Is the universe actually a giant quantum computer? According to Seth Lloyd, the answer is yes. All interactions between particles in the universe, Lloyd explains, convey not only energy but also information–in other words, particles not only collide, they compute. What is the entire universe computing, ultimately? “Its own dynamical evolution,” he says. “As the computation proceeds, reality unfolds.” Programming the Universe, a wonderfully accessible book, presents an original and...

The language of the universe is mathematics, but how exactly do you know that all parts of the universe 'speak' the same language? Benioff builds on the idea that the entity that gives substance to both mathematics and physics is the fundamental field, called the 'value field'. While exploring this idea, he notices the similarities that the value field shares with several mysterious phenomena in modern physics: the Higgs field, and dark energy.The author first introduces the concep...