> For what it's worth, David Deutsch, in Fabric of Reality, Chapter 9
> (Quantum Computers), paragraph 2, says:
>
> "Quantum computation is more than just a faster, more miniaturized
> technology for implementing Turing machines. A quantum computer is a machine
> that uses uniquely quantum-mechanical effects, especially interference, to
> perform wholly new types of computation that would be impossible, even in
> principle, on any Turing machine and hence on any classical computer.
> Quantum computation is therefore nothing less than a distinctively new way
> of harnessing nature."
>
> Does anyone have any feedback on how Deutsch is regarded by others working
> in this area?
I notice that Deutsch has recently been elected as a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society, a none-to insignificant achievement.
What interests me is how digital communications networks have evolved to optical communications networks, towards quantum communications networks, and how that intersects with development of quantum/optical computing technologies; which eventually signals the next phase of civilisation: I'd like you to consider that with the birth of the internet in the 1990s, the next phase of the information age has just begun (draw parallels to the early, mid and late bronze ages); and from now onwards, virtually(!) all knowledge work is connected to the global information repository, i.e. the internet as we currently know it.
Anyway, I have further reading to do; having a 'real' day job really sucks.
(btw. thanks for the various replies to my question, you know who you are)
Matthew.
-- matthew.gream@pobox.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:06:42 MDT