4 ms·
Analog is next. Software first, then build the machines. No more models, reductions, loss. Direct perception through measurement and differences.
by marshfram 1y ago
Analog is next. Software first, then build the machines. No more models, reductions, loss. Direct perception through measurement and differences.
- cluckindan 1y agoAnalog was before, though. General computing was never realized using those architectures; granted, they were mechanical in nature, so that is a big ask, both figuratively and literally. Maybe we could create continuous-valued electrical computers, but at least state, stability and error detection are going to be giant hurdles. Also, programming GUIs from Gaussian splats sounds like fun in the negative sense.
- estimator7292 1y agoYou've just described vacuum tube computers as well as all the early transistorized computers. Digital computing is a relatively late concept
- mcnamaratw 1y agoOf course there were analog 'computers' but vacuum tubes were also used to realize digital computers in the early days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum-tube_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum-tube_computer
- cluckindan 1y agoThe important difference is that all those early analog computers were either bespoke or suited for a very narrow subset of tasks, like fire control computers. They were very far from general purpose computers, and that is the reason the von Neumann architecture dominates today: we are free to change the operation of the computer without literally changing gears or re-wiring all logic paths. Before, the hardware was the software.
- marshfram 1y agoYou have to withdraw from the binary in all senses to begin to imagine what an analog spatial differences measurement could function as. Again, think software first. The brain is always a byproduct of the processes, though it is discerned as a materialist operation. Think big, binary computers are toys in the gran scheme of things.
- bastawhiz 1y agoWe'd need a real breakthrough in physics to have such a technology that works at a scale even remotely comparable to what a low end digital CPU can do today. The thing is, there's not even any real evidence (at least to my knowledge) that there are useful threads that researchers know to pull on that could yield such a technology. Emulating analog hardware with digital hardware in anticipation of some kind of breakthrough isn't going to have any material benefits in the short to medium term.
- marshfram 1y agoYou're thinking small, think about software first. Analoga of differentials. Spatial. Specifics. If you get trapped in emulation, you're trapped in counting.
- bastawhiz 1y agoWhat does that even mean
- marshfram 1y agoBinary computers are toy prisons of counting that model in a reality that has no correct models, not even neuromorphic will gain validity here, leave them behind. Start over with the forms we know are valid in neural syntax and apply them to software.
- bastawhiz 1y agoThat's a great sentiment but without code that does what you're describing, that means nothing. Put some code out into the world that demonstrates the idea, because otherwise it's just inspirational words without substance.
- marshfram 1y agoIt's not a sentiment, it's real coding. Rhythms of the Brain by Buzsaki. Cinema is already a prototype of differences, using space, and coreelating topological states. It's analog software that's been running for 130 years. Binary was always a dead end alley, we knew this going in. How do we escape it?