David Deutsch — Wikipedia Summary

David Elieser Deutsch (born 18 May 1953) is a British physicist at the University of Oxford, often described as the “father of quantum computing”. Visiting professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation, Clarendon Laboratory. Pioneered quantum computation: formulated a description for a quantum Turing machine and specified an algorithm designed to run on a quantum computer (1985 paper; Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with Richard Jozsa, 1992 - one of the first examples of a quantum algorithm exponentially faster than any classical). A prominent proponent of the many-worlds interpretation.

Life and Education

Born to a Jewish family in Haifa, Israel. Moved to UK 1956. Read Natural Sciences at Clare College, Cambridge; Part III Mathematical Tripos; doctorate at Wolfson College, Oxford on quantum field theory in curved space-time (supervisors Dennis Sciama, Philip Candelas). Fellow of the Royal Society (2008).

MWI Advocacy

One of the strongest longtime advocates of MWI. According to him, the single photon interference pattern in the double-slit experiment is explained by interference of photons in multiple universes. Suggested MWI parallelism could speed up quantum computation. Proposed MWI will be testable with conscious reversible computers. In The Fabric of Reality (1998) and The Beginning of Infinity (2011) presented MWI as part of a broader worldview. In 1999 claimed to derive the Probability Postulate from quantum formalism and classical decision theory (Deutsch-Wallace program, axiomatized by Wallace) - central to modern MWI probability theory.