3 ms·

Couldn't you just uncompute instead of erasing to restore the ground state before computing something else? To my understanding you just need energy to set the

Couldn't you just uncompute instead of erasing to restore the ground state before computing something else? To my understanding you just need energy to set the inputs, give it a little push and everything else runs on its own (forwards and backwards).

murbard2 9y ago
You can uncompute, but in that case you need to erase the input to replace it with a new input.
DonHopkins 9y ago
There's a Philip K Dick book about that. (For any sufficiently weird idea, there usually is.) Counter Clock World The most powerful -- and most feared -- organisation in the world is the Library, in charge of expunging the written records of events, which have no longer happened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Clock_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Clock_World The novel describes a future in which time has started to move in reverse, resulting in the dead reviving in their own graves ("old-birth"), living their lives in reverse, and eventually returning to the womb where they split into an egg and a sperm during copulation between a recipient woman and a man. The Hobart Phase The Hobart Phase is the new order of life where people rise from the dead and are rejuvenated. Time reversal apparently began in 1986. Other than aging, Hobart Phase resurrection has changed nutritional and excretion processes and associated social taboos. People do not eat, but instead consume "Sogum" anally through a pipe, and later "plop" out food orally, which is done in private, due to its 'shameful' nature. As for smoking, cigarettes are no longer smoked, but the smoke instead blown back into them, making them grow back to normal size (this also clears and freshens the air). "Goodbye" and "hello" have reversed their order within standard greetings, and "food" is used as a drop-in replacement for the expletive "shit". It is stated that Mars colonists do not have the Hobart Phase on their world, and it is limited to Earth, and presumably its lunar colonies as well.

murbard2 9y ago

You can uncompute, but in that case you need to erase the input to replace it with a new input.

DonHopkins 9y ago

There's a Philip K Dick book about that. (For any sufficiently weird idea, there usually is.) Counter Clock World The most powerful -- and most feared -- organisation in the world is the Library, in charge of expunging the written records of events, which have no longer happened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Clock_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Clock_World The novel describes a future in which time has started to move in reverse, resulting in the dead reviving in their own graves ("old-birth"), living their lives in reverse, and eventually returning to the womb where they split into an egg and a sperm during copulation between a recipient woman and a man. The Hobart Phase The Hobart Phase is the new order of life where people rise from the dead and are rejuvenated. Time reversal apparently began in 1986. Other than aging, Hobart Phase resurrection has changed nutritional and excretion processes and associated social taboos. People do not eat, but instead consume "Sogum" anally through a pipe, and later "plop" out food orally, which is done in private, due to its 'shameful' nature. As for smoking, cigarettes are no longer smoked, but the smoke instead blown back into them, making them grow back to normal size (this also clears and freshens the air). "Goodbye" and "hello" have reversed their order within standard greetings, and "food" is used as a drop-in replacement for the expletive "shit". It is stated that Mars colonists do not have the Hobart Phase on their world, and it is limited to Earth, and presumably its lunar colonies as well.