This will be a talk on 28th April at the National University of Singapore. Slides here.

Abstract: This talk will explain the notion of a computation and the importance of the idea that some computations are more difficult than others. I’ll begin by explaining the rough idea of computers and algorithms, and how a single computer is able to implement many different programs. We’ll then look at some examples and see that there are different algorithms for solving the same problem. I’ll then present the idea that there’s a fundamental limit to what can be done with computers. I’ll close with possible questions regarding the link between computational difficulty and the ethics of computation.