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The Feynman Processor : Quantum Entanglement and the Computing Revolution (Helix Books Series)
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Author: Gerard J. Milburn, Paul Davies
List Price: $16.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0738201731
Publisher: Perseus Publishing (01 December, 1999)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 157,261
Average Customer Rating: 2 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 1 out of 5
skip it
One of the most glib and inaccessible treatments of the subject I've encountered. You're much better off with something like Julian Brown's "Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse" or Feynman's own lectures on computation.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Some good material badly written, with a lot of junk
This book is clearly written by a physics professor who doesn't spend much time talking to people who haven't studied physics. I would guess his editor falls into this category as well. The back cover praises its accessibility, a marketing gimmick as obviously deceptive as the sensationalistic chapter names. For example, one chapter, "Teleportation for Gamblers" is named after an obscure quantum phenomenon that has been dubbed teleportation for no apparent reason, has nothing to do with gambling, and is only referred to in passing.The first four chapters try to give an overview of quantum mechanics to those who haven't studied physics. Even after spending 4 years earning a Bachelor's in Physics, I was only barely able to follow the discussion. If I did not already understand the principles he was explaining, I would never have been able to fill in the holes of explanation. But my biggest complaint about this section is that he bases the entire discussion on calculating probabilities in a quantum environment. But in trying to avoid complex math, he leaves out essential details. The much more intuitive explanation of superposition of states (whereby an object is in two places or states at the same time) he barely mentions in this section. If the material was presented in this way, all the math would be unnecessary, and the interesting second part of the book would make much more sense. Beyond that, the book contains numerous factual mistakes. His Turing machine for multiplying on page 99 just doesn't work. On page 109, he says that if you have N objects, and for each object you need to store N pieces of information that have a total of N^N pieces of information. The correct answer, N^2, makes his point much less dramatic. The last two chapters are interesting indeed. They discuss what is possible with a quantum computer, and the state of research in 1998. I recommend that if you do buy this book, only read the last two chapters. If you can't follow it, look anywhere else for an explanation. The first four chapters will not help.
Rating: 3 out of 5
CONFUSING
This is a decent book for someone trying to get and overview of how quantum computing works. The author seems to get bogged down in the details, however. The mathematical examples are poorly worded and thus not very clear, the variable names are also quite hard to keep track of.This is certianly a book where you will have to read certain paragraphs two or three times to make sure you have it right.
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