Q&A with Seth Lloyd

Quantum Computing pioneer Seth Lloyd discusses his book Programming the Universe. Seth believes the Universe is a quantum computer. Not metaphorically - literally.

"Technology Review: In your new book, you are admirably explicit: you write, 'The Universe is indistinguishable from a quantum computer.' How can that be true?

Seth Lloyd: I know it sounds crazy. I feel apologetic when I say it. And people who have reviewed the book take it as a metaphor. But it's factually the case. 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."