[ExI] Smallest human-equivalent device

[Eugen Leitl]

On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 09:49:30AM +0100, Anders Sandberg wrote:

> merging. But other software will disagree. And the uploads in my big
> data center will not care that they are sharing underlying hardware
> and software as long as their data and processes are kept in
> separate virtual machines.

This is one of the rare cases where you're mistaken, Anders.
All the other points are spot on.

Context switches make things slower, if your system is
100% loaded. The more state you have to save and restore,
the slower. In a simulation, it's all state.

This is why supercomputers use batching, running until
done, and never multitask between jobs.

So if you have to twiddle 10^21 bits or more
very rapidly, they stay where they are. There
is only I/O, and occasional snapshot, which
needs to be serialized when transported out
of the computational volume. Notice that snapshot
and transport circuitry either make you stop
until done, or dilute the effective computation
concentration per volume, making things slower
on the average.

Fast and energy-efficient means there's risk.