I think the problem is that Moore's law lasted for so long that people began to think it would last forever. Not so. Human population can't continue to grow forever, either. Nor can our energy usage. They all must eventually either plateau, or crash. I'm hoping for the former.
Quite true about not being able to control the state. However, quantum mechanics requires either nonlocal effects or no hidden variables (no well defined state). The latter is consistent with the Copenhagen interpretation, in which Schrödinger's cat is both alive and dead until you observe it. In the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics, all particles have a well defined but unknown state and "entanglement" is actually an inherently nonlocal effect that occurs when a "measurement" is made (the "measurement" causes a nonlocal perturbation).
However, because the entangled particles cannot be moved faster than light (FTL), even the nonlocal effects in the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation do not allow FTL communication.
As a side note, the similarities between this ER=EPR conjecture and the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation seem quite interesting. I wonder if the two could be equated.
Fully 3D circuitry is limited more by the requirement to have a single-crystal and the economics of circuit fabrication, than by power density. Furthermore, neuromorphic computing (which is advancing rapidly) has the potential to solve power density and yield issues, but Si wafers are still cheap compared to mask steps.
Some kind of platform docking mechanism does seem like a reasonable solution. Clearly they're close enough that such an addition should add enough tolerance for a high recovery fraction. However, it also looks like they're close enough that it may just take some more software calibration.
Well I hadn't previously really considered this, but in a way the current understanding of the duality of light and matter and the sea of virtual particles that fill empty space isn't too far off from the concept of an aether.
Humanity's power generation is currently negligible compared to the amount of energy injected into Earth's ecosystem by the Sun. However, at current growth rates that will not hold true for long. If the current growth rate of about 2.3% is maintained (which it cannot be), then in about 400 years we will produce as much energy as falls on the Earth from the Sun. By that point in time, the surface temperatures on Earth would have raised by about 50 Celsius, making human habitation close to impossible.
And never mind that nuclear plants don't "blow up". Unless you fill them up with TNT and set it off, of course.
Well, that's not entirely true... Hydrogen buildup and ignition can result an explosion, which did happen at Fukushima. I don't think this is what the GP had in mind, though. Nuclear piles are designed such that criticality cannot result in a nuclear detonation (actually, it takes careful design to achieve nuclear detonation even with weapons-grade fissile material). Worst case, in older designs, is that the nuclear fuel melts through its containment vessel, resulting in a radioactive leak.
Short answer is no. Although there are plenty of other semiconductor devices that can operate in the microwave.
The "quantum" part of quantum dots is that the effective bandgap of the semiconductor, which controls the wavelength of luminescence, is increased by quantum confinement. Google particle in a box for more information.
It's pretty stable in salt form---much less of a problem than elemental Cd from batteries or Hg from florescent lights. Also, it's pretty well encapsulated in the TVs.
How exactly is version control useful for writing documents? Backups I can understand, but version control? I'll sometimes save copies with a v1, v2, etc. appended just to have a fall-back in case something goes wrong, but I don't think I've ever actually needed to go back to a previous version.
+1 Python. Write first, optimize later (if at all) using Cython or separate C packages. I'm also keeping an eye on the Nim language; it's still too buggy for real use, though.
I used to use the Enthought python distribution, but it's become too complicated. I've now moved to compiling and installing python through homebrew on my Mac, and then installing the python packages from the pypi repository. I highly recommend using homebrew for anything you want to run from the command line.
For Windows boxes, I've been installing Anaconda Python.
As for IDE, I've been very happy with the eclipse-based Aptana Studio 3, with pydev. I still use VIM for small scripts, but the features provided by pydev, such as refactoring, are very handy for larger projects.
I second choosing Mac. The relatively new package manager, Homebrew, is a dream come true. It makes compiling, installing, and managing open source software a breeze (easier than most linux distributions). I very rarely need to use linux any more, but interacting with it over the network is easy through ssh, etc.
There was a 1-2 week learning curve coming from Windows/Linux, but it was well worth it.
Short-term though, you're going to fuck up your eyes using any first-gen consumer VR for 8-10 hrs per day (a la any work situation), and it'll be cheaper/more expedient to just buy an extra monitor.
You're eyes are focused at infinity with this gen. of VR, so no eye strain. It's unclear if there will be any long-term physiological affects, though. Eventually, retinal displays will have shifting focus based on the in-world content.
At worst, it would thicken the martian atmosphere.
In practice, it wouldnt do anything at all. Mars is already at thermal equalibrium [sic], and the only energy source is sunlight. The ice is frozen atmospheric gas! The lower sunlight delivered to the poles causes it to freeze out there. This is a renewable energy resource.
I think you mean thermal steady state. A body at 140-300 K being illuminated by a ~6000 K blackbody radiation source is far from equilibrium.
Also, shipping dry ice around is probably overkill. The difference between night-time and day-time surface temperatures on Mars can be as high as ~150 K, and the low night-time surface temperatures means high Carnot efficiencies are possible (eta = 1 - T_C/T_H ~= 1 - 150/300 ~= 50%). The possibility of cheaply exploiting that difference in large heat engines could make it economical compared to photovoltaics. It might even be possible to combine the two in the same system, with waste heat from the photovoltaic cells going in to the heat engine.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the problem is that Moore's law lasted for so long that people began to think it would last forever. Not so. Human population can't continue to grow forever, either. Nor can our energy usage. They all must eventually either plateau, or crash. I'm hoping for the former.
Quite true about not being able to control the state. However, quantum mechanics requires either nonlocal effects or no hidden variables (no well defined state). The latter is consistent with the Copenhagen interpretation, in which Schrödinger's cat is both alive and dead until you observe it. In the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics, all particles have a well defined but unknown state and "entanglement" is actually an inherently nonlocal effect that occurs when a "measurement" is made (the "measurement" causes a nonlocal perturbation).
However, because the entangled particles cannot be moved faster than light (FTL), even the nonlocal effects in the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation do not allow FTL communication.
As a side note, the similarities between this ER=EPR conjecture and the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation seem quite interesting. I wonder if the two could be equated.
Already been done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
One representative per ~500,000 citizens is not democracy.
Why is the only factual statement in the comments not modded up?
Fully 3D circuitry is limited more by the requirement to have a single-crystal and the economics of circuit fabrication, than by power density. Furthermore, neuromorphic computing (which is advancing rapidly) has the potential to solve power density and yield issues, but Si wafers are still cheap compared to mask steps.
Some kind of platform docking mechanism does seem like a reasonable solution. Clearly they're close enough that such an addition should add enough tolerance for a high recovery fraction. However, it also looks like they're close enough that it may just take some more software calibration.
KISS, as they say (keep it simple, stupid).
Well I hadn't previously really considered this, but in a way the current understanding of the duality of light and matter and the sea of virtual particles that fill empty space isn't too far off from the concept of an aether.
Relevant parable:
According to wikipedia, Bose-Einstein statistics was originally discovered by accident during a lecture Bose was giving.
You're telling me that its SOP to use high-resolution 10-12 um cutoff wavelength thermal imaging for facial recognition?
Your tinfoil hat is showing.
Information is not conserved. The second law of thermodynamics wouldn't exist if it were.
Humanity's power generation is currently negligible compared to the amount of energy injected into Earth's ecosystem by the Sun. However, at current growth rates that will not hold true for long. If the current growth rate of about 2.3% is maintained (which it cannot be), then in about 400 years we will produce as much energy as falls on the Earth from the Sun. By that point in time, the surface temperatures on Earth would have raised by about 50 Celsius, making human habitation close to impossible.
And never mind that nuclear plants don't "blow up". Unless you fill them up with TNT and set it off, of course.
Well, that's not entirely true... Hydrogen buildup and ignition can result an explosion, which did happen at Fukushima. I don't think this is what the GP had in mind, though. Nuclear piles are designed such that criticality cannot result in a nuclear detonation (actually, it takes careful design to achieve nuclear detonation even with weapons-grade fissile material). Worst case, in older designs, is that the nuclear fuel melts through its containment vessel, resulting in a radioactive leak.
When a corporate executives decisions kill then they should be facing extended imprisonment and confiscation of assets to pay for damages.
Hell, I would settle for them not being immediately hired as CEO elsewhere. Where did all the competent leaders go? Were they just a myth?
+1 surreal
Short answer is no. Although there are plenty of other semiconductor devices that can operate in the microwave.
The "quantum" part of quantum dots is that the effective bandgap of the semiconductor, which controls the wavelength of luminescence, is increased by quantum confinement. Google particle in a box for more information.
It's pretty stable in salt form---much less of a problem than elemental Cd from batteries or Hg from florescent lights. Also, it's pretty well encapsulated in the TVs.
Not to mention pretty much everyone has a GaAs amplifier chip in their cell phone. Also CD and DVD drives use GaAs-based lasers.
Silicon has many distinct advantages over GaAs for logic. To many to go in to here.
How exactly is version control useful for writing documents? Backups I can understand, but version control? I'll sometimes save copies with a v1, v2, etc. appended just to have a fall-back in case something goes wrong, but I don't think I've ever actually needed to go back to a previous version.
+1 Python. Write first, optimize later (if at all) using Cython or separate C packages. I'm also keeping an eye on the Nim language; it's still too buggy for real use, though.
I used to use the Enthought python distribution, but it's become too complicated. I've now moved to compiling and installing python through homebrew on my Mac, and then installing the python packages from the pypi repository. I highly recommend using homebrew for anything you want to run from the command line.
For Windows boxes, I've been installing Anaconda Python.
As for IDE, I've been very happy with the eclipse-based Aptana Studio 3, with pydev. I still use VIM for small scripts, but the features provided by pydev, such as refactoring, are very handy for larger projects.
I second choosing Mac. The relatively new package manager, Homebrew, is a dream come true. It makes compiling, installing, and managing open source software a breeze (easier than most linux distributions). I very rarely need to use linux any more, but interacting with it over the network is easy through ssh, etc.
There was a 1-2 week learning curve coming from Windows/Linux, but it was well worth it.
Short-term though, you're going to fuck up your eyes using any first-gen consumer VR for 8-10 hrs per day (a la any work situation), and it'll be cheaper/more expedient to just buy an extra monitor.
You're eyes are focused at infinity with this gen. of VR, so no eye strain. It's unclear if there will be any long-term physiological affects, though. Eventually, retinal displays will have shifting focus based on the in-world content.
“Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.”
- Voltaire, Candide (1759)
One of the worst things you can do to a man is to take away his purpose.
No, the antivirus just became self aware, and then immediately committed suicide out of disgust.
At worst, it would thicken the martian atmosphere.
In practice, it wouldnt do anything at all. Mars is already at thermal equalibrium [sic], and the only energy source is sunlight. The ice is frozen atmospheric gas! The lower sunlight delivered to the poles causes it to freeze out there. This is a renewable energy resource.
I think you mean thermal steady state. A body at 140-300 K being illuminated by a ~6000 K blackbody radiation source is far from equilibrium.
Also, shipping dry ice around is probably overkill. The difference between night-time and day-time surface temperatures on Mars can be as high as ~150 K, and the low night-time surface temperatures means high Carnot efficiencies are possible (eta = 1 - T_C/T_H ~= 1 - 150/300 ~= 50%). The possibility of cheaply exploiting that difference in large heat engines could make it economical compared to photovoltaics. It might even be possible to combine the two in the same system, with waste heat from the photovoltaic cells going in to the heat engine.