Although computer science has been taught in schools for the fourth consecutive decade, we give little thought to its importance. It seems to us that it just helps to better understand how computing works. In fact, a theory grows out of informatics, which in the future is capable of changing our fundamental ideas about the world and the place of man in it.
THE ERA OF CALCULATION
Informatics, as a branch of science dealing with the study of the laws of formation, transformation and distribution of information in nature, originated at a time when the binary calculus system appeared: such a system, operating only with zeros and ones, was described by the German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz in 1703. He also invented a prototype of a punch card and proposed a project for a calculator operating in binary numbers. It turns out that informatics from the very beginning was a practical science, when abstract ideas immediately find application in the form of concrete inventions.
However, it took another century and a half to come to the understanding that with the help of a binary system it is possible not only to solve arithmetic, but also logical problems. Punch cards began to be used in weaving, creating complex patterns on fabrics. And it was precisely this technology that the English scientist of the 19th century Charles Babbage was supposed to use in his "differential machine" - today he is called the "father" of the first computer. Then punched cards were used for statistical calculations, on which the famous IBM company, founded in 1911, grew up. Its experts also invented the first programmable calculators. In 1937, the American engineer Claude Shannon defended his dissertation, in which he showed that logical problems can be solved using the organization of electromechanical relays:this historical work laid the foundations of information theory and the construction of analog computers. Ten years later, Shannon published an even more extensive monograph, examining not individual schemes, but the nature of information as a whole. Since that moment, informatics has acquired the significance of a universal theory, with the help of which one can describe global physical processes.
QUANTUM LEAP
The emergence of quantum mechanics forced scientists to revise the foundations of computer science. If Claude Shannon and his followers believed that any objects and interactions between them can be expressed by sequences of zeros and ones, then, according to the laws of the quantum world, one has to take into account the uncertainty of the state of the information cell. Thanks to this, a quantum computer can perform calculations much faster than a traditional computer, since, as scientists say, the ability to parallel computations is inherent in it at the level of a physical device. Its main problem is to extract the result, but they are trying to solve it by developing special algorithms for decrypting the received data.
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Since the first quantum computer was built very recently, the theory of quantum information is still in its infancy. But even at this first stage, it becomes clear that, with proper development, it is apparently capable of answering the contradictory questions of modern physics and even the main one: how is reality formed?
Many experts speak about the significant scientific potential of the theory of quantum information. For example, Seth Lloyd of the Massachusetts University of Technology believes that the universe itself is a huge quantum computer and that, by developing the appropriate technology, we will someday learn to reproduce fundamental processes and even model them, directing them at our discretion. Swiss physicist Nicolas Gisan, the author of a breakthrough experiment on quantum teleportation, is confident that after the discovery of "random nonlocality", which turned out to be the same basic law of nature as the law of universal gravitation, we will have to revise the whole picture of the world. And so on and so forth.
It seems that there is a need for a new theory to explain the world in light of fresh discoveries. And such a theory was proposed by the famous British physicist of Israeli origin David Deutsch.
INVISIBLE CONSTRUCTOR
David Deutsch, who works at Oxford, became famous for his book The Structure of Reality (1997), in which he substantiated the multiverse hypothesis, a forgotten interpretation of quantum mechanics that allows for the existence of an infinite number of parallel worlds. Later, he added to this hypothesis Karl Popper's concept of the applicability of any ideas that pass the test of mental refutation, the theory of quantum information and the development of evolutionary theory in relation to the sphere of reason, proposed by Richard Dawkins. As a result, Deutsch managed to find a way to an original view of the structure of the Universe, which he called "the theory of the constructor."
In its most simplified form, his theory says that the world around us develops under the influence of certain systems built into the fabric of reality, therefore, if science wants to know the Universe, it should be engaged not so much in studying the laws by which individual objects interact, as in studying the systems mentioned ("Constructors"), some of which we even learned to reproduce. David Deutsch explains his idea this way:
“The dominant concept in modern science regards everything around as developing consequences of some unknown initial conditions … For example, knowing the laws of motion and where the planet was a year ago, we can predict where it will be in another year. But if we wonder if we can move an entire planet there and there, the traditional approach will fail. Another example is the problem of free will. Let's say I have two choices. Having settled on the first, I can only guess what would have happened if I had chosen the second. What is happening is happening. And that's all … It turns out that my choice was predetermined since the time of the Big Bang? The underlying problem is that the dominant concept explains only that which is material; free will does not fit into it … In the theory of the constructor, one can say that something is possible,without saying it will happen."
The scientist compares the action of "constructors" with the action of catalysts - substances that change the rate of chemical reactions, but do not change themselves. The study of "constructors", according to Deutsch, will give us a clue to understanding where the laws of physics came from and why they work the way they do. At the same time, it will become clear what is generally possible to do within our Universe, and what will remain fantastic.
ON THE THRESHOLD OF Omnipotence
Humanity has long been able to make the simplest models of "constructors". These are, for example, heat engines operating in a cycle. Or a desktop computer that performs all sorts of operations to transform information, while remaining unchanged physically.
Of course, global “constructors” cannot be touched with our hands or placed on the table, but we encounter their manifestations almost every second. The fact is that knowledge itself is one of the global “constructors”, and it does not matter where it comes from: from the head, from a book or from a computer. But the possibility of new transformations depends on the amount of knowledge. If earlier man could use only natural compounds and processes, today he has learned to make nature work in an "unnatural" way, creating new elements of the periodic table or starting a chain reaction of atomic nuclei decay.
What practical application can “constructor theory” have other than knowledge augmentation? David Deutsch believes that it is she who will allow to design artificial intelligence that will change the quality of working with information. And since information is at the heart of everything, then, probably, the possibilities of this intelligence will be limitless. For example, he will be able to solve the problem of physical immortality or the colonization of neighboring planets. How the world will change in this case, you can try to imagine yourself. After all, you are also part of the global "constructor" …
Anton Pervushin