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Seth Lloyd

Seth Lloyd Biography

Professor

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“Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and the second law of thermodynamics. All three are processes in which useful or accessible forms of some quantity, such as energy or money, are transformed into useless, inaccessible forms of the same quantity. That is not to say that these three processes don't have fringe benefits: taxes pay for roads and schools; the second law of thermodynamics drives cars, computers and metabolism; and death, at the very least, opens up tenured faculty positions.”

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“Science has an uncomfortable way of pushing human beings from center stage. In our prescientific stories, humans began as the focal point of Nature, living on an Earth that was the center of the universe. As the origins of the Earth and of mankind were investigated more carefully, it became clear that Nature had other interests beyond people, and the Earth was less central than previously hoped. Humankind was just one branch of the great family of life, and the Earth is a smallish planet orbiting an unexceptional sun quite far out on one arm of a run-of-the-mill spiral galaxy.”

PeopleWayHumansStoriesRunningEarthUniverseInterestHuman BeingsSunClearMankindStagePlanetsArmsUncomfortableBranchesJust OnePushingHumankindGalaxyLiving OnMillsSpiralsCenter Of The UniverseGreat FamilyFocal PointCenter Stage
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“We couldn't build quantum computers unless the universe were quantum and computing. We can build such machines because the universe is storing and processing information in the quantum realm. When we build quantum computers, we're hijacking that underlying computation in order to make it do things we want: little and/or/not calculations. We're hacking into the universe.”

WantLittlesOrderUniverseInformationComputerMachinesRealmsQuantumCalculationsProcessingHackingComputingComputationHijacking
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“Unlike mathematical theorems, scientific results can't be proved. They can only be tested again and again, until only a fool would not believe them. I cannot prove that electrons exist..........if you don't believe in them I have a high voltage cattle prod I'm willing to apply as an argument on their behalf. Electrons speak for themselves.”

IfsBelieveSpeakResultsWillingFoolProveArgumentDon't BelieveMathematicalAgain And AgainTestedBehalfCattleTheoremsElectronsVoltage
Author:Seth Lloyd
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