professor of mechanical engineering (1960- )
[With quantum computers] you can calculate how many bits are in the universe, how much energy it takes to flip them, how much energy exists, and use that to rule out lots of things about the universe's history. Anything that takes more bit flips couldn't have happened.
SETH LLOYD
"PopSci Q & A: Seth Lloyd Talks Quantum Computing and Quoogling", Popular Science, November 4, 2011
It's recently been discovered that actual living systems such as photosynthetic bacteria in plants are using funky quantum weirdness techniques to make energy transport in plants and bacteria be much, much more efficient. It was kind of a drag because, you know, we discovered all these cool quantum techniques, and then we found out, whoa, these bacteria have been doing it for a billion years! Well, they didn't publish, so it's okay.
SETH LLOYD
"A Quantum Leap in Computing", NOVA, July 21, 2011
Quantum mechanics is just completely strange and counterintuitive. We can't believe that things can be here [in one place] and there [in another place] at the same time. And yet that's a fundamental piece of quantum mechanics. So then the question is, life is dealing us weird lemons, can we make some weird lemonade from this?
SETH LLOYD
"A Quantum Leap in Computing", NOVA, July 21, 2011
Bits of ignorance are like viruses that are copied and spread by interaction.
SETH LLOYD
Programming the Universe