The universe is made from bits. The way in which the universe registers & processes information determines what it is & how it behaves. It has been known for more than a century that every piece of the universe
- every electron, atom, & molecule
- registers bits of information. It is only in the last ten years, however, with the discovery & development of quantum computers, that scientists have gained a fundamental understanding of just how that information is registered & processed.
Seth Lloyd calls this fundamental understanding of the universe in terms of information processing 'the computational universe', & the purpose of this book is to show how the programmed, computational universe works. Starting from basic concepts of physics, Programming the Universe shows how all physical systems register information. It gives an accessible account of how information is stored & processed at the level of electrons, atoms, & molecules.
It shows how the information processing power of the universe can be harnessed to build quantum computers & explains how the universe itself behaves like a gigantic computer, transforming & processing information. It traces the history of information processing from the big bang to the present day, & reveals how the computational ability of the universe promotes the evolution of complex structures such as life. Programming the Universe is the story of the universe & the bits it is made from.