Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos
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Programming the Universe is a popular science book by Seth Lloyd, professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published in 2006. In it, he advanced the view that the universe is actually a giant quantum computer.Quote:
Is the universe actually a giant quantum computer? According to Seth Lloyd, the answer is yes. All interactions between particles in the universe, Lloyd explains, convey not only energy but also information–in other words, particles not only collide, they compute. What is the entire universe computing, ultimately? "Its own dynamical evolution," he says. "As the computation proceeds, reality unfolds." Programming the Universe, a wonderfully accessible book, presents an original and compelling vision of reality, revealing our world in an entirely new light.[/b]
As reviewer Corey S. Powell put it in the New York Times. Lloyd:
Lloyd, wrote Powell, is "one of the world's experts in a new kind of computing device, called a quantum computer, which . . . mimic the natural world perfectly,"Quote:
In the space of 221 dense, frequently thrilling and occasionally exasperating pages, … tackles computer logic, thermodynamics, chaos theory, complexity, quantum mechanics, cosmology, consciousness, sex and the origin of life — throwing in, for good measure, a heartbreaking afterword that repaints the significance of all that has come before.takes as his topic the fundamental workings of the universe…, which he thinks has been horribly misunderstood. Scientists have looked at it as a ragtag collection of particles and fields while failing to see what it is as a majestic whole: an enormous computer.[/b]
In an interview with Wired magazine, Lloyd postulated that
Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist of the American Library Association, said that the book:Quote:
everything in the universe is made of bits. Not chunks of stuff, but chunks of information — ones and zeros. … Atoms and electrons are bits. Atomic collisions are "ops." Machine language is the laws of physics. The universe is a quantum computer.[/b]
more detail: http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/lloyd/Quote:
offers brilliantly clarifying explanations of the "bit," the smallest unit of information; how bits change their state; and how changes-of-state can be registered on atoms via quantum-mechanical qualities such as "spin" and "superposition." Putting readers in the know about quantum computation, Lloyd then informs them that it may well be the answer to physicists' search for a unified theory of everything. Exploring big questions in accessible, comprehensive fashion, Lloyd's work is of vital importance to the general-science audience.[/b]
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