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This is amazing. I use the MakeNoise Maths module on my synth to experiment with similar ideas, as I think the next leaps in scaling quantum computing are goin

This is amazing. I use the MakeNoise Maths module on my synth to experiment with similar ideas, as I think the next leaps in scaling quantum computing are going to come from a generation of kids who developed a musical level intuition for wave dynamics playing with their parents' analog synths. Digital has been cool and interesting, but when young hackers have the tools and incentives to become de-facto physicists, they're going to tear holes in the fabric of reality. This is such a cool product.

jnovek 5y ago
OK, this is increasingly off-topic, but I’m just getting into Eurorack and I’ve been become curious about analog computers… not because I know anything about them, but because they share a user-interface style. Can you speak to similarities between them? You seem to know a bit about both topics.
- motohagiography 5y ago
  Thanks! With the caveat that I profoundly lack depth on both, and am a bit artsy craftsy in my intuitions, I did buy the Maths module precisely because it was an analog computer. The intent was to create some generative music, and seeing if I could use it to create 1/f noise, and exploring self-similarity using a musical ear instead of in code. Still working on it. When you look at what you can do with magnets hooked to a synth with a ferrofluid, e.g. https://youtu.be/Q3oItpVa9fs https://youtu.be/Q3oItpVa9fs , the sound and your ear helps to develop an sense for what kinds of waves can be used to yield physical effects. If you can functionally suspend and maipulate a ferrofluid with waves, there are likely analogies to laser pulses and electrons for quantum computing. Waves gonna wave, etc. The other piece that grabbed me recently was "analog fractals," (https://hackaday.com/tag/analog-fractals/ https://hackaday.com/tag/analog-fractals/ + that rabbit hole) where if you can get those artifacts instantaneously as the effect of physical feedback instead of rendering them computationally, there are likely faster functional approaches to a lot of other problems, only a subset of which we use ASICs and FPGAs to implement today. It's speculative based on laughably incomplete understandings on my part, but that's hacking.
tiborsaas 5y ago
Now you gave me some hope that the massive time that went into Reason was not wasted :)
chas 5y ago
One thing to note: the waves in quantum physics have complex amplitudes[0] (e.g. a real number + an imaginary number), rather than the waves in most synthesizers and analog computers which only have a real amplitude. This means that they can have very different behavior e.g. wave interference is different for real-valued classical waves and complex-valued quantum waves. Experience with any wave dynamics is certainly still valuable though. [0]https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/46054 https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/46054

jnovek 5y ago

OK, this is increasingly off-topic, but I’m just getting into Eurorack and I’ve been become curious about analog computers… not because I know anything about them, but because they share a user-interface style. Can you speak to similarities between them? You seem to know a bit about both topics.

motohagiography 5y ago
Thanks! With the caveat that I profoundly lack depth on both, and am a bit artsy craftsy in my intuitions, I did buy the Maths module precisely because it was an analog computer. The intent was to create some generative music, and seeing if I could use it to create 1/f noise, and exploring self-similarity using a musical ear instead of in code. Still working on it. When you look at what you can do with magnets hooked to a synth with a ferrofluid, e.g. https://youtu.be/Q3oItpVa9fs https://youtu.be/Q3oItpVa9fs , the sound and your ear helps to develop an sense for what kinds of waves can be used to yield physical effects. If you can functionally suspend and maipulate a ferrofluid with waves, there are likely analogies to laser pulses and electrons for quantum computing. Waves gonna wave, etc. The other piece that grabbed me recently was "analog fractals," (https://hackaday.com/tag/analog-fractals/ https://hackaday.com/tag/analog-fractals/ + that rabbit hole) where if you can get those artifacts instantaneously as the effect of physical feedback instead of rendering them computationally, there are likely faster functional approaches to a lot of other problems, only a subset of which we use ASICs and FPGAs to implement today. It's speculative based on laughably incomplete understandings on my part, but that's hacking.

tiborsaas 5y ago

Now you gave me some hope that the massive time that went into Reason was not wasted :)

chas 5y ago

One thing to note: the waves in quantum physics have complex amplitudes[0] (e.g. a real number + an imaginary number), rather than the waves in most synthesizers and analog computers which only have a real amplitude. This means that they can have very different behavior e.g. wave interference is different for real-valued classical waves and complex-valued quantum waves. Experience with any wave dynamics is certainly still valuable though. [0]https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/46054 https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/46054