A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to a Quantum Computer

Johnson, George

ISBN 10: 0375411933 / ISBN 13: 9780375411939

Published by Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2003

About this Item

Signed First Edition, Hardcover. 8vo (6 x 8.75 in.) Grey paper over boards with silver titling on spine. Cover is graphical in green and blue, the letter "Q" dominating the space. From the year 2003, this qualifies now as computer history writing. Johnson was heralding the arrival of the Quantum computer. He's a good writer and provides background on what has lead us to this (then). A previous owner did register a few small check marks in the margin on some pages. Johnson signed this copy on the title page.

Seller Inventory # 000975

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to a Quantum Computer
• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375411933
• ISBN 13: 9780375411939
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

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 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.