From: Jonathan Colvin (jcolvin@ican.net)
Date: Sat Jun 27 1998 - 04:49:43 MDT
Michael wrote:
"I would be interested to hear what people think about the possibility of
extending the reign of Moore's law beyond 2020, when we hit atomic-sized
components, dissipating kT Joules per operation, assuming it continues on
its merry path for the next 20 years.
What are the possibilities for increasing computer power beyond that point?"
I think that femtotech is a dead end. Quantum effects render the
preservation of information at this scale impossible. However, the same
effects enable the salvation: quantum computing. Taking advantage of the
many worlds-interpretation of QM, a quantum computer takes advantage of the
enormous combinatorial explosion of combining quantum logic gates. Each
gate is not merely on or off, but in a superposition of the two states.
Thus all possible computations are performed simultaneously. A quantum
computer could factor a large prime instantaneously. That is why the NSA is
funding much of the research. The last lecture I saw on the subject (about
a year and a half ago) a quantum NOT gate had been successfully produced.
Its a start...so enjoy PGP while you can :)..
On the subject of String Theory, a very informative book is Hyperspace by
Michio Kaku, one of the founders of string theory. Its a bit out of date
(1994) but String theory is still hot, and getting hotter, although it has
been replaced by manifold theory now. We no longer have vibrating
10-dimensional strings, but vibrating manifolds instead. I am certainly a
String (now manifold) convert. Its where its at...21 century physics that
we accidentally discovered a bit early..but if only we had the math to cope.
Jonathan Colvin
jcolvin@ican.net
Paraglide Ontario: http://home.ican.net/~jcolvin
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