The political world spun on its axis without my help

Just back from a great vacation playing chamber music for 5 intense days with fellow amateur musicians. As is typical of a group of 90 such types, there were 3 Math PhD’s, 2 Physics PhD’S, probably 10 MDs and plenty of biology PhDs and researchers. The 900 mile drive out to Interlaken through Ontario on the way out and Ohio and NY on the way back was fun. The country was verdant and looked very good both ways. We are fortunate to live in such a country. As is typical of the MidWest the modus operandi was ‘be pleasant’ and irony was unknown. I actually heard a waitress say “Oh Gosh!”

Even better was intentionally avoiding the Internet and my wife’s iPhone. It showed me that I’ve spent way too much time reading about politics (CNN, Fox, NY post, NYT etc. etc.) which in no way influences the outcome just as did the 3 years I’ve spent writing posts saying Biden was in early dementia with negligible effect — https://luysii.wordpress.com/2024/06/30/bidens-cognitive-problems-are-nothing-new/.

One political note: I saw at least 100 Trump signs outside homes in rural Northern Michigan and a few other states, and not a single Harris sign anywhere (although her ads were all over TV everywhere we went)..

When not playing, I started going through “Quantum Computing, a Gentle Introduction” by Reiffel and Polak following a friend’s advice to stop reading popularizations and start reading the sacred texts in the original. Spoiler alert: the introduction is not gentle and I don’t advise starting it unless you’ve had a linear algebra course, or have spent some time studying it. She presented the initial work to two groups in Palo Alto (FX Palo Alto Laboratory and Palo Alto Research Center) and describes their ‘struggles’ learning the material so be warned. Her writing is quite clear and unambiguous.

You do not have to know ANY physics to read the book, nor do you have to solve the Schrodinger equation. Reiffel presents QM axiomatically and moves on from there. Tensors are involved and crucial in explaining exactly what entanglement is (mathematically at least). I think I did a better job of it in a post written 10 years ago — https://luysii.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/how-formal-tensor-mathematics-and-the-postulates-of-quantum-mechanics-give-rise-to-entanglement/.

I’ll be posting about this book (and reading no politics or news) until the first Trump Harris debate which may have a politically cataclysmic effect similar to the Trump Biden debate.