Wunderjahr?

tombo · Post by **tombo** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:52 pm

WunderJahr 2010?
The 2/27/2010 Issue of Science News blew me away. It may go down as being as pivotal as the 1905 issue 17 of Annalen der Physik. The exception is that the discoveries are presented by different groups.
1. A working quantum computer is announced.
(It calculated correct hydrogen electron energy levels to 6 ppm much faster than the previous sequential calculations used to check the results.)
2. Photosynthetic algae show long lasting quantum coherence in proteins at room temperature.
(Obviously “long lasting” is a matter of perspective.)
3. Sea slugs use folded proteins as their long term memory.
(This could be the physical form of the meme. The proteins are related to prions and amyloids.)
4. Skin cells converted directly into neurons without going through stem cell steps.

Put it all together and we get the possibility of very high performance quantum computers using proteins in the CPU and other proteins in the memory running inside our neurons.
We won’t need no stinkin’ skull jacks to plug our brains into our super computers.
We’ll just put them inside our brains cells. We can then interface with them using both synapses and with folded protein molecules.

tombo · Post by **tombo** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:53 pm

Warning! Speculation Ahead!

The positive and negative possibilities are mind boggling.
Fortunately the long development time will give us some time to consider them. We're probably looking at the end of the century time frame.

Peta Hz clock rates.
Molecular scale memory storage units.
Who writes the operating systems?
Who writes the security protocols?
DRM inside your own brain?
Computer games?
How do people who refuse to have them survive?
What if someone else gets them first?

What if we are already built that way and don't know it yet?

CaptainBeowulf · Post by **CaptainBeowulf** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:06 am

I like the idea of being able to enhance our intelligence (after all, I've even talked about mind downloading into robotic bodies such as small interstellar spaceships here), but amongst the drawbacks just listed, I would add:

What if you could get a computer virus... not in your computer, but in your brain?

Aero · Post by **Aero** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:42 am

CaptainBeowulf wrote:What if you could get a computer virus... not in your computer, but in your brain?

You'd probably walk funny. Might even talk funny.

But most likely, you'd find yourself wondering why you bought all that stuff.

EricF · Post by **EricF** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 1:08 am

CaptainBeowulf wrote:I like the idea of being able to enhance our intelligence (after all, I've even talked about mind downloading into robotic bodies such as small interstellar spaceships here), but amongst the drawbacks just listed, I would add:

What if you could get a computer virus... not in your computer, but in your brain?

I guess you'd have to get a neurologist to prescribed you some Nortonol, or McAfeetan.

Aero · Post by **Aero** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 1:34 am

What about generics? Wet-Ware Re-Pair.

Diogenes · Post by **Diogenes** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:06 am

Aero wrote:
CaptainBeowulf wrote:What if you could get a computer virus... not in your computer, but in your brain?
You'd probably walk funny. Might even talk funny.
But most likely, you'd find yourself wondering why you bought all that stuff.

You become the Minister of silly walks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZlBUglE6Hc

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:41 pm

Dont forget the fact that personal jetpacks will finally be available to the consumer

http://www.gizmag.com/first-commerciall ... ack/14423/
jk

TallDave · Post by **TallDave** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:39 pm

CaptainBeowulf wrote: What if you could get a computer virus... not in your computer, but in your brain?

You can. They're called prion diseases.

CaptainBeowulf · Post by **CaptainBeowulf** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:31 am

Yeah, those are nasty... what a horrible way to die.

I think the idea of being downloaded with a virus that doesn't eat your brain, just makes you become the minister of silly walks and buy lots of stuff on behalf of someone you don't know is funnier

Maui · Post by **Maui** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:47 am

CaptainBeowulf wrote:Yeah, those are nasty... what a horrible way to die.

I think the idea of being downloaded with a virus that doesn't eat your brain, just makes you become the minister of silly walks and buy lots of stuff on behalf of someone you don't know is funnier

Yet can have it both ways-- I'm pretty sure most prion diseases will give you a silly walk (at some point, at least)

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:15 am

You can. They're called prion diseases.

Technically, prions are not viri, but complex proteins.

Art Carlson · Post by **Art Carlson** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:14 am

Skipjack wrote:
You can. They're called prion diseases.
Technically, prions are not viri, but complex proteins.

What 's the equivalent of a prion disease for computers?
P.S. The plural of "virus" is "viruses".

JLawson · Post by **JLawson** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:59 am

tombo wrote:Warning! Speculation Ahead!

The positive and negative possibilities are mind boggling.
Fortunately the long development time will give us some time to consider them. We're probably looking at the end of the century time frame.

Peta Hz clock rates.
(snip)

Back in the mid-80s, I recall one article in a computer magazine that was certain that speeds wouldn't get beyond about 20 mHz. Going beyond that was getting up into the commercial shortwave bands, and you'd need a transmitting license from the FCC for every machine you had.

First PC I had (anyone else remember the Osborne portables?) had a 2 MHz clock rate. Now we're comfortably in the GHz range for clock speeds. If this keeps on (1000fold increase in 20 years or so) we can expect Terahertz systems around 2030, and Petahertz systems in 2050, Exabyte systems in 2070, Zettabyte systems in 2090.

For terahertz computing, you're looking at IR frequencies, for petahertz I think high UV. For exabyte... x-ray frequencies? And zettahertz - unless I'm misreading the frequency spectrum, it's up in the low-frequency gamma rays.

I can see the article in 2085 now - "ZettaHertz machines will never be allowed, because each is the functional equivalent of a nuclear device! Emitting gamma rays, the sheilding would need to be massive - and the AEC guidelines require strict regulation of all such computing devices and operators after the so-called Overclocker's China Syndrome proved to not only be a bad joke, but a sad actuality which caused a cascade effect among nearby systems, irradiating most of Redmond, WA in 2079..."

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:17 pm

Yes. I had two Osbornes given to me. After they became junk - obsolescence not failure.

For technical reasons (the speed of light) gross speeds have stopped advancing much. Multiple processors are the way speed is gained now. Mostly.

BTW any one interested in recreating those thrilling days of yesteryear - I have a few bare Z-80 controller boards from that era available. They run at 2 MHz. Contact me.