A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer - Hardcover

Johnson, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375411933 ISBN 13: 9780375411939

Publisher: Knopf, 2003

Synopsis

The first book to prepare us for the next big—perhaps the biggest—breakthrough in the short history of the cyberworld: the development of the quantum computer.

The newest Pentium chip driving personal computers packs 40 million electronic switches onto a piece of silicon the size of a thumbnail. It is dramatically smaller and more powerful than anything that has come before it. If this incredible shrinking act continues, the logical culmination is a computer in which each switch is composed of a single atom. And at that point the miraculous—the actualization of quantum mechanics—becomes real. If atoms can be harnessed, society will be transformed: problems that could take forever to be solved on the supercomputers available today would be dispatched with ease. Quantum computing promises nothing less astonishing than a shortcut through time.

In this book, the award-winning New York Times science writer George Johnson first takes us back to the original idea of a computer—almost simple enough to be made of Tinkertoys—and then leads us through increasing levels of complexity to the soul of this remarkable new machine. He shows us how, in laboratories around the world, the revolution has already begun.

Writing with a brilliant clarity, Johnson makes sophisticated material on (and even beyond) the frontiers of science both graspable and utterly fascinating, affording us a front-row seat at one of the most galvanizing scientific dramas of the new century.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"George Johnson...sets a new standard in science writing." --The New York Times

"A tantalizing glimpse of how the uncertainties of quantum theory may yet be tamed for work of the highest precision."
--Kirkus

"George Johnson, who writes about science for the New York Times, has set himself the task of deconstructing quantum computing at a level that readers of that newspaper -- and this magazine -- can understand. He has succeeded admirably...One of our most gifted science writers, Johnson is a master at bringing the reader along, giving increasingly better approximations to the truth. The book is lucid, elegant, brief -- and imbued with the excitement of this rapidly evolving field."
--Scientific American



“There’s nothing like quantum weirdness to remind us that this world was not made with us in mind. We are lucky to have a writer like George Johnson to walk us through it. In A Shortcut Through Time, he gives us a clear, funny and very human tour of this impossible science and where it may be taking us next. I read it and I thought, At last, this computes. Terrific book.”
–Jonathan Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Beak of the Finch

About the Author

George Johnson is a science writer for the New York Times. He is a recipient of the Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was a finalist for the distinguished Rhone-Poulenc Prize. This is his fifth book. He lives with his wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0375411933
• ISBN 13: 9780375411939
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 224