For a physicist, all the world is information. The Universe and its
workings are the ebb and flow of information. We are all transient
patterns of information, passing on the recipe for our basic forms to
future generations using a four-letter digital code called DNA.
In this engaging and mind-stretching account, Vlatko Vedral considers
some of the deepest questions about the Universe and considers the
implications of interpreting it in terms of information. He explains the
nature of information, the idea of entropy, and the roots of this
thinking in thermodynamics. He describes the bizarre effects of quantum
behaviour -- effects such as 'entanglement', which Einstein called
'spooky action at a distance', and explores cutting edge work on
harnessing quantum effects in hyperfast quantum computers, and how
recent evidence suggests that the weirdness of the quantum world, once
thought limited to the tiniest scales, may reach into the macro world.
Vedral finishes by considering the answer to the ultimate question:
where did all of the information in the Universe come from? The answers
he considers are exhilarating, drawing upon the work of distinguished
physicist John Wheeler. The ideas challenge our concept of the nature of
particles, of time, of determinism, and of reality itself.
This edition includes a new foreword from the author, reflecting on
changes in the world of quantum information since first publication.
Oxford Landmark Science books are 'must-read' classics of modern
science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we
think.
