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Scott Aaronson

Quantum Computing Since Democritus 1st Edition

by Scott Aaronson (Author)

4.4 266 ratings

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Written by noted quantum computing theorist Scott Aaronson, this book takes readers on a tour through some of the deepest ideas of maths, computer science and physics. Full of insights, arguments and philosophical perspectives, the book covers an amazing array of topics. Beginning in antiquity with Democritus, it progresses through logic and set theory, computability and complexity theory, quantum computing, cryptography, the information content of quantum states and the interpretation of quantum mechanics. There are also extended discussions about time travel, Newcomb's Paradox, the anthropic principle and the views of Roger Penrose. Aaronson's informal style makes this fascinating book accessible to readers with scientific backgrounds, as well as students and researchers working in physics, computer science, mathematics and philosophy.

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ISBN-10

9780521199568
ISBN-13

978-0521199568
Edition

1st
Publisher

Cambridge University Press
Publication date

April 29, 2013
Language

English
Dimensions

5.98 x 1.01 x 8.98 inches
Print length

398 pages
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4.4 out of 5

266 global ratings

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Paper vs. Kindle

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2013

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I know, a lot of us wring our hands at spending 30 plus bucks US on a popularization of science book, 400 pages or not. So, the decision often comes down to Kindle-- significant savings BUT, are the diagrams and LaTex slaughtered so bad you can't read it?

Not in this case! First, the author doesn't HAVE that many formulas and diagrams, and equations are generally limited to P=NP (or not) type formats, which are given in the text and bold, so you don't end up with busted page breaks in the middle of illustrations or formulae.

Formula display is not a problem unique to Kindle-- most ereaders and tablets have an issue with them. The topics in this book are more conceptual, historic and descriptive (frankly, almost philosophical), so the eread format is just fine. If you like to make notes in "heavy" reading books like this, you'll obviously need a pencil and paper nearby, but need to judge whether getting it quickly and for 12 bucks less is worth that.

The links / added resources are up to date, live and not broken, another advantage of the Kindle format. If you read and enjoyed The Golden Ticket (), you'll also like this book-- very intellectually stimulating, and brings us up to date on a lot of recent thinking in the intersection between computing and physics. Highly recommended.

Kindle Tip: This is one of those titles that has a very GENEROUS (thank you publisher/author!) "look inside" feature on Amazon-- be sure to check it out! You'll see that even "proof" type formulas are given as bullets, so read fine on kindle. Best, the preview itself IS in kindle format, so you get the double advantage of WYSIWYG if you subsequently order via Kindle/ cloud/ tablet, etc.

14 people found this helpful

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A very approachable, engaging, and ambitious book

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2013

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I agree with other reviewers that Quantum Computing Since Democritus is written in the spirit of the likes of Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, and Douglas Hofstadter. It's funny, engaging, easy to get into, but also quite deep: Not so easy any longer if you intend to follow everything in detail. Why there is a painting of Che Guevara in a toga on the cover of the book however remains a mystery. ;)

This ambitious book weaves together many strands of inquiry: computation, science, mathematics, and philosophy. The conventional view of quantum mechanics, one that dates back to the first half of the 20th century yet is still often repeated in the media, is the notion that quantum theory is a mysterious "brute fact"; one that we have to accept without deeper understanding just because it works. Scott takes a refreshing and radical view. In his own words from the book:

"Quantum mechanics is a beautiful generalization of the laws of probability: A generalization based on the 2-norm rather than on the 1-norm, and on complex numbers rather than on nonnegative real numbers. It can be studied completely separately from its application to physics (and indeed doing so provides a good starting point for learning the physical application later). This generalized probability theory leads naturally to a new model of computation - the quantum computing model - that challenges notions of computation once considered a priori, and that theoretical scientists might have been driven to invent for their own purposes even if there were no relation to physics. In short, while quantum mechanics was invented a century ago to solve technical problems in physics, today it can be fruitfully explained from an extremely different perspective: as part of the history of ideas, math, logic, computation, and philosophy, about the limits of the knowable."

The wonderful thing about this book is that one can read it on a number of different levels. You can choose get a bird's eye view of many important ideas, or you can delve more deeply into the math. I consider this book's greatest achievement to be the way in which it makes the material approachable, builds the reader's intuition, and connects thing together in ways that may not be obvious. First of all it makes the reader *curious* about the technical details, which otherwise might seem pointless or boring to non-specialists; next it makes it a lot easier to know how to begin drilling into the more formal, mathematical aspects of the book.

I think Scott brings to this material a remarkable unifying vision. I feel like there's almost a complete education in math, physics, and comp sci concealed within this book. Scott takes us on a thrilling journey through many fields and ideas, often to unexpected places, like the information content of a black hole and the fundamental limits of computing based on things such as the schwarzschild radius.

15 people found this helpful

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Lucian Chauvin

Great book, detached page

Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2024

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Book is so great but unfortunately my copy came with one of the pages completely detached :C.

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Robert C. Dennis

This is easily one of the best books ive ever read

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2016

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This is easily one of the best books ive ever read. Aaronson goes through problems and examples rather quickly so be prepared to stop and think and work along with pen and paper.

While he introduces complexity theory he does assume the reader is already familiar. He even explicitly states so several times. Be that as it may a hard working reader can certainly follow along.

The text is chock full of amazing and wonderful inisghts not only for the computationally inclined but also for the physicist. Aaronson has a unique view of physics and i found his perspective wildly illuminating.

I wish id have found and read this book in 2012 when it was published.

SImply amazing. IT is a book i will surely come back to and read again and again.

Well done

15 people found this helpful

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A thought-provoking, fascinating book

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2013

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Simply put, Quantum Computing Since Democritus is a great read, at least to those with an interest in computer science, physics, math, or related topics, but particularly the limits of computation & other topics in theoretical computer science. Some background in these areas would help the reader, and even with a little background I found some of it difficult to follow. This is not your usual, popular science-level book, nor is it aimed at experts. Even though I wasn't able to understand some of the more technical material, there were still fascinating arguments, thought experiments, discussions, and conclusions that I was able to follow and appreciate; the author is one of those scientists that as a knack for explaining. If you care about topics like the P vs. NP problem, the limits of quantum computation, etc, you should read this book. If you don't, I have no idea why you're reading this review, and you should probably look for something you're more interested in, because this book isn't exactly light, fluffy reading material.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Aaron

Great introduction to quantum computing for those with a computer science background

Reviewed in Canada on May 12, 2023

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The theoretical underpinnings of quantum computing are vitally important for even an introductory level understanding of the topic. Aaronson has an intuitive writing style, and introduces all the relevant background topics to the depth they are required to study this topic. Skipping classical physics and going straight to quantum was easier than expected. This book lays the ground work to understand practical applications in the field, while keeping it's focus on the operative question: What could we actually do with a quantum computer, why should we think it is possible, and how do we know they'll be fundamentally different from classical computers?

Douglas Ribas de Mattos

N/A

Reviewed in Brazil on May 30, 2024

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N/A

Karsten Elena

Good

Reviewed in Germany on February 10, 2023

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Good

Bassegoda

Incide mas en los problemas de la comp. en general, que en los de la comp. cuántica propiamente.

Reviewed in Spain on November 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

Interesante si te quieres formar una idea ( pocas explicaciones y muy denso) de los problemas de lo que el autor llama teoría de la complejidad ( o sea: ...de computación ).
Si lo que buscas es adquirir conocimientos para introducirte en la computación cuántica, mejor otros libros cómo : "Quantum computation and quantum information", que se puede considerar la biblia de la computación cuántica, o bien : "Quantum computing explained", que es un poco más asequible. Por sólo citar a dos de los más conocidos hasta la fecha.

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alberto revelli

A rollercoaster of thought-provoking material!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

I am usually too lazy to write reviews, even when I really enjoy reading a book, but I am happy to make an exception for this one. From the very first page, Scott Aaronson takes you through an amazing tour through many fields of human thought: from the Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms to quantum mechanics, from Turing machines to cryptography, from the anthropic principle to quantum computers, from discussions on the existence of free will to how time travel and black holes are related to computational problems.

Only two caveats: some of the maths might look a bit intimidating for a layman, and most of the material is presented from the viewpoint of a person whose main interest is computational complexity theory: to quote from Scott himself: "In the field I come from, it's never our place to ask if some physical object exists or not, it's to assume it exists and see what computations we can do with it".

If these two caveats did not discourage you (personally, I think they should have the opposite effect), get this book and prepare to enjoy every page of it!

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