On Monday, May 19, 2014 7:26:40 AM UTC+1, Bruno Marchal wrote: > > > On 18 May 2014, at 21:16, [email protected] <javascript:> wrote: > > Does this computer architecture assume not-comp? > > > No. Elementary arithmetic emulates n-synchronized oscillators for all n, > even infinite enumerable set of oscillators. You would need a continuum of > oscillators, with an explicit special non computable hamiltonian. Today, > there is nothing in nature which would threat comp, except the collapse of > the wave packet in theories where this is a physical phenomenon. Even in > that case, it would be a computation with oracle, and not change much of > the consequences. Anyway, I am not sure I can make sense of the wave > collapse being a physical phenomenon, and even less that this play a role > in the brain computation. > Food for thought there, on the positive side. On the not-negative side, from my perspective I would probably class comp - or as it can be used - as an 'infinity theory', which whether correct or not, as I do see it that way, one major prediction blanketing the whole class would be that it's actually impossible for any development or surprise to amount to a major problem for theories in that class, or be influential. Purely as one of the properties of infinity...there's always a bit more infinity for whatever comes along. So on the side in which I'm secretly interested and entertaining this infinity paradigm it's food for thought. On the other not-not-entertaining side, nothing new has been said about comp at all. So dwelling on that side as I am wont to do, for a chance of new value Bruno, I need to formulate a question that bridges the divide allowing possibility of value both sides. So here it is. If this new architecture indeed happens to be sub-class for mimicking the brain...and maybe something like, ok comp will probably so no anything can be simulated on anything,. But within that there's a realistic open question, say to do with our local apparent physically, which obviously would include apparently physical materials out of which we build things, which feasibly being non-fundamental may be informationally or other such constrained within this apparently real dimensions, such that - feasibly - yes anything can be simulated on anything, but somethings in the multiverse are that complex that simulating them on our local physicality, requires large amounts of it,. So maybe - and let's say the doctor asks the question before anyone discovers the above architiecture - and it so happens the digital brain is materially in terms of atoms insufficient in terms of weight to do the job, but by very unlucky mischance, it so happens it's exactly enough to do everything just like the brain is conscious but sadly would require a boulder sized object to generate the consciousness, or maybe a planet size. So, unless there's a good reason why this is absolutely not a possible situation ever in the multiverse, why would you say yes to the doctor, not knowing absent hard theory for consciousness, whether the particular materials and computer architecture was right?
> > Bruno > > > > 15046Synchronized oscillators may allow for computing that works like the > brain > *Expand Messages* > > - richard ruquist > May 15 2:09 PM > View Source > - 0 Attachment > - > Synchronized oscillators may allow for computing that works like the > brainMay 15, 2014 > [image: oscillating_switch] > This is a cartoon of an oscillating switch, the basis of a new type of > low-power analog computing (credit: Credit: Nikhil Shukla, Penn State) > Computing is currently based on binary (Boolean) logic, but a new type > of computing architecture created by electrical engineers at Penn > State<http://www.psu.edu/> stores > information in the frequencies and phases of periodic signals and could > work more like the human brain. > It would use a fraction of the energy necessary for today’s computers, > according to the engineers. > To achieve the new architecture, they used a thin film of vanadium > oxide on a titanium dioxide substrate to create an oscillating switch. > Vanadium dioxide is called a “wacky oxide” because it transitions from a > conducting metal to an insulating semiconductor and vice versa with the > addition of a small amount of heat or electrical current. > *Biological synchronization for associative processing* > Using a standard electrical engineering trick, Nikhil Shukla, graduate > student in electrical engineering, added a series resistor to the oxide > device to stabilize oscillations. When he added a second similar > oscillating system, he discovered that, over time, the two devices began > to > oscillate in unison, or synchronize. > This coupled system could provide the basis for non-Boolean computing. > Shukla worked with Suman Datta, professor of electrical engineering, and > co-advisor Roman Engel-Herbert, assistant professor of materials science > and engineering, Penn State. They reported their results May 14 in > *Scientific > Reports* (open access). > “It’s called a small-world network,” explained Shukla. “You see it in > lots of biological systems, such as certain species of fireflies. The > males > will flash randomly, but then for some unknown reason the flashes > synchronize over time.” The brain is also a small-world network of closely > clustered nodes that evolved for more efficient information processing. > “Biological synchronization is everywhere,” added Datta. “We wanted to > use it for a different kind of computing called associative processing, > which is an analog rather than digital way to compute.” > An array of oscillators can store patterns — for instance, the color > of someone’s hair, their height and skin texture. If a second area of > oscillators has the same pattern, they will begin to synchronize, and the > degree of match can be read out, without consuming a lot of energy and > requiring a lot of transistors, as in Boolean computing. > *A neuromorphic computer chip* > Datta is collaborating with Vijay Narayanan, professor of computer > science and engineering, Penn State, in exploring the use of these coupled > oscillations to solve visual recognition problems more efficiently than > existing embedded vision processors. > Shukla and Datta called on the expertise of Cornell University > materials scientist Darrell Schlom to make the vanadium dioxide thin film, > which has extremely high quality similar to single crystal silicon. Arijit > Raychowdhury, computer engineer, and Abhinav Parihar graduate student, > both > of Georgia Tech, mathematically simulated the nonlinear dynamics of > coupled > phase transitions in the vanadium dioxide devices. > Parihar created a short video simulation of the transitions, which > occur at a rate close to a million times per second, to show the way the > oscillations synchronize. Venkatraman Gopalan, professor of materials > science and engineering, Penn State, used the Advanced Photon Source at > Argonne National Laboratory to visually characterize the structural > changes > occurring in the oxide thin film in the midst of the oscillations. > Datta believes it will take seven to 10 years to scale up from their > current network of two-three coupled oscillators to the 100 million or so > closely packed oscillators required to make a neuromorphic computer chip. > One of the benefits of the novel device is that it will use only about > one percent of the energy of digital computing, allowing for new ways to > design computers. Much work remains to determine if vanadium dioxide can > be > integrated into current silicon wafer technology. > The Office of Naval Research primarily supported this work. The > National Science Foundation’s Expeditions in Computing Award also > supported > this work. > ------------------------------ > *Abstract of Scientific Reports paper* > Strongly correlated phases exhibit collective carrier dynamics that if > properly harnessed can enable novel functionalities and applications. In > this article, we investigate the phenomenon of electrical oscillations in > a > prototypical MIT system, vanadium dioxide (VO2). We show that the key > to such oscillatory behaviour is the ability to induce and stabilize a > non-hysteretic and spontaneously reversible phase transition using a > negative feedback mechanism. Further, we investigate the synchronization > and coupling dynamics of such VO2 based relaxation oscillators and > show, via experiment and simulation, that this coupled oscillator system > exhibits rich non-linear dynamics including charge oscillations that are > synchronized in both frequency and phase. Our approach of harnessing a > non-hysteretic reversible phase transition region is applicable to other > correlated systems exhibiting metal-insulator transitions and can be a > potential candidate for oscillator based non-Boolean computing. > references: > - Nikhil Shukla et al., Synchronized charge oscillations in > correlated electron systems, *Scientific Reports*, 2014, DOI: > 10.1038/srep04964 (open > access)<http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140514/srep04964/full/srep04964.html> > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> > . > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/ > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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