Dr. William Zeng — Towards a Quantum Future (EP.171)

Dr. William Zeng is founder and President of the Unitary Fund, a non-profit dedicated to developing the quantum ecosystem to benefit the most people. He previously led initial development of Rigetti Computing’s quantum cloud platform, and is co-inventor of the Quil quantum instruction language. He was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 in the Science category for his work on quantum computing.

Dr. William was one of the first recipients of an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship, which is a one-year program for ambitious people who want to build something great. Fellows receive a $100,000 grant and access to OSV’s network of founders, investors and experts to support them in bringing their projects to life. Dr. William is using his fellowship grant to study how emerging quantum technologies can explore foundational questions in quantum mechanics.

Important Links:

• The O’Shaughnessy Fellowships
• The Unitary Fund
• Will’s Twitter
• A possibilities no-go theorem on the Wigner’s friend paradox

Show Notes:

• An introduction to quantum computing
• Regular computers vs quantum computers
• The impact of simulating quantum systems
• How quantum computing can transform risk analysis
• What does a quantum world look like?
• Encryption & risk
• The benefits of an open-source ecosystem
• Wigner’s Friend experiments, agency & objective reality
• "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
• “Technology is an integration of body and mind”
• The laws of physics
• What’s next?
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
• The science fiction of Greg Egan
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• Historical Ontology; by Ian Hacking