[ExI] Tabby's star

[BillK]

On 10 December 2016 at 23:30, spike  wrote:
> BillK, think end-game.  Look at the equations for entropy and work
> backwards.  Assuming energy streaming out from a star in the familiar form.
> Now imagine matter arranged to its optimal configuration for creating the
> most information per unit energy that comes out from that star, or most
> effectively reduces entropy for a given limit of matter and a known flux of
> energy.
>
> Assume all the other engineering problems have been solved.  From that
> perspective, what is that configuration?
>
> When I do that exercise, the solutions I get tend toward small bits of
> matter widely spaced.  We will likely be metal limited and heat control is
> the path to maximum entropy reduction.


I doubt that we have reliable enough assumptions to rely on
calculations like that.
It may be a worst-case calculation.

What we can be sure of is that, compared with today, future computing
will considerably reduce energy consumption and heat generation.

Future techs, (some more speculative than others) all point in the
same direction.
Memristor, Spintronics, single molecule electronics (nanotechnology),
Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), carbon nanotube field-effect
transistor (CNTFET), Optical or photonic computing, Quantum computing,
etc.

Once energy consumption is reduced sufficiently, then negligible
energy sources can be utilised. i.e. you may not need to be very near
to a sun. Any heat generated may be used, not just radiated away into
space.

BillK