Perhaps you should etch your blog on a metal disk, like the Rosetta Disk ;-)
http://rosettaproject.org/disk/concept/ ... ben g On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 9:05 PM, Logan Streondj <[email protected]> wrote: > "I preferred to write a blog post than a long email, as emails have more > of a feeling of vanishing into the ether, whereas blog posts feel more > persistent.." -- Ben Goertzel > > Yes, I completely agree. Whenever I make a good forum or mailing list > post I also put it on my blog. What makes it more persistent is I backup > my blogs on my computer. > > In terms of Longevity Hardware, paper has a much higher life expectancy > than my computer harddrive, so I condense my blogs with some scripts I've > made and have them printed with laser printers. Recently I fit 500-700 > pages onto 26 pages, it's legible with a magnifying glass, but still safer > than my hard-drive, and cost me less than $5 at the library :-). > > My personal journal I make out of heavy duty aluminum foil, and recently > I've made some stainless steel covers. It makes it waterproof, and > resilient to most of what the world can throw at it. > So should have a much higher life-expectancy than even paper. > On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 11:46 PM, Steve Richfield < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Logan, >> >> I have a super-duper computer proposal that addresses your concerns. >> Boiling a large proposal down to a short paragraph, These would be LARGE >> sized chips, arranged on a wafer so that they are interconnected >> until/unless cut apart. The I/O pin logic on each chip would be large >> geometry because it would have to survive, but the remainder would be lots >> of redundant pieces, and a "relocatable loader" to load microcode as needed >> while dodging new and old defects. >> >> Many of the most obvious challenges evaporate if/when you move to a >> really high-level language like APL, which obviously needs a new front-end >> for general acceptance, but which is now the ONLY language with semantics >> adequate to support extremely large scale integration. With a relocatable >> loader to dodge defects at "run time" and "crash time", it makes SO many >> other things possible/easy. >> >> During fabrication, the chips would be tested to make sure that they >> aren't SO bad that they would have to be discarded, and if not, groups of >> them, or even all of them, would be left connected together to form a large >> closely-connected network, e.g. with the ability to hand off memory banks >> full of information to each other, etc. >> >> With an on-chip task-oriented OS, crashed sub-tasks would simply be rerun >> on other hardware while the failing hardware is diagnosed and reconfigured. >> Note that asynchronous logic and interconnections provide natural fault >> detection, because instead of producing wrong answers, they just stop, so a >> watchdog timer is all that is needed for failure detection. Hence, no >> matter what went wrong, the worst that would happen would be a short delay >> in operation while the system reconfigures and redoes the failed task. >> >> It looks like so long as no more than ~1/10^4 transistors are dead, these >> processors will work GREAT. Note that this is close to present yields with >> gallium arsenide, which would provide a substantial boost in speed. >> >> Of course this would cost a LOT of money to develop - more than anyone is >> now willing to commit to any new product. So, like SO many things here on >> the AGI forum, this will sit around until the world changes to a form that >> is more ready for such things. >> >> Continuing... >> On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 5:00 PM, Logan Streondj <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> >>> Steve yes that's the thing, a lot of it has to do with circuit size. >>> 40 years ago the circuits used to be much larger and more durable. >>> >> >> Even back then, many power transistors were really lots of tiny >> transistors connected in parallel, and which would keep running even if a >> few of them failed. Many people have used this early form of fault tolerant >> logic without even realizing it. >> >> But now with nano-circuits they are extremely tiny, and prone to >>> degradation from even the quantum heat-radiation of being at room >>> temperature. >>> >> >> Yes, any realistic new architecture MUST be able to handle run-time >> component failures. Asynchronous logic to detect failures, relocatable >> loaders to avoid faults, and a task-oriented on-chip OS to avoid being hurt >> by run-time failures seems to be the key to such things. >> >>> >>> To make longevity hardware, we really will have to make larger circuit >>> sizes, and likely build in some redundancy, like multiple processors. >>> >> >> No, you need extreme fault tolerance. The easiest way to achieve this is >> with an array processor structure, but with either lots of spare nodes, or >> with variable size hardware array rows. >> >> Something like those toffoli gates may allow for 3 dimensional computing, >>> so what we lose from circuit density, we can gain by having multiple >>> relatively cool layers. >>> >> >> IMHO the biggest power-related problem is that "modern" computers handle >> the data WAY too many times. A MUCH more efficient approach is "data >> chaining", where ALUs are dynamically arranged in a way where a complete >> loop iteration is done in a single clock cycle. This eliminates ALL of the >> memory references internal to the loops, and is an order of magnitude or so >> faster than array processor architectures. >> >> So, until the world becomes ready for such things, I will continue to >> work on MUCH less exciting projects. >> >> Steve >> ========= >> >>> On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 12:25 PM, Steve Richfield < >>> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Logan, >>>> >>>> On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 11:16 PM, Logan Streondj <[email protected]>wrote: >>>> >>>>> One issue that many seem to overlook, is the longevity of hardware >>>>> issue. >>>>> Fact is, that most hardware produced today, has a half-life of 4-7 >>>>> years. >>>>> >>>> >>>> That is because they now use cheap plastic packaging, aluminum bonding >>>> wires, and don't gold plate much of anything. The military stuff lasts for >>>> about a century. >>>> >>>> I just purchased a 40-year-old analog computer. It had a broken >>>> resistor from shipment because the mounting bolts for a small power >>>> transformer had been omitted (possibly from the original factory) so the >>>> transformer had bashed the resistor, and it needed some alignment to >>>> compensate for its aging components - but the alignment controls were there >>>> to align, so this wasn't technically even a "repair". Now, it all checks >>>> out and is ready to be put back into service, in this case, to evaluate >>>> real-time algorithms for smart hearing aids. With this, prospective >>>> algorithms can be programmed in a few minutes, and changes can be made in a >>>> minute or so. >>>> >>>> In this next-generation design, the output is added to what the user >>>> hears without it, so the analysis must be instantaneous (a few microseconds >>>> of delay are OK, but a millisecond would be disastrous) in order to >>>> maintain proper phase relationships. Sure this could conceivably be done >>>> digitally, but this would be a big hassle, and there would be no apparent >>>> advantage in doing so. >>>> >>>> Of course I didn't have to go WAY back 40 years to find a suitable >>>> computer, but in addition to being quite functional it is a beautiful >>>> antique, complete with its glowing Nixie tube digital display. Besides, I >>>> only had to pay $312 for it. >>>> >>>> Steve >>>> >>>> *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> >>>> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/5037279-6ef01b0b> | >>>> Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription >>>> <http://www.listbox.com> >>>> >>> >>> *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> >>> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/10443978-6f4c28ac> | >>> Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription >>> <http://www.listbox.com> >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Full employment can be had with the stoke of a pen. Simply institute a >> six hour workday. That will easily create enough new jobs to bring back >> full employment. >> >> >> *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> >> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/5037279-6ef01b0b> | >> Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription >> <http://www.listbox.com> >> > > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/212726-c2d57280> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > -- Ben Goertzel, PhD http://goertzel.org "My humanity is a constant self-overcoming" -- Friedrich Nietzsche ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-c97d2393 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-2484a968 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
