David Deutsch

David Deutsch
Born	1953 (age 58) Haifa, Israel
Fields	Theoretical physics Quantum information science
Institutions	University of Oxford Clarendon Laboratory
Doctoral advisor	Dennis Sciama
Doctoral students	Artur Ekert
Known for	Quantum Turing machine Church-Turing-Deutsch principle Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm Quantum logic gate Quantum circuit Quantum error correction Qubit field theory Quantum constructor theory The Fabric of Reality The Beginning of Infinity
Notable awards	Dirac Prize (1998)

David Elieser Deutsch, FRS (born 1953 in Haifa, Israel) is an Israeli-British physicist at the University of Oxford. He is a non-stipendiary Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation (CQC) in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford. He pioneered the field of quantum computation by being the first person to formulate a description for a quantum Turing machine, as well as specifying an algorithm designed to run on a quantum computer.^[1] He is also a proponent of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

In the Royal Society of London's announcement of Deutsch becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2008, the Society described Deutsch's contributions thus:^[2]

David Deutsch laid the foundations of the quantum theory of computation, and has subsequently made or participated in many of the most important advances in the field, including the discovery of the first quantum algorithms, the theory of quantum logic gates and quantum computational networks, the first quantum error-correction scheme, and several fundamental quantum universality results. He has set the agenda for worldwide research efforts in this new, interdisciplinary field, made progress in understanding its philosophical implications (via a variant of the many-universes interpretation) and made it comprehensible to the general public, notably in his book The Fabric of Reality.

The Fabric of Reality

Main article: The Fabric of Reality

In his 1997 book The Fabric of Reality, Deutsch details his "Theory of Everything." It aims not at the reduction of everything to particle physics, but rather mutual support among multiversal, computational, epistemological, and evolutionary principles. His theory of everything is (weakly) emergentist rather than reductive.

There are "four strands" to his theory:

1. Hugh Everett's many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics, "the first and most important of the four strands."
2. Karl Popper's epistemology, especially its anti-inductivism and requiring a realist (non-instrumental) interpretation of scientific theories, as well as its emphasis on taking seriously those bold conjectures that resist falsification.
3. Alan Turing's theory of computation, especially as developed in Deutsch's Turing principle, in which the Universal Turing machine is replaced by Deutsch's universal quantum computer. ("The theory of computation is now the quantum theory of computation.")
4. Richard Dawkins's refinement of Darwinian evolutionary theory and the modern evolutionary synthesis, especially the ideas of replicator and meme as they integrate with Popperian problem-solving (the epistemological strand).

Views

Politically, Deutsch is known to be sympathetic to libertarianism, and was a founder, along with Sarah Fitz-Claridge, of the Taking Children Seriously movement. He is also an atheist.^[3][4][5]

Awards

He was awarded the Dirac Prize of the Institute of Physics in 1998,^[6] and the Edge of Computation Science Prize in 2005.^[7] The Fabric of Reality was shortlisted for the Rhone-Poulenc science book award in 1998.^[8]

The Beginning of Infinity

Deutsch’s second book, The Beginning of Infinity, was published on 31 March 2011.

See also

• Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm

Notes and references

1. ^ Deutsch, David (July 1985). "Quantum theory, the Church-Turing principle and the universal quantum computer". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London; Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences 400 (1818): pp. 97–117. Bibcode 1985RSPSA.400...97D. doi:10.1098/rspa.1985.0070. Archived from the original on 2003-09-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20030915061044/http://www.qubit.org/oldsite/resource/deutsch85.pdf.  Also available here. Abstract available here.
2. ^ "New Fellows 08 Craik - Kaiser", The Royal Society. Also available here. Mirror link.
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ [3]
6. ^ Dirac prize award
7. ^ Edge of Computation Science Prize
8. ^ Rhone-Poulenc 1998 shortlist

External links

• Deutsch's official homepage at Qubit.Org
• [4] Deutsch wins Jeffrey Epstein's Edge of Computing Prize
• Profile page at Edge.org
• New Scientist interview
• TED Talks: David Deutsch on our place in the cosmos at TED Global in 2005
• Wired News: Interview
• Quantum Cryptography: Interview with David Deutsch
• The Discrete and the Continuous
• TED Talk: A new way to explain explanation
• The universality of quantum computation, and its implications

Persondata
Name	Deutsch, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1953
Place of birth	Haifa, Israel
Date of death
Place of death