Sean Smith’s Reviews > Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos > Status Update

I enjoyed the description of Isaac Asimov's story "The Last Question." Multivac is the supercomputer that eventually becomes powerful enough to answer the same question mankind has been asking about reversing entropy..."LET THERE BE LIGHT!" I wish I felt the same way as Asimov.

A quantum computer given 10 input qubits can do 1,024 things at once. A quantum computer given 20 qubits can do 1,048,576 things at once. One with 300 qubits of input can do more things at once than there are elementary particles in the universe.

Laplace's demon is an intriguing thought. Laplace like Einstein was seeking to see the universe as predictable. ...if this intellect were vast enough to submit the data to analysis, could condense into single formula the movement of the greatest bodies of the universe and that of the lightest atom; for such an intellect nothing could be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.

What he's basically saying is if random sequences become essentially software programs that start crunching the raw data of the universe in meaningful ways patterns begin to form. The software programs essentially can breed more software programs and the staggeringly immense improbability that order will exist gets cut down to size by these engines creating more engines on and on.

...it's clear that energy and information (visible and invisible) are the two primary actors in the universal drama. The universe we see around us arises from the interplay between these two quantities... Energy is conserved. Information never decreases.

...Averroes in his studies of Aristotle concluded that what is immortal in human beings is not their soul but their capacity for reason. Reason is immortal exactly because it is not specific to any individual; instead, it is the common property of all reasoning beings.

For years my wife and I would go for lunch to Josie's in Santa Fe. I, after spending a long time scrutinizing the menu, would always order the half plate of chili rellenos, with red and green chile, and posole instead of rice. I felt strongly that I was exercising free will: until I chose the rellenos half plate, I felt anything was possible. My wife, however, knew exactly what I was going to order all the time.