This book tells you nothing about Quantum Computing. It does nothing to “Demystify” the subject. It tells you a lot about the hype surrounding it and the sky-castle dreams of those pushing it. That’s not to say it has no place in the discussion. It clearly delineates what those championing it want and hope for. It’s a bit repetitive actually coming back to the same points from different angles. It covers the politics these points, not the physics.
I spent the last 15 years as head of an IT department. I installed and maintained the network wiring, routers, servers, storage, and workstations. I did a lot of pluck and chuck repairs. I had a basic knowledge of how the components worked and the physics behind them. At one time I could draw an adder circuit from memory. I understood not only how to use digital, but the physics used to harness it.
The idea of a Quantum Bit … Qubit … seems to defy all logic. The book doesn’t begin to explain how something that is an infinite number of things all at the same time is not actually nothing. If I have a bit, it will have a value that conveys information to me. If I have a qubit and it may be, or is, all values, what the heck do I do with that? There’s a reason the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is called … well … Uncertain.
If you want to understand what people want and hope for from quantum computing, this is a pretty good. It will tell you nothing the physics behind it or how to harness those physics.