HN Books @HNBooksMonth

In his book Programming the Universe[0][1], quantum physicist Seth Lloyd calculates that if you had every atom in the universe computing for the age of the universe to generate strings of text randomly, it would not likely have written even the first line of Hamlet. His solution to how we managed to get the entirety of Hamlet plus the rest of Shakespeare's works given much less resources (i.e. evolution on one small planet culminating in one playwright) is that the monkeys/atoms are not typing text into typewriters but instead typing code into a computers.

[0]Programming the Universe, by Seth Lloyd, a great read about physics and computation: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Universe-Quantum-Computer...

[1]The book is accessible with free account at archive.org: https://archive.org/details/programmingunive00lloy/page/n13/...

[1]Interview with Lloyd where he also mentions this calculation (search for "hamlet"): https://www.technologyreview.com/2006/07/01/39028/qa-seth-ll...

Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll[1]

Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder[2]

The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg[3]

Hyperspace - Michio Kaku[4]

Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit[5]

The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin[6]

About Time - Paul Davies[7]

Time Reborn - Lee Smolin[8]

The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene[9]

The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene[10]

The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene[11]

Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott[12]

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo[13]

Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin[14]

Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos - Seth Lloyd[15]

Higgs - The invention and discovery of the 'God Particle' - Jim Baggott[16]

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Something-Deeply-Hidden-Emergence-Spa...

[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Math-Beauty-Physics-Astray/dp/15...

[3]: https://www.amazon.com/First-Three-Minutes-Modern-Universe/d...

[4]: https://www.amazon.com/Hyperspace-Scientific-Parallel-Univer...

[5]: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Even-Wrong-Failure-Physical/dp/04...

[6]: https://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Physics-String-Theory-Science...

[7]: https://www.amazon.com/About-Time-Einsteins-Unfinished-Revol...

[8]: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Reborn-Lee-Smolin/dp/0544245598/

[9]: https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Universe-Superstrings-Dimensi...

[10]: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Reality-Parallel-Universes-Cos...

[11]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375412883/ref=dbs_a_def_r...

[12]: https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Space-Gravity-Structure-Unive...

[13]: https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Speaks-Numbers-Reveals-Natur...

[14]: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Roads-Quantum-Gravity-Smolin/dp...

[15]: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Universe-Quantum-Computer...

[16]: https://www.amazon.com/Higgs-invention-discovery-God-Particl...

Ordinary computer can't model even a small quantum system exactly in finite time because it has to deal with infinite-dimension matrices to do it. In other hands, quantum computer could model any quantum system of the same size by one-to-one mapping of degrees of freedom. So you could build a quantum computer that just models your computer and do anything you could do on your ordinary computer on the quantum one.

If you are interested in the subject try to read this book http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Universe-Quantum-Computer-... (you can skip the parts about the Universe as quantum computer because they are controversial and a kind of metaphysics, just read a few first chapters to pick up the idea of quantum computations).

Programming the Universe by Seth Lloyd really helped me to understand this stuff. http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Universe-Quantum-Computer-...