When I found a version of this paper, as an undergrad researcher circa 1995, it changed the course of my life and I spent an amazing decade working in quantum computing.
For those who are interested, the result quoted by Wheeler, which attempts to derive quantum theory via arguments using distinguishability, appears in Wootters' Ph.D. thesis in 1980. 33 years later(!), he wrote a follow up https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.2018 in which he showed that result essentially only works for the real number version of quantum theory. (Pessimist would say this means it is a dead end, optimist that we are just missing something!)
Under my elbow as I type is a small introductory book called Topology for Computing, which I’d recommend to anyone trying to investigate such links, for its concise clarity and elegant figures.
A. Hey edited „Feynman Lectures on Computation” for publication and later collected some assorted papers of guest lecturers Feynman would invite in „Feynman and computation – exploring the limits of computers”. This „It from bit” paper by Wheeler (Feynman’s advisor) is the 19th there.
I really would like to know the name of the book from which this index is. It's super interesting and I really want to read that book. Please let me know once you find it. Sincerely,
Book already referenced by GP, click your links. These are old classic conference proceedings edited by Zurek https://archive.org/details/ComplexityEntropyAndThePhysicsOf... but it’s a mixed bag unless you really fancy EG quantum field theorist’s opinions on workings of visual cortex.
Thanks for posting it! It's unfortunate that the entry doesn't include the ISBN number [0], and that it consequently doesn't turn up when searching for that number
[0] I consider "ISBN number" to be a reasonable expression, with the interpretation "the number that goes by the name _ISBN_".
Thanks; I remember reading this in the LBL library, and just ordered a copy!
If there's anything modern along these lines which doesn't concentrate on "quantum computing" I'd love to know about it.
Cool book for sure, but I was thinking of something which would mention stuff like Rovelli's forays into Information theories of QM, or that crazy paper I found in the library once and lost completely which posited quantum entanglement worked like public key crypto. The weird ideas that didn't quite pan out. I'm a fan of weird ideas that don't quite work; reading Whittaker's history of E&M or stuff like the reletivistic aether theory in Sommerfeld's book.
Mostly interested as I had my own weird idea that (mostly) didn't pan out based on the Gutzwiller trace formula and symbolic dynamics of phase space.
The most faithful contemporary worldview is probably the "QBist" interpretation [0-2] espoused by Chris Fuchs (who studied under Wheeler), Ruediger Schack, Carlton Caves, David Mermin and others. It's growing in popularity but is not mainstream.
For those who are interested, the result quoted by Wheeler, which attempts to derive quantum theory via arguments using distinguishability, appears in Wootters' Ph.D. thesis in 1980. 33 years later(!), he wrote a follow up https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.2018 in which he showed that result essentially only works for the real number version of quantum theory. (Pessimist would say this means it is a dead end, optimist that we are just missing something!)