The IBM scientist who rewrote the rules of information just won a Turing Award
142 points by rbanffy 2 days ago | 13 comments
  • AtlasBarfed 2 days ago |
    So the guy that came up with the idea and approach is the secondary on the award?
    • smokel 2 days ago |
      No, there is one award each year, and this year it is shared equally between two people: Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard. This happens more often, and it has even been shared between three people (in 2002, 2007 and 2018).
  • ashwinnair99 2 days ago |
    Information theory gets credited to Shannon but the people who made it actually work in practice rarely get this kind of recognition. Long overdue.
    • fsckboy 2 days ago |
      this isn't about making quantum computing work in practice, this work was still theoretical math
      • NetMageSCW 21 hours ago |
        Perhaps read the article before commenting. They spend ten years developing an experimental demonstration of their concepts that worked.
        • fsckboy 19 hours ago |
          the demonstration was to confirm their math. quantum computing hardware is very difficult. they will not be remembered for their groundbeaking work in quantum physics lab equipment
  • ZebusJesus 2 days ago |
    To think quantum computers at IBM in the 80's, its sad to think companies like IBM and Bell Labs are not the same companies they used to be, I mean the people working at those companies during the 20th century changed the world. Im glad they got this award as it is apparent they had a huge impact on security and quantum computing in general.
    • wil421 2 days ago |
      Serving Ads is more lucrative. I wonder what kind of stories we will tell about how the social media companies exploited human nature to make a buck.
      • jungturk a day ago |
        "Serving ads" is just the commercial application. All of the infrastructure used to harness (coordinate? co-opt?) the attention of the many and direct it toward some desired aims will surely end up being a tremendously transformative social capability.

        Hard to see the upside for humanity as we've understood it to date, but its definitely going to be more impactful than just making a buck.

        • chaboud a day ago |
          Nerds solving interesting problems find a way. Folks (myself included) worked on Privacy Pass for verifiable ad attestation, but the power of blinded attestation is meaningful in ways beyond advertising authenticity validation.

          For folks at the implementation level, the problem is often the prize. I just need to get paid enough to not care about how much I get paid. And implicitly contributing to social good is a form of gamification that works well. I've encountered lots of folks who operate in the same way. Yes, we're paying a bit more of a "feed the beast" tax than the good old days, but we're still able to operate with a remarkable degree of latitude.

  • 12_throw_away a day ago |
    At least the first two paragraphs of this are directly plagiarized from the first source they cite [1].

    [1] https://www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-cryptography-pioneers...

  • mrbluecoat a day ago |
  • bux93 21 hours ago |
    What a terrible headline and introduction. Designed to pique your interest by being mysterious? The ACM's announcement comes straight to the point: https://www.acm.org/media-center/2026/march/turing-award-202...