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Fun fact: the trie data structure was invented by Ed Fredkin, a pioneer in Quantum computing as well as cellular automata

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This is the best kind of correct but it's an interesting phrasing since Fredkin is a kind of Quantum supremacy skeptic (hotkey-find Classicatopia in: https://windowsontheory.org/2017/10/30/the-different-forms-o...).

Fredkin's contribution were to reversible computation and since Quantum computers are a kind of reversible computer, many ideas and gate notions carried over.

I agree, that is a more accurate description of Ed's work & opinion re Q-computing

I guess you can ask, can someone be a significant contributor to a field they don't believe in? Didn't Einstein contribute to Quantum Mechanics, while simultaneously harboring grave misgivings? (God doesn't play dice etc)

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