Seth Lloyd

Seth Lloyd is a Professor of mechanical engineering at MIT.

His research area is the interplay of information with complex systems, especially quantum systems. He has made contributions to the field of quantum computation and proposed a design for a quantum computer.

In his book, Programming the Universe, Lloyd contends that the universe itself is one big quantum computer producing what we see around us, and ourselves, as it runs a cosmic program. According to Lloyd, once we understand the laws of physics completely, we will be able to use small-scale quantum computing to understand the universe completely as well.

Lloyd states that we could have the whole universe simulated in a computer in 600 years provided that computational power increases according to Moore's Law. However, Lloyd shows that there are limits to rapid exponential growth in a finite universe, and that it is very unlikely that Moore's Law will be maintained indefinitely.

Works

• Lloyd, S. (2000-08-31). "Ultimate physical limits to computation" (PDF). Nature. 406: 1047–1054. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Lloyd, S., Programming the Universe : A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos, Knopf, March 14, 2006, 240 p., ISBN 1-4000-4092-2

• Edge interviews with Seth Lloyd

External links

• Personal web page
• Radio Interview from This Week in Science September 26, 2006 Broadcast