Decoding Reality 2nd Edition – Vlatko Vedral

Before we delve further into social phenomena, I need to explain an important concept in physics called a phase transition. Stated somewhat loosely, phase transitions occur in a system when the information shared between the individual constituents become large (so for a gas in a box, for an iron rod in a magnetic field, and for a copper wire connected into an electric circuit, all their constituents share some degree of mutual information).

A high degree of mutual information often leads to a fundamentally different behaviour, although the individual constituents are still the same. To elaborate this point, the individual constituents are not affected on an individual basis, but as a group they exhibit entirely different behaviour. The key is how the individual constituents relate to one another and create a group dynamic. This is captured by the phrase ‘more is different’, by the physicist Philip Anderson, who contributed a great deal to the subject, culminating in his Nobel Prize in 1977.

A common example of a group dynamic is the effect we observe when boiling or freezing water (i.e. conversion of a liquid to a gas or conversion of a liquid to a solid). These extreme and visible changes of structures and behaviour are known as phase transitions. When water freezes, the phase transition occurs as the water molecules becomes more tightly correlated and these correlations manifest themselves in stronger molecular bonds and a more solid structure. The formation of societies and significant changes in every society – such as a revolution or a civil war or the attainment of democracy – can, in fact, be better understood using the language of phase transitions.

I now present one particular example that will explain phase transitions in more detail.

Vlatko Vedral studied undergraduate theoretical physics at Imperial College London, where he also received a PhD for his work on ‘Quantum Information Theory of Entanglement’. Since June 2009, Vedral moved to Oxford as Professor of Quantum Information Science. He also holds a professorship in physics at the National University of Singapore. Throughout his career Vedral has held a number of visiting professorships at different international institutions.

He has published more than 170 research papers and has written two undergraduate textbooks. He has frequently written for popular science journals and major daily newspapers, as well as having done extensive radio programmes and television interviews. OceanofPDF.com PRAISE FOR DECODING REALITY ‘An engaging, non-technical exploration of what the new theory of quantum information and computation tells us about life, the universe, and everything.’ David Deutsch, author of The Fabric of Reality ‘Let Vedral guide you skilfully through the wonderland of modern physics – where nothing is as it seems.

This is the finest treatment I have read of the weird interplay of quantum reality, information and probability.’ Paul Davies, author of The Eerie Silence and The Goldilocks Enigma ‘How [do we] define “information”. Most of us have a rough idea. Vedral has a very precise, scientific definition: it is the logarithm of the inverse of the probability of an event. Or, more simply, the more unexpected an event, the more information it contains.’ Financial Times ‘Vlatko Vedral, an Oxford physicist, examines the claim that bits of information are the universe’s basic units, and the universe as a whole is a giant quantum computer.

He argues that all of reality can be explained if readers accept that information is at the root of everything. So what is information? Mr Vedral’s notion of information is not the somewhat fuzzy concept most people have of it, but a precise mathematical definition.’ The Economist OceanofPDF.com DECODING REALITY The Universe as Quantum Information VLATKO VEDRAL University of Oxford, England and National University of Singapore, Singapore OceanofPDF.com Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.

It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Vlatko Vedral 2010 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published 2010 First published in paperback 2012 Second Edition, as Oxford Landmark Science 2018 Impression: 1 All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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