[extropy-chat] Forbes Magazine on Robotics

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Michael Anissimov wrote:
> 
> When a civilization has control of every atom, waste heat need not be
> produced.  Waste heat is defined as atoms getting out of place and
> bumping into each other.  In a civilization with atomic control over
> its own matterspace, you can simply catch the atoms and reroute them
> before they bump into each other destructively.

When you erase bits, you've got to produce waste heat - for example, 
radiate a photon, or dump a vibration into a cool molecule's vibratory 
degree of freedom.  You can't "catch and reroute" the motions of your 
waste heat, because observing the motions would cost as much heat as you 
gained.  Otherwise you'd be able to produce a perpetual motion machine.

Waste heat must be produced by any civilization that is not completely 
reversible - even if that civilization has atomic control over its own 
matterspace.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence