Coming of Age With Quantum Information: Notes on a Paulian Idea 1st Edition by Christopher A. Fuchs (PDF)

Description

A passionate and personal account of the early days of quantum information and quantum computing, this unique book is a collection of more than 500 letters between the author and many of the founders of these intriguing fields. Christopher A. Fuchs is one of the most penetrating modern thinkers on the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics. This remarkable book follows his journey as he comes to grips with the quantum world. It contains correspondence with Charles Bennett, Gilles Brassard, Rolf Landauer, N. David Mermin, Michael Nielsen, Asher Peres, John Preskill, Abner Shimony, William Wootters, Anton Zeilinger, and many others. Filled with diary entries, anecdotes, historical selections, and research ideas, this book will fascinate physicists, philosophers, and historians of science.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review Endorsement: “I’m delighted that what Chris Fuchs calls his “samizdat” – seven years’ worth of fascinating correspondence about the foundations of quantum mechanics – has finally been published in book form. I read the samizdat as a beginning graduate student, and it changed my career. Some of the specific questions Chris ponders here – why, for example, does quantum mechanics involve complex numbers, rather than real numbers or quarternions? – have haunted me ever since. But more than that, reading Chris’s letters made me feel, for the first time, like the great conversation of Bohr, Einstein, and other luminaries in the 1920s was still going on today; that their bewilderment over why God made the universe this way and not that hadn’t completely given way to technicalities and jaded commentaries on commentaries. Just as importantly, Chris’s writing style – brash, outrageous, hilarious, but never mean-spirited – gave me the courage to risk making a fool of myself in my own writing.” Scott Aaronson, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyEndorsement: “The discovery in the 1990s that quantum computers could outperform their classical brethren led to the birth of an entirely new field of physics and computer science, quantum information science, whose breadth now spans thousands of researchers worldwide. As a consequence of the explosive growth of this new field, those working day in and day out with quantum information have obtained an unparalleled understanding of the quantum theory of nature. This understanding has, quite unexpectedly, also led to significant advances in penetrating a subject more often thought of as fodder for philosophy departments or late night bull sessions among physicists: the foundations of quantum theory. Christopher A. Fuchs has been at the center of the firestorm that has been the rise of quantum information, and is the quintessential example of a new breed of quantum information inspired quantum foundations researchers. Out of a personal tragedy that destroyed his personal possessions Fuchs has assembled in this book the fragments of his life that were not incinerated during his loss – his email correspondence with friends and colleagues about quantum theory, along with the daily banter of a deep soul seeking to break a new path in the world of ideas. Anyone interested in grabbing a front seat to a new way to see quantum theory, as debated by the author and luminaries of quantum information and quantum foundations, will find this book hard to put down. As a bonus the book brims over with an overwhelming sense of joy and wonder at our quantum universe that, when combined with a wicked sense of humor, will no doubt make this collection of correspondences a classic document of the now blossoming age of quantum information science.” Dave Bacon, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of WashingtonEndorsement: “Full of humor, vivid characters, and intellectual drama, Chris Fuchs’ letters are like Einstein’s ideal play – “a delicious fragment of life, scintillating with various colors according to the position of the beholder” (though the book’s two guardian angels are Einstein’s favorite antagonists, Bohr and Pauli!). A window into physics in the process of being untangled, this rich email tapestry is the fin de siècle testament to Heisenberg’s dictum that “science is rooted in conversations. While references ricochet from William James to Bill Wootters; Bennett & Brassard to Flatt & Scruggs; Schrödinger to Sylvia Plath, the reader starts in the middle, flips back and forth, writes in the margins and gaps – encouraged not to passively absorb, but to engage, struggle, learn, delight. My much-annotated and coffee-stained copy sits not on my bookshelf but on my desk, and I still stumble over new delights.” Louisa Gilder, author of The Age of EntanglementEndorsement: “Nobody today writing about quantum mechanics combines poetry and analysis to better effect than Chris Fuchs … The death of letters as a high literary form brought about by the telephone turns out to have been only a lengthy coma – a 20th century aberration … The thought-provoking pages that follow, which can either be read like a Nabokov novel, or dipped into from time to time, like a collection of poems or short stories, gloriously provide a 21st century demonstration that the art form is again alive and well – and also, of course, that there remain profound questions to ask and to strive to answer about the real meaning of quantum mechanics.” N. David Mermin, Cornell University (from the Foreword)Endorsement: “From the beginning, quantum information promised to transform not only our technologies for communication and computation but also the received interpretation of quantum theory itself. In this book you can watch this transformation taking place in the mind of one of the pioneers of the field. No-one has done more to articulate the information-theoretical interpretation of quantum theory than Fuchs. I am unsure if this transformation will ultimately take us to a new understanding of the quantum but, as this book demonstrates, the journey is at least as important as the destination. For both physicists and philosophers alike, this book will entertain, inform and almost certainly challenge.” Gerard Milburn, Director, Australian Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, The University of QueenslandEndorsement: “In this marvelous collection of letters we get to watch over Chris Fuchs’s shoulder as he wrestles with one of the great open scientific problems of today: how should we understand quantum theory? This book reminds us forcefully just how important that problem is, and inspires and provokes us to think more deeply about the problem. It’s also a pleasure to read, personable, funny, and with a stimulating turn of phrase on nearly every page.” Michael Nielsen, co-author of Quantum Computation and Quantum InformationEndorsement: “Scientists communicate their ideas in a variety of ways, through published articles, technical seminars, classroom lectures, and textbooks. Most of all we talk to one another, and increasingly we convey and solidify our thoughts in emails to our colleagues. But very few of us use email as skilfully, prolifically, passionately, or fruitfully as Chris Fuchs. Anyone fascinated by the mysteries of the quantum world is sure to be enlightened and entertained by this extraordinary collection, in which Chris wrestles with some of the deepest questions about how we describe Nature. You have never read a physics book like this one.” John Preskill, Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology”…there is much more in this book, which turns out to be a real page turner. It invites jumping back and forth. And back again. The book offers a personal account of the very first years of a field that is still in its infancy today, but many deep ideas and concepts come unfiltered and only marginally annotated. All the more the book offers food for thought, and plenty of leads for further reading.” ANDREAS TRABESINGER, Nature Physics”The one sure thing that can be said about this book is that it is unique. There is really nothing like it out there… you continually come across passages that make you stop and say “Hmm, let me think about that!” And you put the book down and are soon lost in thought. What could possibly be better?” Daniel M. Greenberger, American Journal of Physics”… the book is indeed a gem. Those interested in quantum foundations will find the book an inexhaustible source of amusing quotes and food for thought, even when―or especially when!―they disagree with the views expressed. Anyone under the impression that all questions about the foundations of quantum theory were settled long ago ought to take this unique opportunity to peek into the personal communications of some of the leaders in the field. They will find evidence that the debates about the fundamental nature of our world are very much alive―even if few have the courage, as Fuchs does, to bring them out in the open.” Eric Cavalcanti, American Scientist”The reader interested in quantum foundations will surely find this book an inexhaustible source of amusing quotes and food for thought, even when – or especially when! – hey may disagree with its views. And for anyone who might have been under the impression that all questions about the foundations of quantum theory have been settled long ago ought to take this unique opportunity to peek into the personal communications of some of the leaders in the field and find evidence that those foundational debates are very much alive.” Eric Cavalcanti, Quantum Information Processes Book Description A passionate account of the early days of quantum information and computing from one of the most penetrating modern thinkers. About the Author Christopher A. Fuchs is a Visiting Professor at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada. Formerly a Lee DuBridge Prize Fellow at the California Institute of Technology and a winner of the prestigious E. T. S. Walton Award, Science Foundation Ireland, he was recently elected Vice Chair for the American Physical Society Topical Group on Quantum Information, to become Chair in 2011. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐You will learn little if anything about what QBism is. The book is an overpriced account of the author’s fun working at it. This would be more fun for us if the author had earned the eminence he seems to feel.

⭐Chris Fuchs may well be a genius, but for those not up on the latest quantum theory, this collection of 15 year old emails, organized by recipient, and chronologically within that, makes it very hard to determine. I object in principle to such disorganized material being published at monograph prices. Moreover, if Fuchs had been truly committed to the publishing project, he would have commissioned a Subject index, not just a Name index. As it is, finding anything within it is impossible.The dates run from 1996-2000. I imagine some of the info is out of date. At best, this material should have been made available for free on the internet. Which it has: a quick check on arXiv will get you the entire contents of this volume, as well as the indispensable ability to search across it.Scott Aaronson’s

⭐is, needless to say, a worthier choice.

⭐This is most emphatically not a textbook. It offers something quite different, and in my view, much needed: raw evidence of the mess and the methods which advance the cause of physics. Fuchs is a prolific participant in a modern republic of letters. This book preserves a valuable part of the science-history record against the vagaries of crashing servers and expiring e-mail accounts. It is definitely a book about an idea—that quantum information theory provides the best way on hand to understand what quantum physics is really about—but it is also a book about the people whose lives intersect with the development of that idea. The correspondence collected in this volume is organized by correspondent, which is perhaps most useful for those who already have a glancing familiarity with the “big names” of quantum theory. I generally agree with Eric Cavalcanti’s review in American Scientist (“Quantum Subversives”, Nov-Dec 2011) about this method of organization:”And none of the technicalities are important for the understanding, or entertainment, that the book provides. Also, thanks to its nonlinear organization, readers can skip over the most opaque parts and just sample what interests them.”(Reading the chapters on Howard Barnum, Carlton Caves, Greg Comer, Bob Griffiths, Adrian Kent, David Mermin, Asher Peres and Ruediger Schack covers the critical points. The Peres letters, in particular, are valuable sustenance for anyone who has to deal with the back-and-forth process of scientific publication and its attendant frustrations. The other chapters are a dessert buffet.)Much of this material is available online, as one might expect for a physicist writing in the current century. The arXiv version does not, however, include one of the most entertaining, accessible and illuminating portions of the book: Fuchs’ lengthy introduction to the Cambridge UP edition, where he explains his own path into physics and introduces the correspondents featured in the rest of the book. Almost all of these miniatures are fascinating character vignettes. Those for Rolf Landauer and Asher Peres are bittersweet; the one for Rob Spekkens is just plain classic.I do wish Cambridge UP hadn’t slapped a $70 price tag on it; oh, for a Dover paperback reprint…. Still, I’d say Fuchs’ book is at least as stimulating as 14 mocha lattes.(Disclosure: I’ve corresponded with Chris Fuchs myself, but I wouldn’t have done so if this book didn’t make the idea seem so darn enjoyable.)

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