Paola Zizzi is an Italian theoretical physicist who is most notable for her work in the field of loop quantum gravity

Loop quantum gravity

Loop quantum gravity , also known as loop gravity and quantum geometry, is a proposed quantum theory of spacetime which attempts to reconcile the theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity...

, which regards the universe as a kind of super computer. She proposed that the universe has the computational complexity sufficient for the emergence of consciousness in the period known as the cosmic inflation in her paper titled `Emergent Consciousness`.

Quantum versions of digital physics

Digital physics

In physics and cosmology, digital physics is a collection of theoretical perspectives based on the premise that the universe is, at heart, describable by information, and is therefore computable...

 have recently been proposed by Zizzi, Seth Lloyd

Seth Lloyd

Seth Lloyd is a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He refers to himself as a "quantum mechanic"....

, and David Deutsch

David Deutsch

David Elieser Deutsch, FRS is an Israeli-British physicist at the University of Oxford. He is a non-stipendiary Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford...

.

Zizzi has formulated a realization of digital physics in what has come to be called "computational loop quantum gravity", or "CLQG".

Currently she is engaged in research with the department of pure and applied mathematics of the university of Padova in Italy.