IT MAKES a Pentium chip look like an abacus. But it’s not a military supercomputer or colossal number cruncher. This computer was booted up at the big bang and has been running for 13 billion years. Yes, it’s the Universe.
Scientists know that a single fundamental particle such as an electron or a photon will carry a single bit of information, and that they can perform calculations with the information by manipulating the particle. Researchers are trying to build quantum computers to do just that (see “Saline solution”). Such devices would be far more powerful than conventional computers. But…
