First IBM Research Workshop on the Informational Lens

The "information century" was launched by Turing's 1936 invention of a hardware-independent notion of computing, a "universal computer" that could be programmed to simulate any other computer; and by Shannon's 1948 discovery of a mathematical theory of communications independent of their physical form and even their meaning.

Arguably, we are today in the midst of another information revolution, with the advent of neurons and qubits as new representation and processing elements for information. These advances, together with the exponential growth in memory and speed of conventional computing, have made it hazardous to conjecture any informational task at which humans will not be soon bested by computers.

Viewing the world through an informational lens, and understanding constraints and tradeoffs such as energy and parallelism versus reliability and speed, will have profound consequences throughout technology and science. This includes not only mathematics and the natural sciences like physics and biology, but also social sciences such as psychology and linguistics. We aim to bring together leading researchers in science and technology from across the globe to discuss ideas and future research directions through the informational lens.

The workshop will have presentations grouped by themes followed by Q/A and panel discussions. Our themes include quantum computing, mathematics and computer science, biology and intelligence, and physics.

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