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'''''Programming the Universe''''' is a 2006 [[popular science]] book by [[Seth Lloyd]], professor of mechanical engineering at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. The book proposes that the universe is actually a giant [[quantum computer]], and that advances in the understanding of physics may come from viewing [[entropy]] as a phenomenon of information, rather than simply [[thermodynamics]]. He Lloyd also postulates that the universe can be fully simulated using a quantum computer, however in the absence of a theory of [[quantum gravity]], such a thissimulation is not yet possible.
==Reaction==
As reviewerReviewer Corey S. Powell put it in theof ''The New York Times''. Lloydwrites:
<blockquote>In the space of 221 dense, frequently thrilling and occasionally exasperating pages, … tackles computer logic, [[thermodynamics]], [[chaos theory]], [[complexity]], [[quantum mechanics]], [[cosmology]], [[consciousness]], sex and the [[origin of life]] — throwing in, for good measure, a heartbreaking afterword that repaints the significance of all that has come before. The source of all this intellectual mayhem is the kind of Big Idea so prevalent in popular science books these days. Lloyd, a professor of mechanical engineering at M.I.T., takes as his topic the fundamental workings of the [[universe]]…universe…, which he thinks has been horribly misunderstood. Scientists have looked at it as a ragtag collection of [[Subatomic particle|particles]] and [[Field (physics)|fields]] while failing to see what it is as a majestic whole: an enormous [[computer]].<ref>{{cite news
| last = Powell
| first = Corey S.
Lloyd, wrote Powell, is "one of the world's experts in a new kind of computing device, called a quantum computer, which . . . mimic the natural world perfectly,"
In an interview with ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' magazine, Lloyd postulated thatwrites:
<blockquote>everything in the universe is made of bits. Not chunks of stuff, but chunks of information — ones and zeros. … Atoms and electrons are bits. Atomic collisions are "[[Instruction (computer science)|ops]]." [[Machine language]] is the laws of physics. The universe is a [[quantum computer]].<ref>{{cite news
| title = Life, the Universe, and Everything
| work = Issue 14.03
Gilbert Taylor, writing in ''[[Booklist]]'' of the [[American Library Association]], said that the book:
<blockquote>offers brilliantly clarifying explanations of the "[[bit]]," the smallest unit of information; how bits change their [[State (computer science)|state]]; and how changes-of-state can be registered on atoms via quantum-mechanical qualities such as "[[Spin (physics)|spin]]" and "[[Quantum superposition|superposition]]." Putting readers in the know about quantum computation, Lloyd then informs them that it may well be the answer to physicists' search for a [[unified theory]] of everything. Exploring big questions in accessible, comprehensive fashion, Lloyd's work is of vital importance to the general-science audience.<ref>[http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400033861 Quoted on the Amazon website.]</ref></blockquote>
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