Clipmarks | Seth lloyd Clips

5 Great Science Books to Expand Your Mind

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:25:48 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: I have read all mentioned books. Highly recommended and serious reading list.

Clip Source: www.readwriteweb.com

One of the great discoveries of modern science was the realization of how interconnected the world is. The deterministic, Newtonian view of a clockwork Universe was replaced by the much more dynamic, uncertain and entangled world of Quantum Mechanics. The new world is the one where Godel forever cut hopes for completeness in mathematics and Turing showed that computation, like the future, is fundamentally unpredictable.

The recently discovered science of complex systems is about common patterns that span diverse disciplines from physics to biology, from ecology to economics.

we will discuss 5 different books that will get you fired up about modern science.

1. Godel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter

2. Complexity by Mitchell Waldrop

3. At Home in the Universe, by Stuart Kauffman

4. The User Illusion, by Tor Norretranders

5. Programming the Universe, by Seth Lloyd

Tags: complexity, modern science, patterns, books

Quotes from Computational philosophy

Thu, 22 May 2008 18:13:42 GMT

clipped by: shandora
clipper's remarks: Many more in the link...

Clip Source: www.crumpled.com

A difference that does not make a difference is not a difference at all.
-- Anon. Pragmatist's Motto

Nothing is more practical than a good theory.
-- Ludwig Boltzmann

...I can't define my wife, but I can recognize her.
--E. Atlee Jackson, as quoted by John Horgan, The End of Science

Everything that's worth understanding about a complex system, can be understood in terms of how it processes information.
-- "Lloyd's Hypothesis", named after Seth Lloyd, Moore's Law and the Ultimate Laptop

Emergent behavior is that which cannot be predicted through analysis at any level simpler than that of the system as a whole... Emergent behavior, by definition, is what's left after everything else has been explained.
-- George B. Dyson

Tags: computation, quotes

Is quantum Internet search on the way?

Wed, 07 May 2008 09:19:52 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: physorg.com

In classical computing, random access memory (RAM) is needed to make things “work.” But it is subject to a certain level of energy loss. But what if you could create low-energy quantum access memory (QRAM) that would not only work in terms of quantum computing, but that could also be applied to classical computing?

Seth Lloyd, a researcher at MIT, believes that a new architecture for QRAM could be used to not only reduce the energy wasted by RAM, but also be used for completely anonymous Internet search. “My colleagues and I were interested in protocols for quantum Internet search,” he tells PhysOrg.com. “And we were also interested in what we could do with even a rudimentary quantum Internet. But first you have to develop this quantum RAM.”

Lloyd worked with Vittorio Giovannetti at the NEST-CNR-INFM in Pisa, Italy, and with Lorenzo Maccone at the University of Pavia, in Pavia, Italy, to put together a system that would work as QRAM

Tags: seth lloyd, quantum, ram

SOCIAL NETWORKS ARE LIKE THE EYE

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:16:47 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: A Talk with Nicholas A. Christakis

Clip Source: www.edge.org

Introduction

On of the oft-repeated phrases on Edge is "New Technologies=New Perceptions". As we create tools we recreate ourselves. In the digital information age, we have moved from thinking about silicon, transistors, and microprocessors, to redefining, to the edge of creating life itself. As we have seen in recent editions of Edge — "Life: What A Concept!" (Freeman Dyson, Craig Venter, George Church, Robert Shapiro, Dimitar Sasselov, Seth Lloyd) at Eastover Farm in August, "Life: A Gene-Centric View" (Richard Dawkins and Craig Venter) in Munich in January; "Engineering Biology" (Drew Endy) in our most recent edition — we are redefining who and what we are.

Such scientific explorations are not limited to biology. Recently, Harvard professor and sociologist Nicholas Christakis has shown that there's more to think about regarding social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and Twitter than considerations of advertising and revenue models.

Tags: social networking

Is The Universe A Computer?

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:28:04 GMT

clipped by: muhus

Clip Source: cosmicvariance.com

Via the Zeitgeister, a fun panel discussion at the Perimeter Institute between Seth Lloyd, Leonard Susskind, Christopher Fuchs and Sir Tony Leggett, moderated by Bob McDonald of CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks program. The topic is “The Physics of Information,” and as anyone familiar with the participants might guess, it’s a lively and provocative discussion.

Tags: physics

The Physics of Information: What the Universe Doesn't Want You to Know

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:04:39 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The panellists for the discussion werr. Leonard Susskind is widely recognized as one of the most creative researchers in the field of theoretical particle physics.
Dr. Seth Lloyd is a Professor of mechanical engineering at MIT.
Dr. Christopher Fuchs is a Long Term Visitor with Perimeter Institute and is an adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of New Mexico.
Sir Anthony Leggett is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

Clip Source: www.cbc.ca

Physicists are not like you and me. That’s because they don't see the world the same way we do.

Take information, for instance. When you have a question or an interest in some topic, and you want more information about it, chances are you look for answers by reading a book, searching the Internet, or even listening to a radio program. But that's not how physicists view information. They want to know what it's actually made of. And that idea leads to a whole lot of weird and quirky views of how the universe works.

The Physics of Information was the topic of a recent public forum, sponsored by Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, and moderated by Bob McDonald. And Quirks was there to record the event. Do ideas about information and reality inspire fruitful new approaches to the hardest problems of modern physics?

Tags: information, universe, physics

The Quantum Computer

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:26:27 GMT

clipped by: bjglesener
clipper's remarks: Pretty soon we'll be able to do brain transplants...or become Cyborgs...

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

Quantum Leap: Computer to 'Make Computer History'

Canadian Firm Promises Computer Based on Quantum Physics, Many Times Faster Than World's Best

By NED POTTER

Feb. 12, 2007 — - "Quantum Computing." It's one of those things that bring a sparkle to the eyes of propellerheads -- and make the rest of us just scratch our heads.

But it's been a holy grail in the arcane world of supercomputers -- and a Canadian firm claims it will be unveiling one on Tuesday. Nevermind that most engineers thought quantum computers were decades away.

D-Wave Systems, Inc., based near Vancouver, is the company that's been working on the project. Its machine is described as a computer that can perform 64,000 calculations at once.

Following the odd laws of quantum mechanics, the digital "bits" that race through its circuits will be able to stand for 0 or 1 at the same time, allowing the machine, eventually, to do work that is orders of magnitude more complex than what today's computers can do.

"There are certain classes of problems that can't be solved with digital computers," said Herb Martin, the firm's CEO, over a decidedly-noisy digital cell phone. "Digital computers are good at running programs; quantum computers are good at handling massive sets of variables."

Reality Check

Will this actually happen any time soon? Much of the computing world is skeptical. Major companies, such as IBM and NEC, have done years of research without results so far.

Even Seth Lloyd of MIT, a computer scientist whose research is cited as a major source of D-Wave's work, has been quoted as saying that while he's happy they're trying, he'll wait to see what they've done.

So don't go online in search of a quantum machine any time soon. But don't be surprised if, at some time in the future, you can go online to a search engine which just happens to be powered by this very strange technology.

Tags: technology, quantum, computer