Neanderthal Parallax, Hominids, by Robert J. Sawyer

The human race has achieved many impossible feats. We have landed on the moon, illuminated the world with the electric light, and cured illnesses that used kill thousands. In a world where we look to technology to answer all of life’s problems, we are faced with a dilemma. How can our technology possibly keep up with our modern needs? In the first book of the Neanderthal Parallax, Hominids, by Robert J. Sawyer, we are transported into a parallel universe. In this unpolluted world that is populated by Neanderthals, there is a sophisticated computing system, we know as a quantum computer. As of 2014, quantum computers are still in their infancy, and have been prophesied since the early 1990s. However, work on building a quantum computer, and creating algorithms compatible with one, began around the turn of the century. As one of only seven sci-fi writers in the world, and the only Canadian, who has won all three of the top international awards for science fiction, he is known fo r the amount of research and probable vision intertwined into the technology in his books. A quantum computer is a sophisticated computer device that can actually calculate the use of quantum-mechanical phenomena, to perform operations on data. Basically, it’s one of the few devices that can calculate the quantum theory. Quantum theory is also classified as quantum mechanics, which is a branch of physics that deals with physical phenomena inside of particles at nanoscopic scales (Wilczek). It