On 2019-02-03 10:19:AM, Matt Mahoney wrote:
The problem is power consumption. Mechanical adding machines are older
than vacuum tubes and would have very low power consumption if we
could shrink them to molecular size.
Copying bits in DNA, RNA, and protein costs less than a millionth as
much energy as copying bits in RAM. The human body transcribes 10^19
bits of amino acids per second at a cost of 10^-17 J each. (We consume
30 g of protein per day and use 100 watts). The theoretical (Landauer)
limit is kT ln 2 = 3 x 10^-20 J per bit copy at room temperature.
The Landauer limit applies to *deleting* bits not *copying* them.
There's no corresponding
thermodynamic limit to copying - or any other process essential to
computation - as illustrated
by computation-universal reversible cellular automata - and reversible
cellular automata capable
of supporting self reproduction. No bits have to be deleted in order to
compute things. That is
part of the interest in reversible computation.
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