The mathematical problem of localizing modular functors to neighborhoods of points is shown to be closely related to the
physical problem of engineering a local Hamiltonian for a computationally universal quantum medium. For genus =0 surfaces,
such a local Hamiltonian is mathematically defined. Braiding defects of this medium implements a representation associated
to the Jones polynomial and this representation is known to be universal for quantum computation.
AMS Classification. Primary 57R56; Secondary 68Q05, 81Q70, 82B10, 94B99, 20F36.
May 15, 2000. Final version received: November 15, 2000. Online publication: February 20, 2001.