Quest for the Quantum Computer [Paperback]

Taking readers to the cutting edge of physics, mathematics, and computer science, Julian Brown tells the dramatic story of the groundbreaking efforts to create a fundamentally new kind of computer that would be astronomically more powerful than today's machines. In 1998, a team of researchers announced they had produced the world's first quantum computer in a cup of chloroform. In fascinating, fully accessible detail, Brown explains the ideas that led up to this accomplishment and explores the mind-stretching implications of this leap into the bizarre world of quantum physics.The Quest for the Quantum Computeris a riveting look at what promises to be one of the most important scientific and technological ideas of the twenty-first century.Julian Brownis a science journalist who specializes in physics and computers. He has written extensively about quantum physics forNew Scientistmagazine, and is the coeditor ofThe Ghost in the AtomandSuperstrings: A Theory of Everything?He lives in San Francisco, California.Chapter One: Late-Night Quantum Thoughts

Any technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke

Life in Other Universes

Gaunt, hair unkempt, and skin a ghostly shade, David Deutsch cuts a strange figure even by the standards of the eccentrics and oddballs that so often inhabit the upper reaches of science. Yet appearances can be deceptive. Talk to Deutsch and you won't find the withdrawn, head-in-the-clouds academic you might expect but someone who is articulate, personable, and exceedingly bright. You'll also quickly discover this is an individual whose ideas about life and the universe are bigger and more radical than those of anyone you are ever likely to meet.

As I drove from London to visit him at his home in Oxford, a fatal accident on the road alerted me to the bizarre implications of some of Deutsch's ideas, in particular his resolutelÃ^