[extropy-chat] Singularity heat waste

[Martin Striz]

On 7/14/06, George Dvorsky <george at betterhumans.com> wrote:
> This comment was recently posted by "Chris" on my blog (responses welcome):
>
>         "Does anyone know if any work has been done on the subject of how much
> waste heat would be generated by a singularity event? I'm thinking in
> terms of the fact that all computation, like all physical action,
> generates at least some degree of waste heat ( just no getting around
> thermodynamics)

Heat might only be an issue if computation continues to be performed
by semiconductors.  Neurons can do a lot of computation within minimal
heat loss.  Your head isn't hot due to neuron inefficiency.  It's kept
hot on purpose because enzyme kinetics are optimized for 37C.

Presumably a Singularity event would produce novel computational
substrates, so there's not way to predict post-Singularity energy/heat
budgets.

Martin