Quantum creativity with James Wootton

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The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology

Sebastian Hassinger

58 episodes

1 day ago

Your host, Sebastian Hassinger, interviews brilliant research scientists, software developers, engineers and others actively exploring the possibilities of our new quantum era. We will cover topics in quantum computing, networking and sensing, focusing on hardware, algorithms and general theory. The show aims for accessibility - Sebastian is not a physicist - and we'll try to provide context for the terminology and glimpses at the fascinating history of this new field as it evolves in real time.

All content for The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology is the property of Sebastian Hassinger and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Physics

Technology,

Science

Quantum creativity with James Wootton

The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology

34 minutes

2 months ago

Quantum creativity with James Wootton

In this episode, Sebastian Hassinger welcomes back James Wootton, now Chief Science Officer at Moth Quantum, for a fascinating conversation about quantum computing's role in creative applications. This is a return visit from James, having appeared on episode 2, this time to talk about his exciting new role. Previously at IBM Quantum, James has been a pioneer in exploring unconventional applications of quantum computing, particularly in gaming, art, and creative industries.

Key Topics

Origins of James's Quantum Journey

Started in Arosa, Switzerland (coincidentally where Schrödinger developed his wave equation)
Initially skeptical about commercial applications of his quantum error correction research
Created "Decodoku" (a play on "decoder" and "Sudoku"), a puzzle game to gamify quantum error correction in 2016
The same year IBM put a 5 qubit machine on the cloud, creating a paradigm shift in accessibility

Quantum Gaming Innovations

Developed what may be the first quantum computing game
Created "Hello Quantum," a mobile educational game
Developed "Quantum Blur," a tool that encodes images in quantum states, allowing users to see how quantum gates affect images
Used quantum computing for procedural generation in games, including terrain generation for Minecraft-like environments

Quantum Art and Creativity

Collaborated with a classical painter who has used Quantum Blur as his main artistic tool for five years
Explored using quantum computing for music generation
Investigated language generation using the DiscoCat framework

Moth Quantum

James joined Moth Quantum as Chief Science Officer
The company focuses on bringing quantum computing to creative industries
Their approach recognizes that in creative fields, "usefulness" can mean bringing something unique rather than just superior performance
Aims to build expertise with current quantum technologies to be ready when fault tolerance enables quantum advantage
At the beginning of May, 2025, Moth collaborated with musical artist ILA on a project called "Infinite Remix," using quantum computing in the creation of an exciting new musical creation tool.