[ExI] [Bulk] Re: Virtual Reality is where the aliens are

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: [Bulk] Re: [ExI] Virtual Reality is where the aliens are


>...Is it safe to assume that advanced future computing will generate a lot
of waste heat?... BillK
_______________________________________________


If they actually do anything, photons do create waste heat.  The third law
applies to them as well.

But we know what you meant: photons are a way more efficient way to transfer
signals than pushing electrons down a wire: entropy production is way lower.

The reason I focus on your comment is not to strain at gnats BillK, but
rather because I have really been pondering how to calculate temperature
gradients in an MBrain using entropy.  If I can bound the problem using the
third law, we might at least get a best-case scenario.  This technique is
what led me to the insight that MBrains would overheat unless you reflect
most of the energy out of the system.  

By my understanding of entropy and the third law of thermodynamics, an
MBrain not only has the option of turning its star into a photon rocket, it
is required to do so.  If that notion is correct, then an MBrain would be
detectable.  That we don't see one is evidence that MBrains do not currently
exist, or if so, there aren't many of them.

That is an insight I regret Robert Bradbury did not live long enough for me
to share with him, for I didn't discover it until a few months after his
untimely passing.

spike