Daniel Spils
Seattle
Seth Lloyd vid — 2 years ago
In Todd’s words, “This is a decent short-form version of the lecture
we saw last Monday, in case you wanted to check it out.”.
|
May 08 Mon |
Seth Lloyd: Programming the Universe
7:30pm
at
Town Hall |
|---|
Seth Lloyd is a professor at MIT who works in the vanguard of research in quantum computing – using the quantum mechanical properties of atoms as a computer. He believes once humans have a complete understand the laws of physics, quantum computing will allow a complete understanding of the universe as well. His new book Programming the Universe explains how the creation of the universe involves information processing. His hypotheses bear implications for the evolution vs. intelligent design debate since he argues divine intervention isn’t necessary to produce complexity and life. Downstairs at Town Hall, enter on Seneca Street.
(From upcoming.org
| Last edited by Todd Gehman)
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Daniel Spils
Seattle
Great talk by Seth Lloyd — 2 years ago
This was interesting material—Seth’s premise is that the nature of the universe is one of computing. For him this isn’t a metaphor but a fact. In Seth’s world matter has been computing since the Big Bang and continues to do so. Human computers are really a harnessing or redirecting of already existing computing acitivity. Without too much blah blah, I’ll say that he made a compelling argument and was a highly entertaining and likeable person. The most interesting challenge to his premise was that his leap from atoms and such being bits (just like computer bits) to the universe-as-computer program is a big one. That is, programs that we think of have intention—they go somewhere and peform a specified funtion. He stumbled a bit on this challenge, but openly so claiming that the program of the Universe can be random or not totally apparent. At least that’s what I got out of the exchange.
This was only the 2nd “computerized” speech (using powerpoint) that Seth has made in 3 years as he tries to keep computers out of his non-work life. So his slides where hand-drawn projections which added a nice human touch to the talk. And the audience was really a great component to his talk. A great event from a guy with lots of brain power and a sharp wit. Definitely catch Seth if he’s in your hood—and buy his book (it’s got a lot of sex in it, he claims).
