Minds, Machines and the Multiverse: The Quest for the Quantum Computer by
Julian Brown, Simon & Schuster, $27, ISBN 0684814811
DO you have 10 billion years to spare? Yes? Then you’ll have to the time to
wait for a solution to the travelling salesman problem. He wants to visit
several cities in the shortest possible trip. If his route takes in only a few
cities, he can calculate the length of the journey for every itinerary and
simply pick the shortest. Unfortunately, the number of choices blossoms
amazingly quickly each time he adds a city to his list. With 24 cities…
