Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse: THE QUEST FOR THE QUANTUM COMPUTER

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Simon and Schuster, 05.04.2002 - 400 Seiten
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The traditional and ubiquitous digital computer has changed the world by processing series of binary ones and zeroes...very fast. Like the sideshow juggler spinning plates on billiard cues, the classical computer moves fast enough to keep the plates from falling off. As computers become faster and faster, more and more plates are being added to more and more cues.

Imagine, then, a computer in which speed is increased not because it runs faster, but because it has a limitless army of different jugglers, one for each billiard cue. Imagine the quantum computer.

Julian Brown's record of the quest for the Holy Grail of computing -- a computer that could, in theory, take seconds to perform calculations that would take today's fastest supercomputers longer than the age of the universe -- is an extraordinary tale, populated by a remarkable cast of characters, including David Deutsch of Oxford University, who first announced the possibility of computation in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of quantum mechanics; Ed Fredkin, who developed a new kind of logic gate as a true step toward universal computation; and the legendary Richard Feynman, who reasoned from the inability to model quantum mechanics on a classical computer the logical inevitability of quantum computing.

For, in the fuzzily indeterminate world of the quantum, new computing power is born. "Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse" details the remarkable uses for quantum computing in code breaking, for quantum computers will be able to crack many of the leading methods of protecting secret information, while offering new unbreakable codes. Quantum computers will also be able to model nuclear and subatomic reactions; offer insights into nanotechnology, teleportation, and time travel; and perhaps change the way chemists and biotechnologists design drugs and study the molecules of life. Farthest along the trail blazed by these pioneers is the ability to visualize the multiple realities of the quantum world not as a mathematical abstraction, but as a real map to a world of multiple universes...a "multiverse" where every possible event -- from a particular chess move to a comet striking the Earth -- not only can happen, but "does."

Incorporating lively explanations of ion trap gates, nuclear magnetic resonance computers, quantum dots, quantum algorithms, Fourier transforms, and puzzles of quantum physics, and illustrated with dozens of vivid diagrams, "Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse" is a mind-stretching look at the still-unbuilt but fascinating machines that, in the words of physicist Stanley Williams, "will reshape the face of science" and offer a new window into the secrets of an infinite number of potential universes.

 

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LibraryThing Review

Nutzerbericht  - gregfromgilbert - LibraryThing

This is a well written book that covers the fundamental ideas of quantum computing and quantum physics as of 2001. A previous review makes the author sound biased towards David Deutch’s multiverse ... Vollständige Rezension lesen

LibraryThing Review

Nutzerbericht  - fpagan - LibraryThing

A reprint of _Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse_ (Simon & Schuster, 2000). A good book, but why do publishers have to play these deceitful retitling games? Vollständige Rezension lesen

Ausgewählte Seiten

Inhalt

Foreword by David Deutsch
13
God the Universe and the Reversible Computer
40
The Logic of the Quantum Conspiracy
83
Quantum Parallelism
118
Code Breaking and the Shor Algorithm
147
Privacy Lost Privacy Regained
189
How to Build a Quantum Computer
229
Quantum Error Correction and Other Algorithms
268
Crossing the Error Threshold 280 Creating the GHZ State
282
Take a Ride on the Universal Quantum Simulator
288
Visions of the Quantum Age
301
Appendix A 347 Appendix B 347 Appendix C
348
Notes
359
Bibliography
373
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Autoren-Profil (2002)

Julian Brown specializes in physics and computing as a science journalist. New Science Magazine has featured his work prominently, and he has produced science specials for BBC and BBC World Service. He teamed up with Paul Davies to edit The Ghost in the Atom and Superstrings: A Theory of Everything.

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