Published March 2, 2003 by Alfred A. Knopf. Second printing, March 2003. Published April 24 by Jonathan Cape, London.

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The epigraph:

Clarke's First Law: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

Clarke's Second Law: "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

-- Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible by Arthur C. Clarke


Contents

Copyright 2002 by George Johnson. All rights reserved.

Preface. Inside the Black Box

Prologue. The Road to Blue Mountain

1. "Simple Electric Brain Machines and How to Make Them"

2. Tinkertoy Logic

3. Playing With Mirrors

4. A Shortcut Through Time

5. Shor's Algorithm

6. Breaking the Code

7. Invisible Machines

8. Counting With Atoms

9. Quantum Secrecy

10. The Hardest Problem in the Universe

Epilogue. The Nine Billion Names of God

The Fine Print: Notes and Sources