3 ms·

Physical Limits of Computation (2009)

31 points by kercker 9y ago

terminalcommand 9y ago
Side note: comments at the bottom on singularity and moore's law are IMHO also highly interesting. Direct link: https://lwn.net/Articles/286739/ https://lwn.net/Articles/286739/
- grondilu 9y ago
  > To be blunt, the singularity phenomenon is the quasi-religious expectation that a brighter tomorrow through technology is "certain" and universal deliverance of mankind is just around the corner. This sounds like a mis-representative view of the Singularity. Indeed some people think the Singularity will bring some kind of techno-utopia, they get excited about living forever and so on, but this only is an assessment about the Singularity, it is not a definition of the concept. As of today, the Wikipedia definition is : > The technological singularity (also, simply, the singularity)[1] is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization. That sounds much more accurate imho. Most notably, the important point is that the Singularity will bring unforeseeable changes. No-one knows if mankind will be better or worse out of it.
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hepek 9y ago
Joe Armstrong gives a very good talk about ideas in the article in "The Mess We're In" (2014): https://youtu.be/lKXe3HUG2l4?t=26m12s https://youtu.be/lKXe3HUG2l4?t=26m12s
totalZero 9y ago
Dr. Lloyd is a physicist more than anything (even though his department at MIT is MechE), which may explain why he eschews the manufacturing approach to Moore's Law. The author should have mentioned this; Dr. Lloyd is brilliant but he isn't an EE or CS and can't reasonably be expected to base his theories on those disciplines.
- jessriedel 9y ago
  Since the topic is the limits to computation imposed by the fundamental laws of physics, knowledge of the details of modern semiconductor manufacturing seem much less relevant than of quantum mechanics and gravity.
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31 points by kercker 9y ago

Side note: comments at the bottom on singularity and moore's law are IMHO also highly interesting. Direct link: https://lwn.net/Articles/286739/ https://lwn.net/Articles/286739/

grondilu 9y ago
> To be blunt, the singularity phenomenon is the quasi-religious expectation that a brighter tomorrow through technology is "certain" and universal deliverance of mankind is just around the corner. This sounds like a mis-representative view of the Singularity. Indeed some people think the Singularity will bring some kind of techno-utopia, they get excited about living forever and so on, but this only is an assessment about the Singularity, it is not a definition of the concept. As of today, the Wikipedia definition is : > The technological singularity (also, simply, the singularity)[1] is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization. That sounds much more accurate imho. Most notably, the important point is that the Singularity will bring unforeseeable changes. No-one knows if mankind will be better or worse out of it.

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hepek 9y ago

Joe Armstrong gives a very good talk about ideas in the article in "The Mess We're In" (2014): https://youtu.be/lKXe3HUG2l4?t=26m12s https://youtu.be/lKXe3HUG2l4?t=26m12s

totalZero 9y ago

Dr. Lloyd is a physicist more than anything (even though his department at MIT is MechE), which may explain why he eschews the manufacturing approach to Moore's Law. The author should have mentioned this; Dr. Lloyd is brilliant but he isn't an EE or CS and can't reasonably be expected to base his theories on those disciplines.

jessriedel 9y ago
Since the topic is the limits to computation imposed by the fundamental laws of physics, knowledge of the details of modern semiconductor manufacturing seem much less relevant than of quantum mechanics and gravity.
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