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Nature 445, 366-367 (25 January 2007) | doi:10.1038/445366a; Published online 24 January 2007

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The Universe's quantum monkeys

Artur Ekert1

BOOK REVIEWEDProgramming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos

by Seth Lloyd

Alfred A. Knopf/Jonathan Cape: 2006. 240 pp. $25.95, £18.99

A little less than 14 billion years ago, a huge explosion gave birth to the Universe, and once it sprang into existence, the Universe began computing. The positions, velocities and internal states of every elementary particle, every atom and molecule, indeed every single physical entity register bits of information.