Idempotent

 It's a day when I thought I might be going to Montreal, but woke

up to a couple of feet of snow on the balcony. One couldn't even see

outside the windows. So, another day, once some of this has melted.

We were told this would be a mild winter, and I am clinging to that hope.

Back to trying to get clear in my mind how mathematical problems 

(optimization, looking for a maximum or minimum of a function), 

are run on a quantum computer. It's a different way of thinking, because

things are probableistic. One gets to the desired answer by running many trials

as opposed to getting more precise... And transferring notation from mathematics 

to quantum physics is no easy matter.

Did find something that made my day: I was hunting down the term 'idempotent'

(means self enpowering. In practical term, one can repeat something but the effect 

is always the initial one, like multiplying by 1 on the repeats). Turns out the term

was coined by Benjamin Peirce, the father of philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce

(who founded pragmatism and laid the groundwork for the advent of computers).

I read Peirce back in University, and it was demanding!! Below:

In the philosophy of mathematics, he (Benjamin Peirce) became known for the statement that "Mathematics is the science that draws necessary conclusions".^[7] Peirce's definition of mathematics was credited by his son, Charles Sanders Peirce, as helping to initiate the consequence-oriented philosophy of pragmatism. Like George Boole, Peirce believed that mathematics could be used to study logic. These ideas were further developed by his son Charles, who noted that logic also includes the study of faulty reasoning. In contrast, the later logicist program of Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell attempted to base mathematics on logic.

source: Wikipedia, Benjamin Peirce

Woa, that just lifted some dust from my view of things!!

Mon pays, c'est l'hiver...