Sensible Erection | A computer that could outlive the Universe.

Monday, 9 July 2012

A computer that could outlive the Universe.

quote [ The heat-death of the universe need not bring an end to the computing age. A strange device known as a time crystal can theoretically continue to work as a computer even after the universe cools. ]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

[sci&tech] [by KropperPrime@7:41amGMT] [+10 Interesting]

Comments

gunthar said @ 8:39am GMT on 9th Jul

damnit said @ 9:34am GMT on 9th Jul [Score:1 Interesting]
This only had two scenes of Tom Cruise running. There are much much more.

damnit said @ 9:38am GMT on 9th Jul [Score:1 Informative]
http://tomcruiserunning.tumblr.com/

	tickaz said @ 3:42pm GMT on 9th Jul From
	tickaz said @ 3:43pm GMT on 9th Jul Fucking unclosed tags. I can't be fucked writing that again.

mwoody said @ 12:48am GMT on 10th Jul
From Tom Cruise's IMDB page:

if you had told 14 year old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be considered one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to become a priest.

Thing is, he did become a priest, of sorts...

Ankylosaur said @ 1:32am GMT on 10th Jul [Score:1 Funny]
You have to do a lot of auditing to reach Mapother IV.

cb361 said @ 8:44am GMT on 9th Jul
I haven't really been keeping up with Doctor Who, myself.

SnappyNipples said @ 9:19am GMT on 9th Jul [Score:1 Insightful]
The "hello world" program for this computer will be kind of ironic.

cb361 said @ 10:03am GMT on 9th Jul
ditto the BSOD, although there won't be anyone around to scream and thump the base unit.

Khafra said @ 11:05am GMT on 11th Jul
I think I can give you the psuedocode for it.

val said @ 10:00am GMT on 9th Jul
"So you need to figure out a method to make a laboratory that can survive in the heat-death of the universe."

It'll be built in the TARDIS then, yeah?

cb361 said @ 10:14am GMT on 9th Jul
Beware the Inquisitor!
He Prunes away the Wastrels
Expunges the Wretched
and Deletes the Worthless
YOU are in big trouble!......

chold_numa said @ 1:39pm GMT on 9th Jul
You should be easier on yourself.

max_damage78 said @ 12:06pm GMT on 9th Jul
Didn't Stargate come up with idea in the 90's?

Urzazero said @ 2:23pm GMT on 9th Jul
They need something if the next cycle is to survive the reapers!

cb361 said @ 3:30pm GMT on 9th Jul
The time crystal computer becomes the God of the next universe.

10 Let light=there
20 goto 10

KingPellinore said @ 3:43pm GMT on 9th Jul
Mr. Asimov?

cb361 said @ 5:09pm GMT on 9th Jul
It ... occurred to me.

RuneLancer said @ 6:49pm GMT on 9th Jul
[0|1]*

Simpler and covers more cases. ;)

sanepride said @ 4:56pm GMT on 9th Jul
So who will it be of use to?

KingPellinore said @ 5:02pm GMT on 9th Jul
The uploaded consciousnesses of sapient species?

sanepride said @ 5:52pm GMT on 9th Jul
Of course. Silly me and my quaint corporeal thinking.

KingPellinore said @ 6:08pm GMT on 9th Jul
We've come to expect such thinking from meatbags.

sanepride said @ 6:53pm GMT on 9th Jul [Score:1 Underrated]
Please.
'Meatbag' is such an unseemly pejorative.

I much prefer 'ugly bag of mostly water'.

ENZ said @ 7:07pm GMT on 9th Jul
How about "water balloon"?

sanepride said @ 2:25am GMT on 10th Jul
Good one for the obese.

arrowhen said @ 8:25pm GMT on 9th Jul
We'll probably mostly just play Farmville on it.

5thEarth said @ 6:20pm GMT on 9th Jul
I have a really hard time seeing how this could become a computer. To perform computations you have to be able change the state of the bits in a non-predetermined fashion, and I don't see how you could to that without adding energy to the system.

KropperPrime said @ 6:34pm GMT on 9th Jul
From what I understand (and I'm not sure I really understand) these crystals would violate the laws of thermodynamics by being able to reconfigure themselves without using any energy, as long as they are in a superconductive state.

selfimportant said @ 8:34pm GMT on 9th Jul
So you're saying I can't oc it

lilmookieesquire said @ 7:38pm GMT on 9th Jul

lilmookieesquire said @ 8:27pm GMT on 9th Jul
Or rather:

melcadrien said @ 3:51am GMT on 10th Jul
Unfortunately, I'm not sure they've taken into account the acceleration of the universe...attributed to dark energy. Ultimately it is theorized dark energy will not only cool the universe...but tear everything apart at the subatomic level...we're talking quarks and gluons here. There is nothing that will be able to survive that...the entire universe will indeed go cold...but it'll be a complete vacuum of dark energy...all matter as we know it will have been torn apart.

Can anyone explain how this doesn't defy our current 'dark-energy accelerated expansion' cosmological model?

Volcaos said @ 5:10am GMT on 10th Jul
Now we only need to achieve the singularity (a computer equal or superior to a human brain), be able to transfer human consciousness to post-singularity computers, make those computers time crystals and live forever in a digital world of endless possibilities.

Ankylosaur said @ 5:20am GMT on 10th Jul
What if we already have?

arrowhen said @ 6:33am GMT on 10th Jul
Then this game really blows.

happiest_sadist said @ 6:47am GMT on 10th Jul
Then we should do it over again, because we obviously didn't get it right.

Ankylosaur said @ 7:10am GMT on 10th Jul

Ifrit said @ 6:26am GMT on 10th Jul
Is that Superman's computer?