Programming the Universe

Just finished Programming the Universe by Seth Lloyd. If I had to pick one word to describe the book it would be ambitious. But I don't have to limit myself to one word so here's the much longer description. It's a 220 page book that does not assume any knowledge of computation, information theory (even what a bit is), thermodynamics, or quantum mechanics but yet explains the basics of all of these fields enough to lead up to Seth Lloyd's proposal for a theory of everything based on studying the universe as a quantum computer. Quite a feat (the actual material is also very interesting). For me it was cool to finally get the explanation of why entropy is information since I never took 6.095 (or whatever it is called these days).

So when you decide to read a book because you are two degrees of separation from the author, it is not terribly surprising to see people you know mentioned in the book - but I still thought it was cool. It wasn't surprising to see Ike Chuang (one of the professors Susanna worked for at MIT). I was a little surprised to see Gerry Sussman, but he is a rather well known professor at MIT so not a big shock. Frank Wilczek (taught the recitation for 8.022 which was my first hour of class at MIT, an hour which had me thinking that I had gotten in way over my head) on the back cover is not a big shock. But it was a kick to see Aram (an AEPi brother) mentioned in the acknowledgments.