Seth Lloyd > Quotes

“Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes, and the second law of thermodynamics.”
― Seth Lloyd

“Meaning is like pornography, you know it when you see it.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“Programmed by quanta, physics gave rise first to chemistry and then to life; programmed by mutations and recombination, life gave rise to Shakespeare; programmed by experience and imagination, Shakespeare gave rise to Hamlet.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“The significance of a bit depends not just on its value but on how that value affects other bits over time, as part of the continued information processing that makes up the dynamical evolution of the universe.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“Without sex, the only way for bacteria to adapt is through mutation, which is caused by reproductive error or environmental damage. Most mutations are hurtful; they make for even less successful bacteria—though eventually, with luck, a mutation would arise that made for a more heat-resistant bacterium. Asexual adaptation is problematic because the dictate of the world, “Change or die,” runs directly counter to one of the primary dictates of life: “Maintain the integrity of the genome.” In engineering, this type of clash is called a coupled design. Two functions of a system clash so that it is not possible to adjust one without negatively affecting the other. In sexual reproduction, by contrast, the inherent scrambling, or recombination, affords a vast scope for change, yet still maintains genetic integrity.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“Moore’s law is a law not of nature, but of human ingenuity.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“philosopher Archie Bahm: “Nature can never be completely described, for such a description of nature would have to duplicate nature.” That is, a perfect description of the universe is indistinguishable from the universe itself.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“Quantum fluctuations are the monkeys that program the universe.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“Ultimately, information and energy play complementary roles in the universe: Energy makes physical systems do things. Information tells them what to do.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“The computational universe is not an alternative to the physical universe. The universe that evolves by processing information and the universe that evolves by the laws of physics are one and the same. The two descriptions, computational and physical, are complementary ways of capturing the same phenomena.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“A classical computation is like a solo voice—one line of pure tones succeeding each other. A quantum computation is like a symphony—many lines of tones interfering with one another.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“Computers certainly possess the ability to reason and the capacity for self-reference. And just because they do, their actions are intrinsically inscrutable. Consequently, as they become more powerful and perform a more varied set of tasks, computers exhibit an unpredictability approaching that of human beings. Indeed, by Averroës’s standards, they possess the same degree of immortality as humans.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“As mentioned before, quantum mechanics guarantees that any physical system with finite energy confined to a finite volume of space has a finite number of distinguishable states and therefore will register a finite number of bits.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“Like all languages, Atom is easier to learn when you’re younger. With Paul Penfield, I co-teach a freshman course at MIT called Information and Entropy. The goal of this course, like the goal of this book, is to reveal the fundamental role that information plays in the universe.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“Entropy is the information contained in a physical system that is invisible to us.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos

“Our classical intuition tells us that analog computation is intrinsically continuous and digital computation is intrinsically discrete. As with many other classical intuitions, this one is incorrect when applied to quantum computation. Analog quantum computers and digital quantum computers are one and the same device.”
― Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos