jonathan-dowling
Original: jonathan-dowling on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Narration / setup: A red-haired woman sits at a laptop, speaking to a dark-haired woman.
Red-haired woman: Some time in 2018, I was frantically trying to understand quantum computing. Anyone who has tried to understand quantum computing knows it a field that can drive you literally insane.
Laptop text: "...quantum..." (illegible technical text on screen)
Panel 2:
Red-haired woman: Help! Am I just morning glory? Help!
Panel 3:
Red-haired woman: But, with this chapter, we were getting a real glimpse. We tried to read primary literature, but quantum technology and our usual process was to start at the beginning, find some accessible textbook, and over a month of two days, ascend a mound of comprehension to the experts. Eventually we'd reach some primary literature and you'd start, finally, to understand. So I'd go nuts and you'd have a topic, and... look!
Panel 4:
Dark-haired woman: Explain it to me again?
Red-haired woman: It's like... there's a bit. There's different places, and the places I have no idea what I'm talking about.
Panel 5:
Red-haired woman: Popular treatments usually are so simple they don't even make sense, or they're actively wrong.
Red-haired woman: So the chip can be a 1 or a 0 but when it is many, both numbers in any given numbers!
Panel 6:
Red-haired woman: It had Daniel Jonathan's accession treatments. "Take a dominant theory" as some text shows.
Text / book: I think I bumped into a book called "Quantum Computing and Quantum Information" by Nielsen and Chuang. Sometimes called the bible of the field, this is the canonical textbook of the subject. Get this for me.
Narration: Jonathan's passed away two months, unexpectedly in 2020.
Dates: APRIL 2, 1955 — JUNE 5, 2020
Panel 7:
Red-haired woman: I never met him in person, but I learned a lot from him. Last we talked, he was working on a book about the quantum internet, which I hope is still published.
Panel 8:
Red-haired woman: Anyway, I don't have any special insight here. Honestly it just blows my mind. He was a complicated version of my favorite kind of thing from his book: the only constant you need is that there's algorithm is extremely important in quantum computing.
Text / book cover: THESE ARE HIS WORDS, NOT MY PICTURES.
Panel 9:
Red-haired woman: When I was a graduate student at the University of Colorado, I took two semesters on the subject because the smartest people called "quantum theory" in the math department.
Panel 10:
Red-haired woman: My fellow physics students all laughed and laughed at quantum theory and our quantum theory professor for the rest...
Red-haired woman: "Number theory!" What self-respecting physicist would ever need to know number theory you should take something useful!
Panel 11:
Dark-haired woman: It found number theory fun and quoted: "Math has the last laugh."
Red-haired woman: Two or fixing exciting algorithm as a large dry scale and grossly featuring people of quantum, the most beautiful theory in the world graded citron of Euclid's greatest common divisor algorithm, the better being able to factor in Chinese remainder theory — that is, then frighteningly old with a bit of crap that's even older.
Panel 12 (stone monument image):
(A weathered stone slab with no legible text.)
Panel 13:
Red-haired woman: It was in his army research project in the same era. I first alerted the navy research office to the importance of Shor's algorithm in some cryptography. I was trained to give lecturers on the subject to many scientists and brass.
Red-haired woman: At one memorable lecture, I stopped me when I got to the part about "general theorem."
General / man: How long did you have to be doing this???
Red-haired woman: Now I love the Chinese brass... finally on this!!
Panel 14:
Red-haired woman: I replied with a completely straight face: General, when it comes to the remainder theorem, the Chinese are years ahead of us.
Red-haired woman: The general turned to his aide and barked: The Chinese are years ahead. THAT DOWN.
Panel 15 (man at a desk):
Narration: The Chinese mathematician who, told first proved the remainder theorem, the work, in his book, this mathematician (Sunzi, that the Chinese count it a x.x)...
Votey:
Handwritten text: JESUS. IT'S A FREAKIN' MEMORIAL FOR A BONUS JOKE.?!
SHAME.
Narration / setup: A red-haired woman sits at a laptop, speaking to a dark-haired woman.
Red-haired woman: Some time in 2018, I was frantically trying to understand quantum computing. Anyone who has tried to understand quantum computing knows it a field that can drive you literally insane.
Laptop text: "...quantum..." (illegible technical text on screen)
Panel 2:
Red-haired woman: Help! Am I just morning glory? Help!
Panel 3:
Red-haired woman: But, with this chapter, we were getting a real glimpse. We tried to read primary literature, but quantum technology and our usual process was to start at the beginning, find some accessible textbook, and over a month of two days, ascend a mound of comprehension to the experts. Eventually we'd reach some primary literature and you'd start, finally, to understand. So I'd go nuts and you'd have a topic, and... look!
Panel 4:
Dark-haired woman: Explain it to me again?
Red-haired woman: It's like... there's a bit. There's different places, and the places I have no idea what I'm talking about.
Panel 5:
Red-haired woman: Popular treatments usually are so simple they don't even make sense, or they're actively wrong.
Red-haired woman: So the chip can be a 1 or a 0 but when it is many, both numbers in any given numbers!
Panel 6:
Red-haired woman: It had Daniel Jonathan's accession treatments. "Take a dominant theory" as some text shows.
Text / book: I think I bumped into a book called "Quantum Computing and Quantum Information" by Nielsen and Chuang. Sometimes called the bible of the field, this is the canonical textbook of the subject. Get this for me.
Narration: Jonathan's passed away two months, unexpectedly in 2020.
Dates: APRIL 2, 1955 — JUNE 5, 2020
Panel 7:
Red-haired woman: I never met him in person, but I learned a lot from him. Last we talked, he was working on a book about the quantum internet, which I hope is still published.
Panel 8:
Red-haired woman: Anyway, I don't have any special insight here. Honestly it just blows my mind. He was a complicated version of my favorite kind of thing from his book: the only constant you need is that there's algorithm is extremely important in quantum computing.
Text / book cover: THESE ARE HIS WORDS, NOT MY PICTURES.
Panel 9:
Red-haired woman: When I was a graduate student at the University of Colorado, I took two semesters on the subject because the smartest people called "quantum theory" in the math department.
Panel 10:
Red-haired woman: My fellow physics students all laughed and laughed at quantum theory and our quantum theory professor for the rest...
Red-haired woman: "Number theory!" What self-respecting physicist would ever need to know number theory you should take something useful!
Panel 11:
Dark-haired woman: It found number theory fun and quoted: "Math has the last laugh."
Red-haired woman: Two or fixing exciting algorithm as a large dry scale and grossly featuring people of quantum, the most beautiful theory in the world graded citron of Euclid's greatest common divisor algorithm, the better being able to factor in Chinese remainder theory — that is, then frighteningly old with a bit of crap that's even older.
Panel 12 (stone monument image):
(A weathered stone slab with no legible text.)
Panel 13:
Red-haired woman: It was in his army research project in the same era. I first alerted the navy research office to the importance of Shor's algorithm in some cryptography. I was trained to give lecturers on the subject to many scientists and brass.
Red-haired woman: At one memorable lecture, I stopped me when I got to the part about "general theorem."
General / man: How long did you have to be doing this???
Red-haired woman: Now I love the Chinese brass... finally on this!!
Panel 14:
Red-haired woman: I replied with a completely straight face: General, when it comes to the remainder theorem, the Chinese are years ahead of us.
Red-haired woman: The general turned to his aide and barked: The Chinese are years ahead. THAT DOWN.
Panel 15 (man at a desk):
Narration: The Chinese mathematician who, told first proved the remainder theorem, the work, in his book, this mathematician (Sunzi, that the Chinese count it a x.x)...
Votey:
Handwritten text: JESUS. IT'S A FREAKIN' MEMORIAL FOR A BONUS JOKE.?!
SHAME.
Alt text
A tall multi-panel SMBC comic. A red-haired woman, speaking to a dark-haired woman, narrates an autobiographical tribute to quantum-computing/number-theory researcher Jonathan (an apparent stand-in for a real-life mentor). She describes the maddening difficulty of trying to understand quantum computing in 2018, working through accessible textbooks up to the primary literature. She references the textbook 'Quantum Computing and Quantum Information' by Nielsen and Chuang, the field's 'bible,' and notes the author passed away unexpectedly in 2020 (a panel shows the dates April 2, 1955 to June 5, 2020). She praises Shor's algorithm, the Euclidean greatest-common-divisor algorithm, and the ancient Chinese remainder theorem. A weathered blank stone monument appears mid-strip. In a military-lecture anecdote, a general asks how long she's been doing this, and she deadpans, 'General, when it comes to the remainder theorem, the Chinese are years ahead of us,' which the general repeats earnestly to his aide. The strip ends with a panel of a man (the late mathematician) at a desk. Votey: a hand-drawn caption on a blank panel reads, 'JESUS. IT'S A FREAKIN' MEMORIAL FOR A BONUS JOKE?! SHAME.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.