I recommend the following to anybody seriously interested in understanding QC:

- https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.4455 --> "The Universe as quantum computer" by Seth Lloyd, professor of mechanical engineering and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaecUuEqfc --> "The Quantum Conspiracy: What Popularizers of QM Don't Want You to Know" by Ron Garret

Lloyd argues that quantum physics tells us that the universe is indistinguishable from a quantum computation. This is a powerful meta-argument for the perennially fashionable idea that we're inside a computer - but Lloyd argues convincingly that it's a quantum computer.

Garret explains that a lot of the popular conceptions about quantum mechanics are not only incorrect, they are locked onto pernicious misconceptions that are simply false. He throws light on the phenomena of entanglement, quantum randomness, among others. In short, Garret's approach is to look at QM through the lens of QIT (Quantum Information Theory). Combined with Lloyd's thesis that we are inside a quantum computer, this gives a "post-Simulation Hypothesis" interpretation of QM. The behavior of quantum particles is only "weird", "strange" or "bizarre" because we're using the wrong metaphors (tiny billiard balls). Nobody expects the bits in a classical computer to behave like classical particles because, obviously, bits are not particles. But, if Lloyd is right, quantum particles are ontologically informational, just like classical bits.

Consider the question: Where are the bits that encode the letter between the single-quotes? ---> 'q'

This question has no correct answer. There is no "where". Copies of the letter exist in several locations, ephemerally scattered throughout the memory of your computer, the memory of the computer that served this webpage to you, and so on. Under Lloyd's thesis, this fact is related to the fact that we can end up getting nonsense when we ask a question like, "Where is the quantum particle that ____?" Garret convicts QM popularizes of contributing to mysticism in the public about the solid facts of quantum physics.


Yeah, most of the Bitcoin FUD is ridiculous but the quantum FUD is particularly hard to stomach.