Feynman Lectures on Computation

Tony Hey, Robin Allen

When, in 1984–86, Richard P. Feynman gave his famous course on computation at the California Institute of Technology, he asked Tony Hey to adapt his lecture notes into a book. Although led by Feynman, the course also featured, as occasional guest speakers, some of the most brilliant men in science at that time, including Marvin Minsky, Charles Bennett, and John Hopfield. Although the lectures are now thirteen years old, most of the material is timeless and presents a “Feynmanesque” overview of many standard and some not-so-standard topics in computer science such as reversible logic gates and quantum computers.

Richard P. Feynman

When, in 1984?86, Richard P. Feynman gave his famous course on computation at the California Institute of Technology, he asked Tony Hey to adapt his lecture notes into a book. Although led by Feynman, the course also featured, as occasional guest speakers, some of the most brilliant men in science at that time, including Marvin Minsky, Charles Bennett, and John Hopfield. Although the lectures are now thirteen years old, most of the material is timeless and presents a ?Feynmanesque? overview of many standard and some not-so-standard topics in computer science such as reversible logic gates and quantum computers.

J. J. Hopfield

There were few basic aspects of computers and computation which intrigued Richard P. Feynman, and made the subject sufficiently interesting that he would spend time teaching it. Feynman himself did the lecture on quantum computation. Charles Bennett has already prepared the way by talking about reversible computation, and Norman Margolus on the billiard ball computer, so Feynman developed quantum computation in ways which made its connection to classical reversible computers obvious. His lecture was chiefly developing the idea that an entirely reversible quantum system, without damping processes, could perform universal computation. The insight that quantum computers were really different came only later, and to others, not to Feynman. Feynman only emphasized that the physical scale and speed of computers were not limited by the classical world, since conceptually they could be built of reversible components at the atomic level.