PIRSA:25100080

A Brief Prehistory of Qubits

(2025). A Brief Prehistory of Qubits. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/25100080

A Brief Prehistory of Qubits. Perimeter Institute, Oct. 22, 2025, https://pirsa.org/25100080 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:25100080,
            doi = {10.48660/25100080},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/25100080},
            author = {},
            keywords = {Quantum Foundations},
            language = {en},
            title = {A Brief Prehistory of Qubits},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2025},
            month = {oct},
            note = {PIRSA:25100080 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }
Ben Schumacher
Talk numberPIRSA:25100080
DOI10.48660/25100080
Collection
Talk Type Conference
Subject

Abstract

Wernher von Braun is supposed to have said, "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." The path to a new idea is seldom straight, and travelers seldom know what their actual destination will be. I intend to illustrate all this by describing the origin of the word "qubit" and the concept of quantum data compression in the early days of quantum information theory.