Notes on the history of reversible computation

We review the history of the thermodynamics of information processing, beginning with the paradox of Maxwell's demon; continuing through the efforts of Szilard, Brillouin, and others to demonstrate a thermodynamic cost of information acquisition; the discovery by Landauer of the thermodynamic cost of information destruction; the development of the theory of and classical models for reversible computation; and ending with a brief survey of recent work on quantum reversible computation.