my paper's abstract in the title.
September 22, 2025 at 4:16 PM
If people are going to continue to put the introduction to their paper in the abstract, then i'm going to put my paper's abstract in the title.
Any sufficiently complicated physics paper contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of an idea from algebraic geometry.
September 5, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Any sufficiently complicated physics paper contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of an idea from algebraic geometry.
Today's OEIS fishing expedition. The only question is how much RAM am i going to need to find the next number... Love these OEIS cliff-hangers! ARGGH
August 11, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Today's OEIS fishing expedition. The only question is how much RAM am i going to need to find the next number... Love these OEIS cliff-hangers! ARGGH
Behold! A one-qubit quantum computer:
July 5, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Behold! A one-qubit quantum computer:
no don't kill it. Yes we need it.
June 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
no don't kill it. Yes we need it.
Wowee, this new collection threads the needle nicely between philosophy and physics. Authors actually explaining their ideas instead of just academicsplaining. link.springer.com/collections/...
Perspectivism and Quantum Mechanics
In recent years, perspectivism has emerged as a leading contender in the scientific realism debate. Highlighting that human access to reality is always ...
link.springer.com
May 26, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Wowee, this new collection threads the needle nicely between philosophy and physics. Authors actually explaining their ideas instead of just academicsplaining. link.springer.com/collections/...
Reposted by Simon Burton
Made a video about a good movie I watched the other day:
Great Filmmaking: The Servant (1963)
YouTube video by ponysmasher
youtu.be
May 13, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Made a video about a good movie I watched the other day:
Reposted by Simon Burton
What is entanglement? Itamar Pittowsky claimed that these results brought us right to the precipice of logical contradiction--but not over. Abner Shimoney described it as a piece of "experimental metaphysics." I'm a nobody, but I think entanglement is the most interesting thing ever discovered.
🧵⚛️
🧵⚛️
May 7, 2025 at 9:28 PM
What is entanglement? Itamar Pittowsky claimed that these results brought us right to the precipice of logical contradiction--but not over. Abner Shimoney described it as a piece of "experimental metaphysics." I'm a nobody, but I think entanglement is the most interesting thing ever discovered.
🧵⚛️
🧵⚛️
James Dolan has a knack for describing higher mathematics using vivid language... not much of this has made it into written form, but there are a lot of old posts of his on google groups
May 4, 2025 at 2:32 PM
James Dolan has a knack for describing higher mathematics using vivid language... not much of this has made it into written form, but there are a lot of old posts of his on google groups
love these OEIS flamewars.. might have to wait a few more years to see if there's any followup.
April 17, 2025 at 1:18 PM
love these OEIS flamewars.. might have to wait a few more years to see if there's any followup.
new book alert... oh, these pictures look like fun
April 12, 2025 at 5:22 PM
new book alert... oh, these pictures look like fun
TIL: the geometric Langlands program is where love and perversion are united
April 11, 2025 at 5:34 PM
TIL: the geometric Langlands program is where love and perversion are united
My favourite book on group theory just arrived in the mail! I had it shipped over from the US secondhand using biblio.
April 1, 2025 at 5:21 PM
My favourite book on group theory just arrived in the mail! I had it shipped over from the US secondhand using biblio.
I love conference submission deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
March 11, 2025 at 11:03 AM
I love conference submission deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
we need more professional crackpots like this
March 10, 2025 at 7:18 PM
we need more professional crackpots like this
Only a physicist would be so arrogant as to specify "the fifth root of unity". Here is one example:
March 7, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Only a physicist would be so arrogant as to specify "the fifth root of unity". Here is one example:
I've been putting together a database of small quantum codes. If you'd like to contribute your parity check matrices, and any references, i'll add them qecdb.org/codes/ Thanks!
February 11, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I've been putting together a database of small quantum codes. If you'd like to contribute your parity check matrices, and any references, i'll add them qecdb.org/codes/ Thanks!
wup, the modular forms db now has finite groups !
January 6, 2025 at 4:35 AM
wup, the modular forms db now has finite groups !
Oh yeah, this guy gets it. Every subgroup of the cube reflection group. freethoughtblogs.com/atrivialknot...
December 19, 2024 at 10:29 PM
Oh yeah, this guy gets it. Every subgroup of the cube reflection group. freethoughtblogs.com/atrivialknot...
Jacob Bernoulli was hardcore..
December 18, 2024 at 1:41 PM
Jacob Bernoulli was hardcore..
I've been really enjoying this biography of Coxeter, from 2006, just recently republished.
December 15, 2024 at 8:35 PM
I've been really enjoying this biography of Coxeter, from 2006, just recently republished.
This is the miracle octad generator (MOG) of Conway and Curtis. It is a kind of treasure map for the S(5,8,24) Steiner system, 24 bit Golay code, the Mathieu group M_24, and much more... (1/?)
December 2, 2024 at 2:38 PM
This is the miracle octad generator (MOG) of Conway and Curtis. It is a kind of treasure map for the S(5,8,24) Steiner system, 24 bit Golay code, the Mathieu group M_24, and much more... (1/?)
I'm glad we have Wall st to tell us if quantum computing is going to work or not.
November 28, 2024 at 4:40 PM
I'm glad we have Wall st to tell us if quantum computing is going to work or not.