Through SMAC, I found ideas about how future societies might organize themselves to ensure human survival and progress. I found ideas about speculative technologies and how they could reshape civilization. I found that playing the game made me feel less alone, because it revealed loneliness as a universal human condition—timeless and unyielding. I found hope in a vision of humanity finding its place among the stars. I found myself grappling with ideas far larger than myself. I found my empathy measured by in-game choices. I found that history, like the game, carries no moral compass—it only moves forward.
Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, a.k.a "Mike and Ike" is the authoritative textbook in the field. It also happens to be very readable and beginner friendly. It's well worth reading the introduction to QC in the first twelve pages and skimming the first sixty. And the rest, as time/interest permits.
Through SMAC, I found ideas about how future societies might organize themselves to ensure human survival and progress. I found ideas about speculative technologies and how they could reshape civilization. I found that playing the game made me feel less alone, because it revealed loneliness as a universal human condition—timeless and unyielding. I found hope in a vision of humanity finding its place among the stars. I found myself grappling with ideas far larger than myself. I found my empathy measured by in-game choices. I found that history, like the game, carries no moral compass—it only moves forward.