As the race to build the world’s first quantum computer is coming to an end, the race to build the quantum internet is has just started. This book leverages the author’s unique insights into both the Chinese and American quantum programs.
"As theoretical physicist Jonathan Dowling makes clear in Schrödinger’s Web, early versions of the quantum internet are here already — for example, quantum communication has been taking place between Beijing and Shanghai via fiber-optic cables since 2016 — and more are coming fast. So now is the perfect time to read up. Dowling, who helped found the U.S. government’s quantum computing program in the 1990s, is the perfect guide. Armed with a seemingly endless supply of outrageous anecdotes, memorable analogies, puns and quips, he makes the thorny theoretical details of the quantum internet both entertaining and accessible. …
Like Dowling’s 2013 book on quantum computers, Schrödinger’s Killer App, Schrödinger’s Web hammers home the nonintuitive truths at the heart of quantum mechanics. … Dowling died unexpectedly in June at age 65, before he could see this future come to fruition. Once when I interviewed him, he invoked Arthur C. Clarke’s first law to justify why he thought another esteemed scientist was wrong. "The first law is that if a distinguished, elderly scientist tells you something is possible, he’s very likely right," he said. "If he tells you something is impossible, he’s very likely wrong." Dowling died too soon to be considered elderly, but he was distinguished, and Schrödinger’s Web lays out a powerful case for the possibility of a quantum internet."
—Dan Garisto in Science News, September 2020
"As theoretical physicist Jonathan Dowling makes clear in Schrödinger’s Web, early versions of the quantum internet are here already — for example, quantum communication has been taking place between Beijing and Shanghai via fiber-optic cables since 2016 — and more are coming fast. So now is the perfect time to read up. Dowling, who helped found the U.S. government’s quantum computing program in the 1990s, is the perfect guide. Armed with a seemingly endless supply of outrageous anecdotes, memorable analogies, puns and quips, he makes the thorny theoretical details of the quantum internet both entertaining and accessible. …
Like Dowling’s 2013 book on quantum computers, Schrödinger’s Killer App, Schrödinger’s Web hammers home the nonintuitive truths at the heart of quantum mechanics. … Dowling died unexpectedly in June at age 65, before he could see this future come to fruition. Once when I interviewed him, he invoked Arthur C. Clarke’s first law to justify why he thought another esteemed scientist was wrong. "The first law is that if a distinguished, elderly scientist tells you something is possible, he’s very likely right," he said. "If he tells you something is impossible, he’s very likely wrong." Dowling died too soon to be considered elderly, but he was distinguished, and Schrödinger’s Web lays out a powerful case for the possibility of a quantum internet."
—Dan Garisto in Science News, September 2020
Jonathan Dowling earned a Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics from the
University of Colorado. He has worked at the United States Army
Aviation and Missile Command, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
and then at the Louisiana State University. Dr. Dowling is one of the
founders of the U.S. Government program in quantum computing and
quantum cryptography.