Short answer: They already are. Long answer: At every juncture where there could have been a different outcome, an infinite bunch of universes got created to pursue those outcomes. So of course, since everything that could have happened (previously) HAS happened, then there probably are universes where someone (YOU in one of them no doubt) already has a beowulf cluster of quantum computers. But those lie along a different, very divergent path from us. What we are trying to make happen is this: by creating a variable in a program that has an indeterminate value, it means that in every other universe where it could take on one of the possible values, it is currently being computed. Each one of these universes will actualize the variable into a different, known state. Different from the ones in the other neighboring universes where the computation also arrived at a result. In this way, the value will have been multi-processed in all its possible outcomes by the other universes. Through entanglement (which I don't really quite get, yet), the one universe where the computation corresponds to the answer to the original question we posed will return the answer to us.
The infinite number of variables will be stored in the infinite amount of universes that will be multi-processing the algorithm. No problem. Entanglement will assure that the result YOU (the you in THIS universe) asked for is returned to this universe. Quite simple, actually.
Scientists have been studying sunspot activity since the 1300's. For the past few hundred years there has been a regular pattern of peaks and quiet.
In the last few decades though, that pattern has changed to where the sun's sunspot activity is MUCH higher than it has ever been and the activity period has been going on without stopping or having very short quiet periods.
The whole "global warming is caused by humanity" argument has a few merits, of course, but it's a miniscule drop in the bucket compared to the power of the sun.
On the plus side, it gives humanity something they can combat, instead of watching helplessly while the sun goes nova and wipes out life on earth.
It might actually explain why earth has had no contact from alien civilizations: If you extrapolate even a very conservative version of the Drake Equation, and then look at the amount of time it would take for even ONE space faring civilization to completely colonize the galaxy, we should be bumping into aliens constantly.
The fact that we haven't might mean that even on a planet where intelligence eventually evolves, that habitability-period of the planet is never long enough for the beings living there go get off of their world before either their sun goes nova, they get wiped out by a killer asteroid or they destroy themselves.
If we look at the earth as being an average planet in the universe, then we know that all those scenarios are possible.
Sort of makes you reflect that we should be developing ways to colonize space and spread our proverbial eggs from this one basket instead of waging useless wars on each other that only produce suffering.
You know, I'm not sure they CAN be sued. Since they are an open-source project, and are not asking for any money for their work, would it be possible to sue them?
I'm sure someone will pipe up on that point.;-)
Let's start suing.ORGs because they sometimes provide services to low-income people that higher-income people usually pay for!
If we close down enough soup-kitchens, they'll start getting the point.
I suppose someone ELSE will pipe up that with enough money and lawyers, you can basically get anything you want, but how long before ordinary citizens REALLY get tired of that and start filing clss-action suits against Microsoft until Microsoft folds up and dies?
I don't think it's in Microsoft's best interests to go after every open-source project that they see as a competitor.
To have all the P2P computers on the net "fingerprinting" the files they download for identification purposes. I suppose prosecution for MP3 sharing *could* count as compensation for the artists...
Finally someone who isn't just whining but is actually suggesting a solution! I say we MOD YOU UP! I don't have any moderator points right now, but if I did, I would mod you up. Respectfully.
You must consider the implementation, ie. real-world limitations and requirements/trade-offs otherwise your solution will not be acceptable, but if you go too far in this respect, you'll create a system almost no one else will be able to comprehend and maintain. On the other hand, if you go fully-elegant (applying every theory that might be applicable) to the construction, you'll wind up exhausting processing power/memory, etc... That's where judgement comes in; knowing where to cut, and specifically what to document to give maintenance programmers a leg-up on whatever short-cut you engineered to accomplish the feat. Make sense?
I've programmed for a few years in Java and for a few years in C and C++ and in my opinion, Java is just not worth the effort. Sure, it'll enable feeble-minded programmers to write code and help them not worry about nasty things like memory and pointers, but in fact, if you ARE an accomplished programmer, you don't need that kind of a crutch anyway. I know it's very politically-correct to keep lowering the bar for everyone, but I seriously believe that there are a huge number of programmers out there who should be working as plumbers or opticians, and who basically jumped onto the IT bandwagon when it was hot in the 90s or because it was cool in our present decade. Software quality is NOT going up, it is going DOWN. Why? Because many no-too-gifted developers are jumping into computer science as a career, and Java is just the very embodiment of that; a poorly thought-out language with glaring engineering and architectural lacunae.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd cite the books I got that from, but you're too insulting for me to bother.
There are open-source codecs that will give even better quality output on your devices!
Short answer: They already are.
Long answer: At every juncture where there could have been a different outcome, an infinite bunch of universes got created to pursue those outcomes.
So of course, since everything that could have happened (previously) HAS happened, then there probably are universes where someone (YOU in one of them no doubt) already has a beowulf cluster of quantum computers.
But those lie along a different, very divergent path from us.
What we are trying to make happen is this: by creating a variable in a program that has an indeterminate value, it means that in every other universe where it could take on one of the possible values, it is currently being computed.
Each one of these universes will actualize the variable into a different, known state. Different from the ones in the other neighboring universes where the computation also arrived at a result. In this way, the value will have been multi-processed in all its possible outcomes by the other universes. Through entanglement (which I don't really quite get, yet), the one universe where the computation corresponds to the answer to the original question we posed will return the answer to us.
The infinite number of variables will be stored in the infinite amount of universes that will be multi-processing the algorithm.
No problem.
Entanglement will assure that the result YOU (the you in THIS universe) asked for is returned to this universe.
Quite simple, actually.
Therefore I will not buy ANY of those titles.
Since I cannot back them up.
When no one buys their copy-protected law-breaking titles, they'll stop issuing them that way.
Would that research and development have been possible without strife?
The Internet is like any other tool we've made, it can be used for good or for evil.
I think it is much more rewarding if we work together to make the world a better place.
And in the long run it may be the only option.
Scientists have been studying sunspot activity since the 1300's. For the past few hundred years there has been a regular pattern of peaks and quiet.
In the last few decades though, that pattern has changed to where the sun's sunspot activity is MUCH higher than it has ever been and the activity period has been going on without stopping or having very short quiet periods.
The whole "global warming is caused by humanity" argument has a few merits, of course, but it's a miniscule drop in the bucket compared to the power of the sun.
On the plus side, it gives humanity something they can combat, instead of watching helplessly while the sun goes nova and wipes out life on earth.
It might actually explain why earth has had no contact from alien civilizations: If you extrapolate even a very conservative version of the Drake Equation, and then look at the amount of time it would take for even ONE space faring civilization to completely colonize the galaxy, we should be bumping into aliens constantly.
The fact that we haven't might mean that even on a planet where intelligence eventually evolves, that habitability-period of the planet is never long enough for the beings living there go get off of their world before either their sun goes nova, they get wiped out by a killer asteroid or they destroy themselves.
If we look at the earth as being an average planet in the universe, then we know that all those scenarios are possible.
Sort of makes you reflect that we should be developing ways to colonize space and spread our proverbial eggs from this one basket instead of waging useless wars on each other that only produce suffering.
You know, I'm not sure they CAN be sued.
;-)
.ORGs because they sometimes provide services to low-income people that higher-income people usually pay for!
Since they are an open-source project, and are not asking for any money for their work, would it be possible to sue them?
I'm sure someone will pipe up on that point.
Let's start suing
If we close down enough soup-kitchens, they'll start getting the point.
I suppose someone ELSE will pipe up that with enough money and lawyers, you can basically get anything you want, but how long before ordinary citizens REALLY get tired of that and start filing clss-action suits against Microsoft until Microsoft folds up and dies?
I don't think it's in Microsoft's best interests to go after every open-source project that they see as a competitor.
Open-source Windows, anyone?
To have all the P2P computers on the net "fingerprinting" the files they download for identification purposes. I suppose prosecution for MP3 sharing *could* count as compensation for the artists...
Finally someone who isn't just whining but is actually suggesting a solution!
I say we MOD YOU UP!
I don't have any moderator points right now, but if I did, I would mod you up.
Respectfully.
I say we MOD YOU UP!
You must consider the implementation, ie. real-world limitations and requirements/trade-offs otherwise your solution will not be acceptable, but if you go too far in this respect, you'll create a system almost no one else will be able to comprehend and maintain.
On the other hand, if you go fully-elegant (applying every theory that might be applicable) to the construction, you'll wind up exhausting processing power/memory, etc...
That's where judgement comes in; knowing where to cut, and specifically what to document to give maintenance programmers a leg-up on whatever short-cut you engineered to accomplish the feat.
Make sense?
I've programmed for a few years in Java and for a few years in C and C++ and in my opinion, Java is just not worth the effort.
Sure, it'll enable feeble-minded programmers to write code and help them not worry about nasty things like memory and pointers, but in fact, if you ARE an accomplished programmer, you don't need that kind of a crutch anyway.
I know it's very politically-correct to keep lowering the bar for everyone, but I seriously believe that there are a huge number of programmers out there who should be working as plumbers or opticians, and who basically jumped onto the IT bandwagon when it was hot in the 90s or because it was cool in our present decade.
Software quality is NOT going up, it is going DOWN. Why? Because many no-too-gifted developers are jumping into computer science as a career, and Java is just the very embodiment of that; a poorly thought-out language with glaring engineering and architectural lacunae.
I propose we rename Karma Whuffie.
No, this is not a troll.
Isn't this getting out of hand?
At first people were arguing about which OS to run and now they're arguing about which loader will start the OS???
What's next? A war on which program formatted the disk?