Turing Award Winner: P vs NP, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Quantum Computation | Avi Wigderson

About this episode

Avi Wigderson discusses his groundbreaking work in computer science and mathematics, including P vs NP, zero-knowledge proofs, and quantum computation.

Avi Wigderson is the only person in history to have won both a Turing Award (computer science) and Abel Prize (math). I interviewed him all about his field. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/5GUcvSAJcJw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-p-vs-np-zero Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work: • WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:08) P vs NP (14:51) What if you relaxed correctness (25:38) Why NP complete problems are equivalent (30:33) Space vs time complexity (43:06) Why people use SAT solvers (45:53) Randomness is a resource (55:48) Randomness depends on computational power (01:21:20) Zero knowledge proofs and their significance (01:38:30) Quantum computation and why it matters (01:56:24) Math vs computer science (02:08:16) Major breakthroughs and his experience (02:12:31) Advice for his younger self…

People in this episode

Host: Ryan Peterman

Guest: Avi Wigderson

Topics covered

• Turing Award
• P vs NP
• Zero-Knowledge Proofs
• Quantum Computation
• Computer Science
• Mathematics

Keywords

• Turing Award
• P vs NP
• Zero-Knowledge Proofs
• Quantum Computation
• SAT solvers
• randomness
• computational power

Sponsors

WorkOS

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: YouTube, Apple, Wikipedia, Personal Website, Newsletter, X/Twitter, LinkedIn

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