Mauro D'Ariano is a full professor at the University of Pavia Italy, where he teaches Physical Theory of Information and Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, and directs the research group QUIT. He is also a member of the Center for Photonic Communication and Computing of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Can Reality be simulated by a Quantum Computer? Is Reality made of something more than interacting quantum systems? The idea that the whole Physics is ultimately a quantum computation is theoretically very parsimonious. But, if this is the case, then we need to understand the whole of physics as emergent from the quantum computation.

In this talk we will explore the idea that quantum field theory may be a kind of "thermodynamic" limit, valid at the Fermi scale, of a deeper theory that holds at the Planck scale, where the quantum field is replaced by a giant quantum computer. We will analyze mechanisms of emergence of physics from the quantum computation for one space dimensions, and analyze the problems posed for larger dimensions along with routes for their solutions. The physical topics of which we will explore emergence will be: Minkowskian space-time, covariance of the field equation, the Dirac equation as free-flow of quantum information, the notion of spin, interpretation of inertial mass and Planck constant, the notion of Hamiltonian, elimination of the quantum field in favor of qubits, gravity as a quantum effect. I will also review an in-principle observable consequence at the Planck scale of the quantum-digital description.