The Bit and the Pendulum: How the New Physics of Information is Revolutionizing Science (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Had it appeared two months later, the IBM advertisement in the February 1996 Scientific American would have been taken for an April Fools' joke..." (more)
Key Phrases: quasiclassical realm, quantum math, quantum possibilities, Star Trek, New York, John Wheeler (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Information, for most of us, is an airy, abstract thing--the stuff of ideas, images, and symbols. But for Tom Siegfried and the scientists he writes about in The Bit and the Pendulum: How the New Physics of Information Is Revolutionizing Science, information has become something much more fundamental to the workings of the world. "Information is real," Siegfried explains. "Information is physical." What that means depends somewhat on the discipline it's applied to (cosmology, particle physics, computer science, cognitive theory, and molecular biology are among the fields examined here), but in general it comes down to the radically simple notion that the universe, at its deepest levels, is made not of matter and energy but of bits. Information is real, yes. But more to the point: reality, in some increasingly meaningful sense, is information.

So goes the argument anyway. And Siegfried, science editor of the Dallas Morning News, does a pretty good job of presenting it. His prose, admittedly, puts the flat in flat-footed, and his explanations of the relevant scientific phenomena (which include cool stuff like teleportation and quantum-mechanical computing) are sometimes murkier than they ought to be. But his knowledge of the last 10 years of theoretical research is sweeping, and he's especially deft with the tricky philosophy-of-science issues that pervade his topic. Have scientists really discovered, in information, the world's true foundation? Or have they simply found a handy new metaphor with which to think about the world? Siegfried wisely comes down on neither side of the question. For him, the power of metaphor is inseparable from the quest for scientific truth. And his book convincingly suggests that information, as a concept, will be generating deep scientific truths for years to come. --Julian Dibbell

From Library Journal

Siegfried, the science editor of the Dallas Morning News, presents the radical idea that information is not merely something abstract and intangible but that it is physical. He asserts that bits and bytes of information are the foundation of reality; in other words, "it from bit." He argues that everything in the universe, from the biology of living things to the cosmology of a black hole, is constructed of nothing more substantial than bits of information. Whether one agrees with this far-out concept or not, Siegfried weaves a provocative and convincing argument, supported by a plethora of scientific and mathematical research cited in numerous sources recommended for further reading. This is the new physics of information, and Siegfried says it is leading to major breakthroughs in a vast range of science such as teleportation and the development of "quantum computers" designed to decode the mysteries of DNA and human consciousness. Recommended for an informed audience.
-Joe J. Accardi, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471321745
• ISBN-13: 978-0471321743
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #294,607 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written and vague, October 29, 2002

By	rob (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to M Theory-The New Physics of Information (Paperback)

I bought this book on the strength of the reviews here, which as it turns out are extremely misleading. Yes, this is a very interesting topic and I did learn a few things from the book. But I personally found this one of the most poorly written, vacuous books I have ever read. Siegfried has done a broad survey of how scientists have found it useful in various fields to conceive of things in terms of information. It is a promising project; the problem is that he has very little idea of how all this is connected. Worse, he barely explains any of the science. He doesn't even seem to understand it himself--at least when he discusses the areas I am familiar with his explanations are clearly off the mark--but assures us that it is all very important and technical. In lieu of explanation, he drops names, telling the reader over and over and over how he personally talked to so-and-so and they assured him something-or-other was true. In one particularly embarrassing moment, Siegfried actually prints a full page interview in which he asks one scientist several incoherent questions, to which the scientist replies (I'm not kidding), "I don't know how to answer that," suggests the questions are outside of his field, and says Siegfried has gotten his meaning wrong. There's not even enough in this passage to take notes on, yet Siegfried prints it verbatim. I don't mean to bash him--and I'm glad someone is taking an interest in this important topic--but I don't want others to be mislead by these other reviews.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A journalist is not a scientist., March 1, 2001

By	Sumimus "sumimus" (Pacific Grove, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to M Theory-The New Physics of Information (Paperback)

When I read a review of this book in the New York Times, I thought this would be an interesting and informative presentation of the latest research in the field of quantum mechanics.

Unfortunatly it lacks depth in technical details and scientific description.

For example, the author seems to attribute to Murray Gell-Mann the notion of algorithmic complexity (p. 163): the complexity of a string of bits is measured by the shortest computer program capable of reproducing it. This is actually well known as the Kolmorov complexity. The author seems completly unaware of this. I remained largely eager to read somewhere else to learn more about the subject, since I could not find any precise description in that book.

This book can be taken as an apetizer, but do not expect good and reliable scientific description from it.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Hot Scoop on Hot Scoops, April 25, 2000

By A Customer

Ever get the disturbing feeling that computers and video games and virtual reality are fogging up our view of the real world, the natural one with stars and gravity and grass and Pontiacs? This book won't set your mind at ease, but it will get you to thinking about information and whether our technological society's computers and other data-chomping, perception-bending devices are actually converging with the way the whole universe has worked all along. With a wonderful clarity of prose, science writer Tom Siegfried explores the idea that information itself, whether in a computer or embedded in tree rings or the vibrations on the sun's surface, is a component of the universe just as real as mass and energy. Physicists, he tells us, are learning that the rules of information theory sort of like those that the phone company uses to wire up its networks, apply to everything. A cell develops into a bee or a plant because of the information in its genes, a leaf flutters this way or that because of the "information" it gets from the breeze, and stars blow up and die because of the information in its core. Every event, they say, can be broken up into a logical string of yes and no questions and answers, and that's just like the ones and zeroes of binary computer code. Anyway, it's all darned interesting, and Siegfried manages to keep it pretty funny and light. He talked to and quotes a lot of weird, smart people. The book delves in the end into ideas that we need to explain all of physics with something called M-theory ("M" for membrane, or magic, or marvel ... nobody seems to agree exactly), in which our universe has an extra seven dimensions wrapped up somehow or other, and it all makes sense if you just think of the universe as a flow of information and all its pieces and waves as information transmitters and conduits. We have black holes swallowing information and never spitting it out and that gives these big brained M-brane experts fits. All in all a very thought-provoking story.