List by Author: Marianne Freiberger

Do quantum computers exist?What's stopping us from building useful quantum computers? And how long until we'll have them?
How does quantum computing work?Here's a brief introduction to the possible future of computing.
Police and thievesUsing maths to simulate the behaviour of criminals.
Crimes and earthquakesHow the maths that is used to predict earthquakes can help fight gang crime.
Another way of votingShould we let go of the "one person, one vote" principle?
Mindless searchingHow stupid systems can use clever ways of finding things.
Why we want proof

What are mathematical proofs, why do we need them and what can they say about sheep?

Information: Baby stepsIf I tell you that it's Monday today, then you know it's not any of the other six days of the week. Perhaps the information content of my statement should be measured in terms of the number of all the other possibilities it excludes? Back in the 1920s this consideration led to a very simple formula to measure information.
Information is sophisticationKolmogorov complexity gives a high value to strings of symbols that are essentially random. But isn't randomness essentially meaningless? Should a measure of information assign a low value to it? The concept of sophistication addresses this question.
Information is surprise

If I tell you something you already know, then that's not very informative. So perhaps information should be measured in terms of unexpectedness, or surprise?