Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

I must note at the start that I am quite impressed with the work being done at the Santa Fe Institute where Seth Lloyd (a professor at MIT) spent some time. The scientists there are asking basic questions that may or may not have answers that we can understand, but should at least be addressed. That takes some courage in a world where funding for research seems to be more and more for restricted problems that will turn a proximate profit in real money. I have always been somewhat suspicious of the "universe as computer" (including everything in the universe) idea, especially as espoused by people using standard computers as models for the human brain. I dislike the term "hard-wired" because I see no way to demonstrate that such and such a behavior is truly absolute when it comes to living things, including (and possibly especially) our own species, which has apparently the most complex brain known.However, I was intrigued a while back by Roger Penrose's specific suggestion that the brain, for example, is a quantum computer. Although this idea has been disputed by various writers it seems to make sense in the way in which the universe, the solar system, the planets, life and the human brain actually work that this idea should certainly be explored more. Lloyd has now written a really amazing book that puts a number of these ideas together in "Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos." In the process he seemingly discounts a universe that runs like the standard computers with which we are familiar, or the cellular automata variety recently championed by Steven Wolfram in "A New Kind of Science." Instead he hypothesizes a universe computer based on one bit = one particle. What does this universal computer compute? It computes itself! The complexity of the universe is based on the number of particles it contains. This seems to me to be the only way in which the universe could possibly be a "machine," as it answers a question that the older mechanistic models do not, namely "Why do we have complexity at all?" Indeed, why does the human brain exist at all to contemplate such questions? If Lloyd is correct a lot of things about the universe would be more understandable. However it is too early to be certain of this. It, indeed, remains to be seen which of the hypothetical models will "prove" correct (if such "proof" can be found), but my bet is on a quantum universe- one that started out simply and became more and more complex until it reached its present state. It is to me not only more likely, but more appealing philosophically than a cut and dried deterministic one. I would have to add that if the idea of a deterministic universe should accumulate more solid data in its support than that of the quantum model, I may have to alter my opinion. Lloyd's book is a great introduction to these problems and I recommend it highly.

In the beginning, fourteen billion years ago, there wasn't any space, time, energy, or matter. Somehow something started up, but at the very beginning, everything was very simple and uniform; there were zero bits of information in it. And somehow the information grew, the bits combined, complexity increased, and we wound up with ourselves and a lot of other creatures, on a planet orbiting an unremarkable star within a galaxy like plenty of others. How did we get from no complexity to the amazing combination of chaos and order in the universe we call home? Perhaps a mechanical engineer can tell us. Seth Lloyd is a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, and you could be excused for thinking that he teaches gears and levers and gadgets. Actually, he is interested in quantum mechanics, and presents his view of, well, everything, in _Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos_ (Knopf). If you are used to thinking of the universe as lots of particles and energies, thinking of it as a big cosmic computer takes some getting used to. Is it worth it? If you are like me, you will continue to live in a Newtonian and Euclidean universe, with quantum mechanics being just too weird to comprehend. Lloyd, however, presents the strangeness in as clear an explanation as possible, and also presents the idea that viewing the universe as a computing system may hold promise for gaining the grail of the "Theory of Everything." It used to be thought that the universe was a big complicated machine, so it is not surprising that it is being thought of now as a big complicated computer. When planets form, or birds fly, or your breakfast gets digested, there is atomic jostling and joining, increasing disorder and thus increasing information. The particulars of every such interaction might be thought of as an information exchange, a manipulation of data; in other words, the sort of things computers do. Seen this way, the cosmos is changing in its merry way by computing; it is a huge computer, a quantum computer in Lloyd's view, whose output is itself. Lloyd is one of the researchers making quantum computers possible, and they have potential to make our current supercomputers seem like abacuses. Theoretically, they might start doing a lot more than instantaneous computing. Lloyd has high hopes for one very big achievement. Relativity is a beautiful theory concerning gravity and the large-scale universe, while quantum theory beautifully accounts for what can be seen on the small scales. They are both useful, and both correct, but they are as yet incompatible, and a quantum-mechanical theory of gravity would tie them both together nicely. It's no sure thing, but it isn't at all surprising that Lloyd thinks that quantum computation has a potential to make such a tie. Quantum computations as currently understood (including how the universe processes information) make specific predictions about the early universe and about bl

To be honest, as an IT professional, I usually don't care about what's going on in other fields. You get so busy with the things that you need to remember and deadlines that you need to meet that you don't really get a chance to read scientific books. But, once I heard this book was coming out, I made sure I had it ASAP. It was intriguing to me that someone wanted to try to make sense of our vast universe by using computer science. Well, this book was worth it. Sure, a lot of people might not understand what this book is talking about, but as a computer scientist, I thought the author should be applauded for his unique approach to the science of the Cosmos. Seth really laid it out there, and I thought the explanations that he provided in the book were clear (Well, except some parts that I am still not clear about, but that is probably my fault). Over all, an excellent book and a must have for everybody interested in this field of science.

Basically, there are two kinds of books on science for the general reader. The first and awful kind is written to make the mysteries of science a kind of Gee Whiz experience. The problem is that the explanations are so poor and misleading that the reader is actually further from a proper understanding of what modern science is about than they were before they read the book. The second kind is written by someone who not only has a profound insight into the topic they are sharing with the reader, they also have a special ability for stating things clearly and for making them less mysterious. This very interesting book is of the second kind and I recommend it to anyone who wants to think more clearly about quantum mechanics. Not the fake and misleading kind of popular fiction and the entertainment media, but of the kind that will actually help you understand the fabric of our universe. While I am no scientist, and I cannot pretend to be able to explain everything in this book to you, I do feel that I have read the best explanations of the two-slit single electron interference pattern demonstration and the concepts of entanglement and decoherence. Seth Lloyd does a fine job of keeping these things understandable for those of us who are interested but clearly lack the proper background to delve into this stuff as he does. This book would be superb for intelligent young people who are demonstrating a talent for science and engineering. I suspect that this book will results in stimulating a number of brilliant young minds to fine scientific careers. Possibly a few of them will work their way to becoming students of Dr. Lloyd at MIT. I am sure that this will be one of the positive outcomes of this strangely cool book. I must admit that as I read through the book there was more than one time where my head was swimming, but the author makes his case well and the last two chapters pull everything together in a strong way that invite the reader to further study of this topic. The basic idea of the book is that, and realize that I am likely getting this wrong, as the energy created during the inflationary period of the big bang cooled and precipitated into matter, there was free energy (the stuff we use for "work" and that does things) and entropy. Entropy is a knottier problem than the casual observer might think. Dr. Lloyd says that a portion of entropy is really information. It is the universe processing and describing itself. The author demonstrates this to us in a step-by-step way that provides the reader with at least a sense of understanding. Dr. Lloyd does say at one point that if you don't experience dizziness when thinking about quantum mechanics you aren't trying hard enough (or words to this effect). Dr. Lloyd demonstrates much of this to us through the notion of quantum computing (designing the first feasible quantum computer is one of the author's accomplishments) and how information is created and processed at the atomic leve

Another winner from a physics brainiac. More and more top scientists are writing books that are accesible to dumbasses like myself who are simply agog over quantum mechanics. Seth Lloyd is one of those scientists. "Programming the Universe" will no doubt appeal to fans of movies like "The Matrix," but also to novice, quantum hacks who just like feeling chills when someone explains the workings of the universe and the possibilities of the big picture. And this book has the added allure of quantum physics as applied to computers of the not-so-distant future, which appeals to geeks and aspiring geeks. Quantum mechanics is the future and getting on board with these ideas right now is adviseable. Otherwise, the others and I won't share space with you in our wormhole when the time has come to move along.